Digital News

Here we go, yet another month of all sorts of changes to the Google SERP and the features found on it! In the great month of October, we were privy to see Google start to roll-out its 20th birthday updates, the coming of an all-new way to hunt down the best hotel, and some more Google update action (yep, more updates... again). I've also got an exclusive look at the first set of data on the relatively new Explore Panels!

There was no major Google algorithm update this past month that shook up the entire SEO community. Instead, we got a few shorter "bursts" of rank volatility that had their own story to tell. On top of that, mobile indexing multiplied by immense proportions, Chrome's update brought us more direct answers, and a good dozen or so SERP feature tests and changes popped up.

Oh, and Google announced a slew of some pretty big changes that could change the entire way we think about search and go about optimization vis a vis the user's experience.

August was a month for the Google SERP record books and it's not all thanks to the monster of an update that rolled-out. Yes, the early August Google Update, commonly referred to as the Medic Update, was massive and I'll surely discuss it and how it has changed the name of the game in many ways. However, one of the most exciting things to develop over the month has been Google Posts and it's move towards independence.

Welcome to the SERP News covering August 2018!

When it rains it pours, or in SEO terms, when Google showers us with changes to the SERP, it follows them up with even more adjustments! The June SERP's big-ticket momentum rolled right into July as the SERP continued to evolve at break-neck speed... a Speed Update that is. Not only did the search engine roll out its highly anticipated mobile speed update, but it made a splash with some serious SERP feature shifts and a series of tests to hotel Knowledge Panels that make all previous tests look like child's play!

Image Thumbnails, a mobile SERP favorite, are now present on far more SERPs than they had been just days ago. The proliferation of the thumbnails on the mobile SERP does not appear to be a simple across the board increase in the SERP feature. Rather, the data indicates that the uptick is heavily due to the feature now being relevant to local queries on mobile.

Here we go again! Google shakes up the SERP with an unexpected move that saw YouTube lose some significant organic visibility (among a slew of other implications that seem to keep piling up). Not only that, but June gave us more information on two major Google mover and shakers, the mobile-first index and the Speed update. Oh, and there was another onslaught of SERP feature changes.

In what was all but one fell swoop Google has largely done away with Video Thumbnails on the desktop SERP. In its place, the search engine is favoring a video carousel that has until this point been mainly relegated to mobile. Perfectly merging two worlds, the move over to the carousel not only offers a new look for the desktop SERP, but brings a whole host of implications for both sites and YouTube creators. Let's have a look at what exactly is going on.

Not too shabby. At least, that's my sentiment when looking back on the moves Google made on the May 2018 SERP. After analyzing the changes made to the Google SERP over the course of the month, I'm left wondering where we are heading and what is Google pushing towards? Not that most of us are not always concerned about those two questions, but there were quite a few tests that seem uniquely "interesting." Add on a major change to meta-descriptions and the continued push towards a mobile-first world, and we have ourselves quite the month for this, the latest edition of the SERP News.

Get set to explore another wild month on the Google SERP as the search engine continues its trend of both confirming algorithm updates (with what is perhaps some ambiguity) and making major changes to what the SERP and its features look like. April, in particular, came with a change that has some serious potential to alter how users interact with sites on the mobile SERP.

Whoa, Nelly! It's here, mobile first indexing! However, that wasn't the only shocker. Do you hear that sound? That's the sound of Google confirming an update to their core algorithm! We'll take a hard look at these big ticket items and all of the notable changes and tests Google ran in the merry month of March.

We've noticed some big changes to the HTML structure of the mobile SERP over the last few days. Admittingly, this is not the first time we've seen structural changes to the mobile SERP. Thing is, the last time we did, Google announced that they were significantly testing the mobile-first index. Add on that for the first time in years the structure of the desktop SERP has changed and you have quite the case for asserting that, indeed, the mobile-first index is quite near.

Google was firing on all cylinders last month. The February SERP was just brimming with new data trends and some major changes to both the SERP and the features found on it. Of course, Google threw in an algorithm update of some significance just for good measure. Join me as I explore the ins and outs of the Google SERP for the frigid month of February (unless you're in Australia and the like, where I would imagine February is quite warm).