Product Reviews Update, Search Console, Local & More

Here is the large Google webmaster report for April 2022 – catching you all up on what you may have missed in the past month related to Google search and SEO topics. We had a confirmed Google algorithm update, the July 2022 product reviews update that kicked in Friday and the tools just picked up on this morning. We had a large indexing outage, several unconfirmed updates and Google made their own algorithm update landing page.

Google has updated its search quality raters guidelines last week, which is always big news in the SEO world. Google Search Console updated its help documentation around anonymized queries. Google Search Console Insights now works with Google Analytics 4 and you can verify your properties again using DNS CNAME. Also, that new video indexing report is now rolling out, slowly and to some.

We also covered tons of SEO topics and user interface changes such as people also ask disappearing and returning, things to know going away on desktop, the new perspectives and so much more.

Google announced a bunch of Merchant Center changes and on the local side, the Google My Business app stopped working. Plus Google is testing new AR prototypes and they announced earnings.

There is just so much more but the chatter in the ongoing WebmasterWorld thread is super light right now.

Here are the more important stories I pulled out for you all:

Google Algorithm Updates:

• July 2022 Google Product Reviews Update Rolling Out – Everything We See So Far
• July 2022 Google Product Reviews Update Kicked In Friday Afternoon
• Tracking Tools Now Picking Up On The July 2022 Google Product Reviews Update Volatility?
• Google Search Algorithm Update On July 16th Or Was It Related To The Indexing Issue
• Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update On July 10th – Not Confirmed
• Google Search Ranking Update Volatility July 5th & July 7th

Other Important Google News:

• Google Search Indexing Issue On July 15th – Google Not Indexing New Content
• Google Updates Search Quality Raters Guidelines On July 28th
• Google Creates A Landing Page With Major Ranking Updates Timeline

Google Search Console:

• Google Search Console Anonymizes Tons Of Queries; Updates Help Doc After Ahrefs Study
• Google Search Console Insights Finally Supports Google Analytics 4
• New Verification Of Google Search Console Via DNS CNAME
• Google Search Console Video Index Report Rolling Out Very Slowly
• Possible Bug With Google Search Console Performance Report For Videos On Desktop

Google SEO:

• Google: Age Verification Requirement May Prevent Site From Surfacing In Google Discover
• Google Super Basic Video On SEO
• Unique IP Addresses Do Not Give You A Google Ranking Advantage, Google Says Again
• Google Signed Exchanges For Desktop, Top Stories and News Now Live
• Google: Search Query Pages Are Equivalent To Low Effort Category Pages

Google User Interface:

• Google Discover Stories With TikTok, Facebook, YouTube For Destination Queries
• Google Now Test Interactive Card Knowledge Panel Box Layout
• Google Search Tests Rich Cards Layout With Net Worth, News, Videos & More
• Google People Also Ask Back To Normal Levels
• Huge Drop In Google People Also Ask
• RankRanger: Google Things To Know No Longer Showing In Desktop Search
• Google’s Top Ranked SERP Feature Leads To Critic Reviews & Product Review Articles On Mobile
• Google’s Interesting Finds SERP Feature Goes Missing From The Search Results – Maybe It Wasn’t Interesting To Users Anymore
• Google Perspectives Search Results
• Google Highly Rated By Users Search Carousel
• Google Tests List View Top Stories With News Taking Over Web Results
• Google Tests Explore More Search Refinement For Product Queries
• Google Search Displays Return Period In Search Results Snippets
• Google Tests Search Bar With Refinements Mixed With Vertical Navigation
• Google Hotel Listings New Featured In Section
• Google Popular Products Section Gains Videos
• Google Product Results Carousel With Highlights
• Google Products Carousel Displays Product Reviews Under Appears On These Lists
• Google Product Results Tests Customer Favorites, Most Mentions Of & More Labels
• Google Search Trending Topics News Box On Mobile
• Google Search Updates Suicide Prevention Box With New Options
• Google Search Tests Get There, Weather & Map Cards
• Google Search Timer & Stopwatch Stop Ticking

Google Merchant Center:

• Google Merchant Center Now Allows Login Required & Restricted Purchase Free Listings
• Google Merchant Center Website Needs Improvement Policy Update: No Longer Disapproved
• Google Merchant Center Adds Auto-Tagging For All Free Listings Across All Of Google

Google Business Profiles & Local:

• Google My Business App No Longer Available
• Google Taking Action On Recent One-Star Review Scams & Blackmail Threats
• Google Business Profiles Messaging FAQs For Automated Responses To Customers
• Google Business Profile Tests Expandable Menu In Web Search
• Google Pushing Business Profile Verification Over Video
• Google Business Profile Toggle To Hide Address To Customers
• Google Maps May Remove Selfies, Blurry Or Poor Quality Images
• Google Tests “Reviews Aren’t Verified” Label
• Google Posts Now Expire After 6 Months
• Google Maps To Add Aerial Views, More Biking Details & More

Other Misc Google:

• Google Analytics 4 Now Supports UTM Term, UTM Content, Conversion & Bounce Rate Metrics
• Google Tests New AR Prototypes – Watch Out Google Glass
• Google Ads Revenue Up 13.5% & Microsoft Bing Ads Revenues Up 15% But Slowed Growth

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.