Official Google Update Thread - February 2018

[HTMLBasicTutor]

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Jan 18

Do you have a speculation about when Google will update?

• Do you think there has been a backlinks update?
• Do you think there has been a PR update?
• Are you seeing Google fluctuations?
• Do you think there has been an algorithm update?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3Jup5R1MGY

You may want to start with a basic understanding about Google updates before posting in this thread.
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/whats-an-update/

ADMIN NOTE: Please keep in mind that this is a DISCUSSION thread. It is NOT a debate thread.

[HTMLBasicTutor]

Apparently Google forgot to tell us this:

So for the past four months or more, Google has not supported the Google News meta keywords tag. Don't confuse this with the normal meta keywords tag, which Google has not supported in ages. This is specific to news publishers and a special keyword tag in the format of <meta name="news_keywords"...

Google News Meta Keywords Tag Hasn't Been Supported Since October 2017
Barry Schwartz - Feb 20, 2018

This was confirmed by Danny Sullivan via his Google @searchliaison account on Twitter:

Google News has deprecated support of the news_keywords meta tag. Introduced in 2012, it was an optional, supplementary way for us to better understand what stories were about. Our systems have greatly improved since then, so it’s no longer needed nor was it widely used....

5:01 PM - 20 Feb 2018
https://twitter.com/searchliaison/st...15691517505536

[HTMLBasicTutor]

Are you ready for mobile yet?

...Gary Illyes from Google said at PubCon that Google will be rolling in more web sites into the mobile first index starting over the next several weeks...

Google Mobile First Index Expanding Within Next Several Weeks
Search Engine Roundtable
Feb 22, 2018

[HTMLBasicTutor]

Noticed anything?

...starting to see a bit of chatter around the SEO industry about a possible Google algorithm and ranking update. The chatter is somewhat limited, definitely not at the levels of an old fashion Panda or Penguin update, also not at the levels of Fred or Maccabees but still, some chatter is going on about SEOs and webmasters complaining about ranking drops...

Google Algorithm Update Chatter & Signals February 20th
Feb 22, 2018 - Search Engine Roundtable

I noticed one site had an increase of traffic for a day then went back to "normal".

[HTMLBasicTutor]

It is the eve of a new month. Time to start a new Google Update thread for March 2018.