The last month was pretty insane with a lot of changes happening at Google, which is partially why my monthly report is a bit delayed. We had Penguin 4.0 finally go live and I covered that release with well over 15 stories alone, see those below. We also had many algorithm shifts and ranking discussion chatter to talk about – some were Penguin related and some were not – including some large penalties.

Google also rolled out AMP in the core mobile results, which lead to AMP trumping app deep links which I am not happy about. Google announced Google Home and the assistant and celebrated their 18th birthday this past month.

The ongoing WebmasterWorld thread is mostly Penguin chatter.

Here is the recap:

Google Penguin 4.0
Google Penguin 4.0, The Real Time Penguin Algorithm Is Live
Google Testing Penguin In The Wild? Some Think So.
Google: Penguin Recoveries Still Rolling Out But Should Be Done Very Soon
Google Update Chatter Suggests Penguin Movement Or Algorithm Changes
SEOs Noticing Google Penguin 4.0 Recoveries Now
Google Penguin Doesn’t Really Need Disavow Files – Devalues vs Demotes
Gary Illyes: Google Penguin 4.0 Was One Of Our Nicest Launches
Is Google Penguin 4.0 Fully Rolled Out?
Google May Have Rolled Out Penguin 4.0 Before Its Launch Date
Google Penguin 4.0 Update Impact Seems Minimal
Only 12% Said They Saw Ranking Improvements After Google Penguin 4.0
Google: Keep Using Disavow File Even Though Penguin Devalues Links
Google Not Concerned With Negative SEO With New Penguin 4.0
No, Google Won’t Send Manual Actions Notices For Penguin Penalties

Google Algorithms & Penalties:
Google Panda Algorithm Does Adjust Rankings Down Unlike Penguin
Google Search Algorithm Update Chatter On Fire
Even More Google Algorithm & Ranking Update Chatter
Google: Reconsideration Requests Never Worked For Penguin Or Other Algorithms
Google: You Can Expect More Algorithm & Ranking Changes
Google To Penalize Widget Links Tactics
Google Penalized One Of Turkey’s Largest TV Networks, Acunn Media
Google Lowers Image Search Box In Web Search

Google AMP:
Google Confirms: Google AMP Results Now Rolling Out
Google AMP Trumps App Indexing In Google Mobile Search Results
Are You Seeing Huge Traffic Surges From Google AMP Since Thursday?
Google Promises AMP Pages “Expanded Exposure” In Mobile Search Results

Google SEO:
Google Reviews From The Web Now Live On Local Knowledge Panels
Google Review Snippets With The Reviewers Name
New: Google Schema For Courses
Google Quietly Adds Science Datasets Structured Data & Schema Support
Google: The Increase In Crawl Errors Are Nothing To Worry About; Just Hungry Crawlers
Google: Redirects Are Not An SEO Thing, So Stop Fussing
Google’s Algorithms & Signals Don’t Forget, They Collect History
Google: 301 Redirecting All Pages To Home Page Are Seen As Soft 404s
Google: You Don’t Have To Rush Into Progression Web Apps (PWA)
Google Search Console AMP Error Report Update After Scanning Change
78% Of SEOs Want An Interstitials Testing Tool From Google
The Google Interstitials Mobile Penalty May Impact Popups On Scroll
Google To Update Their JavaScript Recommendations & Guidelines
Google: Site Command Should Show Rich Snippets If Implemented Correctly

Google User Interface:
Listen To How Google Home Quotes Features Snippets
Google Showing AMP Results On Desktop Results
Google Tests Shadows With The Card Style Layout
Google Tests A Whiter Desktop Search Experience
Google Featured Snippets With Query Modifier

Google Local:
Google My Business Adds Recommendations For Working With Local SEOs
Google Advanced Verification For Locksmiths & Plumbers To Reduce Map Spam
Google My Business API Version 3.1 Live

Google Misc:
In Rare Interview Matt Cutts Talks About His Challenges At Google
Google’s 18th Birthday Doodle: When Is Google’s Birthday

If you want to catch up with last month, see the September recap.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.