1. Google’s Introduces Policy Circumvention - Google has added a new spam policy to its search spam policies - “Policy circumvention.” In short, if you take any action you take to bypass the other Google Search spam or content policies such as creating new sites, using other sites or other methods to distribute that content, maybe on third-party sites or other avenues then Google will restrict or remove the content from showing up in search. Here is what Google wrote:

“If you engage in actions intended to bypass our spam or content policies for Google Search, undermine restrictions placed on content, a site, or an account, or otherwise continue to distribute content that has been removed or made ineligible from surfacing, we may take appropriate action which could include restricting or removing eligibility for some of our search features (for example, Top Stories, Discover). Circumvention includes but is not limited to creating or using multiple sites or other methods intended to distribute content or engage in a behavior that was previously prohibited”

2. Google’s Advice On When You Should Move Your Blogs To A Sub-Domain - John Mueller of Google recently shared his advice on when you should add blogs to a Sub-Domain. John shared that he will move blogs to a subdomain over a www when he thinks the content on the subdomain can live on its own. 

He said "my way of thinking with regards to subdomains is that it depends on what you're trying to do. Is it content that's meant to be tightly connected to the main site? Then put it on the main site. If you want the content to stand on its own, then a subdomain is a good match."

He also shared that there are technical considerations to think about outside of SEO. He said "There's also the technical side-effect of subdomains sometimes making things a bit more complicated: verification in search console, tracking in analytics, DNS, hosting, security, CSPs, etc."

Lastly, John added "To be clear, I think it will affect rankings of the new content, but ultimately it depends on what you want to achieve with it. Sometimes you want something separated out, sometimes you want to see something as a part of the main site. These are different situations, and the results will differ."

3. Google: 60% Of The Internet Is Duplicate & Prefers https - Gary Illyes from Google shared during Google Search Central Live in Singapore that 60% of the content on internet is duplicate. To find duplicates, Google compares the checksum generated from the main content and if the checksum matches then the content is duplicate. Lastly, Gary mentioned that Google will always pick a https url over http. 

Ensure that you have https on your website and focus on producing something way more unique and useful than most of what is out on the internet. 

 
4. Google Re-confirms That E-A-T Applies To Every Single Search Query - During recent SMX Next event, Hyung-Jin Kim, the Vice President of Google Search (who has been working on search quality for the past 20 years and leads up core ranking at Google Search) reconfirmed that E-A-T is used in every single query, it is applied to everything Google Search does. "E-A-T is a core part of our metrics," he added, explaining that it is to "ensure the content that people consume is going to be, is not going to be harmful and it is going to be useful to the user." Here is the transcript of what he said exactly:

“E-A-T is a core part of our metrics and it stands for expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. This has not always been there in Google, and it is something we have developed about 10 to 12 to 13 years ago. And it is really there to make sure that, along the lines of what we talked about earlier, that is it really there to ensure the content that people consume is going to be, is not going to be harmful and it is going to be useful to the user. These are principles we live by every single day. 

I will say that YMYL queries, the your money or your life queries, such as when I am looking for a mortgage or when I am looking for the local ER, those we have a particular eye on and pay a bit more attention to those queries because those are some of the most important decisions people can make, some of the most important decisions people will make in their lives. So I will say that E-A-T is has a bit more of an impact there but again, I will say that E-A-T applies to everything, every single query that we have.”

5. Google Publishes A Guide To Current & Retired Ranking Systems - You can find out which algorithms Google uses to rank search results and which ones are no longer in use with the help of a new guide to Google's ranking systems. Furthermore, Google distinguishes between ranking "systems" and ranking "updates" in its most recent guide, using new terminology. RankBrain is one example of a system that is always operating in the background. On the other hand, an update describes a one-time adjustment to ranking structures.

For instance, when Google returns search results, the helpful content system is always active in the background, while it is subject to modifications to enhance its performance. Other examples of one-time adjustments to ranking algorithms include spam updates and updates to the core algorithm.

Here is the list, in alphabetical order, of Google’s ranking systems that are currently operational.