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The Featured Snippet: November 2020

The Featured Snippet is the official SEO newsletter of Performics and is dedicated to keeping you update 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 November 2020 issue of The Featured Snippet: 

  • Google Confirms Page Experience Ranking Update Date (May 2021)
  • Google Webmaster Central Rebrands to Google Search Central
  • Googlebot Becomes More Efficient 
  • Google Search Console Updates 
    • New Crawl Stats Report 
    • Disavow Tool Moves to New GSC
  • Google Updates Remove Content Tool
  • Screaming Frog Updates to Version 14.0

Google Confirms Page Experience Ranking Update Date (May 2021)

Earlier this year, Google announced that page experience will be a Google ranking factor sometime in 2021, an announcement which was covered in the May 2020 issue of The Featured Snippet. This page experience ranking factor  includes Google’s Core Web Vitals metrics as well as other page experience signals listed below: 

This month Google officially announced that this page experience ranking factor will roll out in May 2021. 

In addition to this update, Google will also change eligibility requirements for Top Stories. Currently, Google emphasizes AMP results in  Top Stories, but AMP will no longer be a requirement for stories to be featured in Top Stories on mobile devices—it will be open for all pages. 

Resources: 

Google Webmaster Central Rebrands to Google Search Central

Google announced that it has rebranded Google Webmasters Central to Google Search Central. The Google Search team explained that the term “webmaster” is outdated and declining in usage, so they decided to rebrand from Google Webmasters  and create a new central home for its Search-related content: Google Search Central. In addition to this update, Google also created a new spider sidekick for Googlebot. Here is the official announcement from Google: 

Resources: 

Googlebot Becomes More Efficient

Google announced earlier this year that Googlebot will soon be able to crawl websites over HTTP/2, an announcement that was covered in the September 2020 issue of The Featured Snippet. In November, Googlebot officially started crawling websites over HTTP/2. This update allows Googlebot to be more efficient with crawling in terms of server resource usage. Here is the official announcement from Google: 

Resources:

  • https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2020/09/googlebot-will-soon-speak-http2

Google Search Console Updates

New Crawl Stats Report 

Google added a new and improved Crawl Stats Report for site owners in Google Search Console. This report can be used to spot crawl issues on sites. New features in the Crawl Stats Report include: 

  • Total number of requests grouped by response code, crawled file type, crawl purpose, and Googlebot type.
  • Detailed information on host status
  • URL examples to show where in your site requests occurred
  • Comprehensive summary for properties with multiple hosts and support for domain properties

The official announcement from Google is below: 

Disavow Tool Moves to New GSC

Google announced the compilation of the official migration of the Disavow Links Tool into the new Google Search Console. In addition to a new location, the tool now has an improved interface, downloadable disavow file text files, and expanded error reports.  This tool is used to disavow links that you believe might harm your site such as unnatural links or anything that webmasters fear may cause a manual action. The official announcement from Google is below: 

Resources: 

Google Updates Remove Content Tool

Google announced that the Remove Outdated Content tool has been revamped. The announcement explained that the new design is refreshed and more intuitive for users. This tool should be used when the user does not own the search result page and the content no longer exists or has changed significantly. To remove content you own, site owners should ask Google to recrawl or hide the page. The official announcement from Google is below: 

Resources: 

Screaming Frog Updates to Version 14.0

Screaming Frog released the most recent version of their crawling program. Important updates include: new Google Sheets export option, HTTP headers analysis, cookie configuration, aggregate site structure organization displays, and further configuration options. Check out Screaming Frog’s official blog post for more information. The official announcement from Screaming Frog is below: 

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