Reviews Update, Core Local Update, Page Experience, Magi, Sitenames & More

While last month’s Google webmaster report was filled with the Google March core update, the product reviews update, Bard, AI, sitenames and more; this month was just as packed. We had the reviews update, a local look at the core update, big updates to the Google ranking system’s document, a new search engine for Google code-named Magi, and so much more.

Google renamed the product reviews update to the reviews update which kicked off in April but heated up in week two before completing on day 13 of the rollout. We also looked at how the March core update impacted the local search results. Google removed page experience and other ranking systems from its official documentation, but Google said while page experience is not ranking system, it is a ranking signal. With that, Google also added page experience to its helpful content guidance documentation.

Google also is working on an all-new search engine code-named Magi, but before that, Google will release AI-features to the current search engine. Speaking of AI, Google made some improvements to Bard (see links below).

Google flexed the powers of SpamBrain, fixed some but not all of the issues with Site names in search, and decided to remove some video thumbnails from some search results (which has a huge impact on click-through rates). Google also may be rewriting more titles and dropped FAQ rich results on mobile search.

Google Search Console will also drop the page experience, mobile usability and mobile-friendly test in the coming months. But Search Console added shipping and return reporting and a new reader revenue manager for publishers.

Plus so much more including new deadlines for the GA 4 switch over.

Here are the top headlines for the past month:

Google Algorithm:

Google Bard & AI:
Google SEO:
Google Search Console:
Google User Interface:
Google Business Profiles & Local:
Google Analytics:

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.