This month was a pretty quiet month in terms of major things, mostly because it was the summer. But we did see some algorithm movement with the Google search rankings. Google did confirm that Panda changed but won’t share the number of algorithms they use. Things are looking good for the mobile first index, and Gary Illyes suggests you build a comparison tool.

AMP seems to now be powering featured snippet results in mobile. Google confirmed once again more data is coming to the google Search Console reports. Forbes, Entrepreneur, Inc.com and others now nofollow some external links. Google’s question and answer feature web live in the mobile results. Google is actually testing website mentions in the local pack, which is very revealing. Oh, and we can’t forget Google changing the first click free program soon.

The ongoing WebmasterWorld thread has the normal chatter going on now. There may be early signs of an update, but I am watching it. If you missed the last recap, you can get it here.

Google Algorithms:
Google Algorithm & Ranking Update Chatter
Google: We’ve Changed The Way We Think About The Panda Algorithm
Google Won’t Share The Number Of Search Quality Algorithms

Google Mobile & AMP:
Google: Things Looking Good For Mobile First Index
Google: Build Desktop To Mobile Friendly Comparison Tool
AMP Powers Google Featured Snippets On Mobile
Google Adds AMP Testing Tool Box To Search Results
Publishers Implement AMP Teaser To Lead To “Full Experience” Page
Google Tests New Expandable Sitelinks On Mobile

Google Search Console:
Confirmed: More Data Coming To Google Search Console Soon
Google Search Console Data Up To Date Again
Google: Google Search Console Data Delayed & Slower Than Normal
Google Looking Into Speeding Up Data Search Console
Google Search Console Data Logging Issue Reported
Google Search Console Structured Data Report Gets More Details
Poll: How Often Do You Check Google Search Console
Mass Google Search Console Emails: Chrome Will Show Security Warnings
Test: Fetch As Google Stops At 10,000 Pixels
Google Search Console Sent Verification Emails To Webmaster By Accident

Google SEO & Links:
Forbes, Entrepreneur & Inc Now Nofollow External Links
Google: We Ignore Tons Of Links But Which Links Is Almost Impossible To Figure Out
Google Confirms They Score Internal & External Links Differently
Google: Stop Watching The Search Algorithm
Google: Duplicate Content Elimination
Google SEO Advice: Recurring Event & Updated Item Pages
Google Kills Preferred Site Name Schema Markup
Google Ignores Unrecognized Attributes When Parsing HTML
Google: Noopener & Noreferrer Attributes Don’t Hurt Your Search Rankings
Google: On-Page Markup & Data Highlighter Signals Are Equivalent
Google: More Control With Markup vs The Data Highlighter Tool
Google: Noarchive Tag Does Not Hurt Your Google Rankings
Google Generally Finds & Crawls Home Page First
Google: Blocking Images From Google Doesn’t Impact Core Web Search Rankings
Google: When Canonicals Conflict, We Pick One & We Don’t Drop Both
Google Calls Algorithm Monitoring Tools “Blackhat Scrapers”
Google: URL Structure Not So Important For SEO
Google: Links From Added URL Parameters, Check The Canonical
Google: Three Reasons Your Rich Snippets Aren’t Showing In Search
Google: Directing Users & GoogleBot To Fasters Servers Is Not Cloaking
Google: We Count The Same URL In Different Sitemaps Separately
Google On How To Block Your Staging Server
How Google Handles Canonical Pages With Noindex On The Page
GoogleBot Doesn’t Pass A Referrer; Generally Directly Hits URLs
Here Is Why Google Doesn’t Want To Index Search Results Pages
Google: Don’t Use The User Agent Language Setting
When Do Expired Redirects Stop Passing Signals With Google?
Google: CSS Size Generally Doesn’t Hurt Your Rankings
Google: Disavowing A Site Won’t Hurt The Site
New Google Rendering & Debugging Docs

Google Local & Maps:
Live: Google Question & Answer Feature In Local Results
Google Local Question & Answer Live In Mobile Browsers
Google Local Pack Shows Query From Website Content Of Local Listing
Google Improves Flight & Hotel Search To Help You Find Better Prices
Google Hotel Search Results With Select Room Carousel
Google Local Results Tests Extracting Some Reviews
Google Hotel Search Prominently Adds Number Of Hotel Results
Google Local Panel Can Show “Recently Opened” Label

Google Misc:
Google Tests New First-Click-Free Program & Subscription Tool For News Publishers
Google May Now Show Video Previews In Search Carousel
Now Add Videos To Local Listings On Google; Android Only
Google Tests Topics For Search Refinements

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.