The Featured Snippet is the official SEO newsletter of Performics and is dedicated to keeping you up to date with the latest SEO industry news, trends, and events—all in an easy-to-read, summed-up format. See below for the latest version of The Featured Snippet:
The Featured Snippet is the official SEO newsletter of Performics and is dedicated to keeping you up to date with the latest SEO industry news, trends, and events—all in an easy-to-read, summed-up format. See below for the latest version of The Featured Snippet:
In the March 2022 issue of The Featured Snippet:
Google confirmed that the Page Experience Update finished rolling out to desktop search results. The update started rolling out on desktop on February 22, making it a nine-day rollout concluding on March 3. Previously, Google rolled out the Page Experience Update for mobile in June of 2021, and with desktop now complete, the page experience update has been fully released on both platforms. The official announcement from Google is below:
Sources:
Google is sunsetting Universal Analytics and pushing users to Google Analytics 4 (GA4). Properties in Universal Analytics properties will have data collected until July 1, 2023, and Universal Analytics 360 properties will have until October 1, 2023. Users will have at least six months following those dates to collect any historical data. The official announcement from Google is below:
Sources:
“Refine this search” and “broaden this search” features launched on Google for English search results within the U.S.. Google spoke about this feature at Search On claiming the features will allow searchers to either dive more into a topic they are researching or get more general information. A look at this SERP feature is below (via Search Engine Land):
Refine this search:
Broaden this search:
Source:
Google has started to roll out the newest version of the product reviews update. Google previously made product review updates in December 2021 and April 2021. This third version is targeted towards more insightful product review content. Google said that the higher quality review content will be promoted in their search rankings. Some of the criteria Google used to identify those types of reviews include helpful, in-depth details of items/products, reviews that came from people who used the product, listing comparisons of products to its competitors, and more. The official announcement from Google is below:
Source:
Google will release new search features and site redesigns when there is high demand for information based around a certain topic. In the past, Google did this when when people wanted more information around COVID-19, and now we see it during the Ukraine conflict. If you search “2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine,” you’ll see the SERP with new features around it such as estimated casualties, photos of the conflict, a “For context” section (articles that provide background information around the topic), and sometimes a knowledge panel. An example of the SERP is below (via Search Engine Land):
Source:
Google announced the dates for Google I/O, the annual Google Developer conference. The conference’s dates are May 11-12, 2022. This conference offers a chance to connect with developers around the world, gain insight from Google experts, and get a sneak peak of the latest developer products. The official announcement from Google is below:
Source:
On March 28, Google announced that it will be deprecating the URL parameter tool under the legacy Google Search Console as of April 26. From Google: “We’re deprecating the URL Parameters Tool in Search Console in 1 month… no action required from the current users of the tool.” According to Google, the main reason for deprecating the tool is that “only about 1% of the parameter configurations currently specified in the URL Parameters tool are useful for crawling.” The tool has been in use since 2009.
Source:
On March 28, Google shared that more descriptive information will be provided in Google Search Console (GSC), the rich results test, and the URL Inspection Tool for structured data errors. When presenting an error, GSC will provide more guidance on how to solve structured data issues like missing a field name. The official announcement from Google is below:
Source: