July 2024 Google Webmaster Report: June Spam Update, AI Overviews, Indexing Bug & More

This month we had Google June 2024 spam update roll out over a seven-day period. We had a few other unconfirmed Google search ranking updates as well, listed below. Let’s not forget yet another Google indexing bug after the core update was announced. Also, mobile first indexing is done – yes, again.

Google started to show fewer AI Overviews overall earlier this month and then later in the month showed more health AI Overviews. Also tested link cards at the top of the AI Overviews.

Google kind of spoke on the Search leak from last month.

Here is the June Google webmaster report if you missed it. Google dropped continuous scroll this month on desktop. Google also has a nasty local hack that I hope they fixed by now.

Here are a lot of additional top headlines for the past month:

Google Search Algorithm Updates:

• Google June 2024 Spam Update Takes Target
• Google June 2024 Spam Update Finished Rolling Out
• Google Search Ranking Volatility Over June 28th & 29th Weekend
• Google Father’s Day Weekend Search Ranking Volatility
• June 8th Weekend Google Search Ranking Algorithm Volatility
• Google Search Ranking Algorithm Volatility June 5th

Google AI Overviews:

• Google AI Overviews Shows For Only 15% Queries, Down From 84%
• Google Tests AI Overview Link Cards At The Top
• Google Search Showing More Health Related AI Overviews
• The Maddening Adventure Of Tracking AI Overviews In Google Search Console

Google SEO:

• Google Search Bug: Not Indexing or Serving New Content
• Google Responds To Specific Search Leak, Navboost, Clicks & User Interactions
• Google Warns: Sites That Are Inaccessible On Mobile Will Not Be Indexed
• Google Fixed Issue With Site Names Not Appearing For Internal Pages
• Google: Our Search Rankings Can Improve At Scale & System Level
• How Google Measures Search Quality – Interview With Elizabeth Tucker
• Google: White Label Coupon Sites Would Be Penalized By Site Reputation Abuse
• Google Search Images Go Missing? Might Be A Quality Issue.
• Google: You Can’t Completely Disregard What’s Served On Desktop For SEO
• Google On Fixing A Few Pages To Recover From Helpful Content Update
• Google: You Can Recover From Helpful Content Damage With Next Core Update
• Google: Don’t Avoid Mentioning Brand Names In Your Review Content
• Google: Sometimes Search Experiments Conflict Causing Issues
• Google: Our Search Results Do Not Always Show Original Source
• Google Explains Why Soft 404s Are Bad
• Google: When You Should Fix Pages 404 Status Codes
• Google Sitemaps Docs Updated: Lastmod Date Should Be Last Significant Update
• Google Adds Return Policy Structured Data Support To Organization Level
• Google Structured Data Carousel Guidance On How To Markup Multiple Items On Category Pages
• Google: Disallow Crawling Of Action URLs (Buy Now, Sign Up, etc)
• Google: We Either Trusts Or Doesn’t Trust Your Sitemap’s Lastmod Date
• I Interviewed Elizabeth Tucker, Googler Responsible For The March Core Update

Google Search Console:

• Google Search Console Removal Tool Drops Cache Updates
• Google Search Console Removes How-To Enhancement Report
• Google Search Console Performance Report Gains Merchant Listing Data For Image Tab
• Google: #s In Google Search Console Reports Are Unrelated To Canonicalization

Google Search Features & User Interface:

• Google Drops Continuous Scroll On Desktop With Mobile To Come
• Google Tests Organized Search Results Page
• Google Tests Search Results Sliding Right To Next Page On New Query
• Google Credit Card Search Widget
• Google Tests Shaded Site Name & Favicon For Search Results
• Google Mobile Search Tests More Sitelink Variations
• Google Search Tests Black Sitelinks
• Google Tests Multiple Featured Snippets Under From Sources Across The Web
• Google Tests Larger Fonts For Main Snippet Title Link & Smaller Font For Sitelinks
• Google Home Activity Removed From Search

Google Business Profiles & Local:

• Google Map Pin Exploit Leads To Local Rankings Drop & Possible Suspension
• SEO Report: Menu Items & Popular Times May Be Google Local Ranking Signals
• Google Tests Local Five Pack (Up From 3 Pack)
• Google Business Profiles Websites No Longer Load – 404
• Google Posts Reviews Troubleshooting & FAQs For Missing and Remove Reviews
• Google Using AI Overviews On Business Profiles Local Listings
• Google Verification Status Tool Gains New Options
• Google Local Panels Gains Menu Button
• Google Maps Adds Edit & Post Button To Business Profile Listing
• Google Maps Tests QR Codes On Business Profiles

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.