Things are changing drastically with Google, its algorithms, and SEO. However, picking up every article filled with SEO updates is one such process that needs a lot of time investment. Hence, I have collected all the important SEO tips and news for you and created an SEO news roundup for November 2021.

1.  Google November Core Update

On November 17, 2021, Google rolled out a new broad core update named the November 2021 Core Update. This is the third core update Google released in 2021.

This update took 13 days to roll out after it was announced. On November 30, 2021, Google November 2021 core update was finished rolling out

Many search marketers agree that the November core algorithm update did not have the disruptive impact of a major update.

However, according to SEMrush, during the November 2021 core update, almost 7% of pages that made it to the top 10 results weren’t within the top 20 positions before the update. The post-update top 20 featured 16% new URLs.

According to Amsivedigita, “Reference materials,” a category largely comprised of dictionary websites, saw the bulk of the increase in visibility while law and government category lost most.

2. Google Releases November 2021 Spam Update

On November 4, 2021, Google rolled out a new search ranking algorithm update targeting the more spammy side of the search results. The company is calling this update the “November 2021 spam update.”

To date, there have already been four Spam Updates this year. So it would appear that Google is upping their game when it comes to fighting spam. 

3. Google Page Experience Algorithm Update Coming to Desktop

Google will begin rolling out the page experience ranking update to desktop search results starting in February 2022. Google said the rollout will finish rolling out by the end of March 2022. 

4. Google Had a Crawling Issues That Impacted Some Sites

Google’s John Mueller has confirmed that a bug prevented Google from crawling for the AMP cache between November 11, 2021 and November 17, 2021. The bug has since been resolved.

It seems the issue impacted only certain crawling of caches for some sites. “We saw that crawling for the caches had slowed down for some sites. This bug has since been resolved, and an internal analysis showed it wasn’t widespread, and that there were no negative effects overall,” Mueller said on Twitter.

5. Google Search Console Rolls Out New Design

On November 22, 2021, Google Search Console now has a new appearance that aims to improve accessibility and user experience. The new-look is visible when you log in to your Google Search Console account.

6. Google Launches New Local Search Features to Support Local News

Google has announced a number of new features for local searches, which will help users find news related to the geographic area they are in. These new features have been the company’s response to the increase in searches related to “news near me”.

Below, we explain the new features that Google is implementing for users:

• Local News Carousel: Google will display a carousel dedicated to local news stories when there’s local that’s relevant to the user’s query.
• Top Stories Carousel: Authoritative local news sources will appear more often in the Top Stories carousel, which is typically reserved for stories from national publications.
• Deeper Understanding of Topics: Google is refining its ability to connect broad topics with local stories. For example, searches for “football” may return stories about the searcher’s local teams.
• Local tweets: When searching for local news, tweets with local news will also be displayed. These tweets will come from journalist accounts, publications and relevant people (mostly verified accounts).

7. Google Launching New Version of PageSpeed Insights

Google is rolling out the following updates to PageSpeed Insights later this year:

• Separation of field and lab data: Existing labels for “Field Data” and “Lab data” are getting replaced with text that indicates what the data means and how it can help.
• Core Web Vitals assessment: Currently, Google’s CWV assessment appears as a single word “passed” or “failed.” The updated assessment will appear in a separate subsection with its own icon.
• Labels for mobile and desktop performance: Google is changing the navigation menu at the top to include links for mobile and desktop on the report page.
• Origin Summary: Google is moving this report section to a new tab, “Origin”, under the Field Data section.
• Expand view: A new “expand view” feature adds a function to the field data section that allows users to view granular details for the Core Web Vitals metrics.
• Page image: Google is removing the image of the loaded page from its current location, which is next to the field data. The image and thumbnails will both be available in the lab data section.

8. Google Will Not Set Date for Mobile-First Index

Google has announced that the deadline for switching to a fully mobile-first index has been lifted and that there is currently no date for a definitive switch. The postponement of the final move to a mobile-first index was made to accommodate the remaining websites that have not yet updated to a mobile-friendly version.

9. Google Search Will Now Auto-Translate Results in Indian Languages

Google has announced a new feature for Indian searches, called Translated Results.

This feature automatically translates titles, meta descriptions, snippets, and content on pages in Indian languages. There are currently five Indian languages supported: 

• Hindi
• Kannada
• Tamil
• Telugu
• Malayalam

10.  Google Maps Adds 4 New Features for Local Shopping

Google Maps launches four new features to improve the local shopping experience for customers, which in turn can lead to more sales for businesses.

• Area Busyness
• Directory Tab
• Grocery Shopping
• More Information About Restaurants

In addition, Google has published statistics related to local shopping during the holiday season. This includes the most popular times to visit certain categories of businesses, and more.

11.  Google: Maximum Video Exposure by Creating a Dedicated Page For The Video

Google has updated its video best practices search help documentation to add a section about creating a dedicated page for each video. Google said “to give your videos maximum exposure, create a dedicated page for each video.”

In short, if you want the video to perform its best in Google Search, Google said place that video on its own dedicated page, and make sure the video is placed in the “most prominent” area of the page.

12.  Google: Progressive Web Apps Don’t Rank Better Than Regular Sites

Google’s John Mueller states that progressive web apps (PWAs) do not, by default, rank better in search results than traditional websites. However, converting an old website to a PWA could lead to ranking improvements for other reasons.

This topic is discussed during the Google Search Central SEO office-hours hangout recorded on November 12, 2021.

13.  Google Confirms Again, Bolding Words Does Help with SEO

Google’s John Mueller confirmed again that bolding words and “important points on a paragraph” does help with SEO and rankings. But it is all relative, if you bold everything on the page, then it doesn’t help, John explained.

14.  Google Review Snippets Won’t Show for Testimonials

Google won’t display enhanced search results for customer reviews that are republished from other sources, even if they have valid structured data markup.

In other words, in order for a webpage to show review snippets in search results, the reviews have to be submitted directly to the website.

This topic is discussed during the Google Search Central SEO office-hours hangout recorded on November 19.

15.  Microsoft Bing launched Page insights

Microsoft announced Page Insights which expands the functionality of Bing search by providing “summarized insights from a page on your search results.”

Users will see a lightbulb icon on the right-hand side of the search results that provides more details about the search result.

Page insights “helps you verify that the source is relevant to your needs, helps you get caught up to speed at a glance on top factoids you didn’t know about, and lets you jump straight to the relevant section of the page when you click ‘Read more’ for a specific question,” the company said.

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