Digital News

Some big news on the Google SERP in the month of April. The month saw some interesting SERP feature milestones that included HTTPS reaching new heights and AMP in organic results taking its first real dip. Of course, there were also a few SERP feature tests, and even a new character whose SERP personality is yet to be determined. Thus, despite the fact that Google seemed to have taken a break from major algorithm updates, we have much to talk about and talk we shall.

Beware of the Ides of March! For sites that harbored low quality content, March 15th was something to be wary of. Due to a powerful Google algorithm update, March proved to be an eruption of SERP significant action. Combined with some interesting SERP feature shifts and tests, the March SERP has quite the story to tell.

It seems no month is spared significant SERP and SERP feature changes. February, was an exceptional example of the continuously evolving nature of Google's SERP. The simple fact that Google changed its PPC ad label for the second time in less than 10 months is testament to the fact that Google views its SERP as malleable, an ever-changing experiment.

The first month of the new year began without much noise on the Google SERP. Perhaps the festive spirit that comes with the new year ran counter to the volatility and malleability that so often characterizes the Google SERP. Have no fear true believers, the SERP did show considerable activity as the month progressed, eventually evolving into one of the more dynamic months on the Google SERP.

Back when AMP first entered Google's mobile News Box in early 2016, the faster loading, lighting bolt indicated, cards were a rare novelty. All of that has now changed as the number of AMP optimized news articles appearing within Google's Top Stories on mobile has skyrocketed across the globe.

Now that we've entered the new year, I guess taking a look back at December's SERP is a bit nostalgic. For those of you who eagerly let go of 2016 and quickly embraced 2017, I promise this post will not retroactively kill another beloved celebrity, nor will it make any mention of politics. This post will however fondly review some interesting changes to Google's SERP as December 2016 presented us with some important happenings.

It's interesting to see Google hone in on a specific SERP feature(s) in such a concentrated manner the way it did this past month of November. Couple all of the format changes and additions to SERP features with the removal of Notable Online and a bug that decimated SiteLinks globally, and you have yourself a really interesting month on the Google SERP.

As Google's Penguin 4.0 update recently completed its rollout (according to Google), I thought I would take this opportunity to provide the complete history of this Google algorithm and its updates. Up until recently, an update to the Penguin algorithm was a very big deal (particularly for those penalized by it). Until the most recent version, the only time a site could recover from a Penguin penalty was when the algorithm underwent an update. Now Penguin operates in real time (more on that later), but the question is how did we get to this point?

The month of October saw a dramatic decrease in AdWords appearing on the SERP for desktop searches while AMP appearances grew steadily in European countries. Although these developments were not as unsettling as the algorithm updates and rank fluctuations last month, these changes and others are definitely significant and worth following.

Making my way down the list of those features that are embedded within Google's organic results on our SERP Features Tool, I was shocked to see that Notable Online had made an abrupt and complete exit from the SERP stage.

The September SERP was action-packed to say the least. Just when all seemed quiet, Google rolled-out several algorithm updates, added a SERP feature to the mix, and took one out of the fray. Last month's SERP was anything but typical both quantitatively as well as qualitatively.

Google definitely has a strong vested interest in ensuring that its search results are not dominated by spammy results. That’s why they rolled out the Penguin algorithm a few years ago to combat websites employing manipulative SEO techniques to boost their ranking. That’s also why at the beginning of September they rolled out an algorithm update, dubbed Possum by the SEO community, focused on improving local search results – particularly in the Local Finder and Google Maps, but they still appear to be plagued with spam.