The State of Search: Google Search Console Updates

April has been a relatively quiet month in terms of Google algorithm updates. While some members of the SEO community reported fluctuations and speculated about a possible update mid-month and around April 23, we did not find this activity to be indicative of a major Google algorithm update.

Towards the end of the month, Google made two announcements in relation to Google Search Console (GSC):

1. In an effort to improve the performance of GSC, the tool began reporting on fewer site pages on April 12. This change does not impact the search results or the number of pages indexed by Google; it only affects the data reported in GSC.
2. GSC experienced data outages from April 9-25, impacting all GSC reports except the Performance report. While the missing data was replaced with data from April 26, be mindful of data discrepancies when analyzing GSC reports for the month of April.  

What This Means for You

A quiet month for Google algorithm updates is the perfect time to focus on site maintenance. While some marketing efforts may be on hold, REQ will continue with general SEO maintenance like site crawls to identify any outstanding issues or opportunities for further optimization. In addition, we’ll continue to closely monitor organic search performance of your site and those of your competitors in search of industry insights and trends during this unprecedented time of COVID-19.