Digital News

Another month... another series of changes to the SERP with far-reaching implications....but this month is special. This month Google says they've reached a breakthrough... and it's live on the SERP! On top of that, Google has dispensed a new set of enhancements aimed at making users salivate over Google Shopping. But wait, there's more! Google is giving you far more control over how your rich results appear on the SERP. And, of course, we'll get to a whole heap of changes to the SERP and its features!

This is the SERP News covering October 2019!

Looking back at the Google SERP in September and all I can say is... Holy cow!

Another core algorithm update landed, reviews on the SERP have tanked like an airplane made of lead, the nofollow attribute is no longer a directive, & original news reporting now ranks at the top of the SERP (or does it?)!

Throw in an overhaul to Google's Quality Rater Guidelines and... holy cow!

Here are the juicy details!

Mobile continues to be the pied piper to desktop's SERP layout as Google seems to have moved on from the URL in favor of Breadcrumbs. Google Ads brings the meaning of "close variants" to a whole new level while it announces the average position metric will die. Plus, a new podcast carousel hits the SERP while Google moves its "Featured Snippet anchor highlights" beyond AMP and gives hotels access to edit their amenities inside the Local Panel! Oh, and there were more Google bugs too...

Welcome to the September edition of the SERP News covering the memorable month of August 2019!

What if I told you Google unleashed an algorithm update that pushed rank volatility to levels we haven't seen in years, fixed bugs that weren't really fixed while denying their cause only to have that cause accidentally revealed?! You'd think I was nuts, right? Well, that's pretty much what happened in July.

Throw a stream of changes to the Knowledge Panel, Featured Snippets, and Image Search into the mix and you have one absolutely wild month on the Google SERP!

Finally, a month of endless updates to the Google SERP! I've been complaining ever since 2019 began that Google has slowed down its production of changes, updates, and tests to the SERP. No more! June 2019 was a month for the ages with changes to domain diversity at the top of the SERP, additional layers of sub-topical information in all sorts of SERP features, and some good ol' updates to Google Ads!

And away we go with Google's whirlwind of SERP alterations made in June 2019!

A plague of Google bugs has reached biblical proportions, the mobile SERP now contains favicons, & ads have hit the Discovery Feed! It's been a peculiar month in what has been a peculiar year thus far on the Google SERP. We're talking a barrage of announcements, a few bugs, and a whole heap of changes to the SERP that throw tradition out of the window!

Plus, even though we're covering May... let's touch on the June 2019 Core Update as well!

Another month has come and gone and in some respects, the Google SERP is not what it once was. As April becomes a distant memory, the SERP is now a far more visual place with multiple search features showing display level increases. AMP also eked its way back into the news throughout April with a motley collection of announcements & updates. Of course, there were various spikes in rank fluctuations and a myriad of changes to a plethora of SERP features!

Ready to jump into the thick of it all?!

Well, the SERP is quiet no more as Google has confirmed its first algorithm update of 2019!

Of course, the news of the March SERP was more involved than just the latest incarnation of Google's broad core updates. The month saw multiple data shifts for multiple image oriented SERP features (as well as some really interesting image search announcements/changes). With that was a pretty substantial increase in Featured Snippets in a wide variety of markets within Europe and beyond.

All things considered, I'd say March was the most intriguing month on the Google SERP 2019 has brought us thus far!

For the second time in a year's time, Google has dramatically increased the number of mobile SERPs that contain an Image Thumbnail. As before, the increase focuses on a specific keyword demographic. In this case, product keywords have pushed mobile Image Thumbnail to an extraordinary display level. As a result, both the percentage of page one SERPs that contain a minimum of one Image Thumbnail as well as the average number of mobile Image Thumbnails on page one has seen a significant increase.

The year kicked off with a slew of Featured Snippet changes and it now continues with Google, the search engine of search engines, adding some hefty elements to its local SERP features. As it has done so the search engine may have stepped into a bit of "Featured Snippet controversy" along the way.

Here is the March 2019 edition of the SERP News!

Welcome to an all-new year for the SERP News! To kick start 2019 Google gave us multiple changes to Featured Snippets while a bug has kicked AMP results off the mobile SERP! At the same time, we've added a new segment of local data to our SERP Feature Trackers that lets you see the scope of hotel Local Packs. Might I add that January also saw the first algorithm update of the year!

Let's dig in, shall we?

November did not disappoint as Google unleashed a series of SERP feature data downgrades amid not one, not two, but three algorithm updates all while officially doing away with organic results in certain instances! During the month we also saw multifaceted Featured Snippets show up in all-new places, hotel Local Packs become picture perfect, and AMP Stories get an advertising addition.