SEARCHENGINES
Daily Search Forum Recap: August 28, 2023
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
The Google August 2023 core update seemed to cause some big movement on some sites around Friday, August 25th, a few days after it launched. Google Search Console is testing news showcase reporting. Google SGE local results get more link carousels. Google said the location of words in the URL does not matter for SEO. Google is testing clickable links in the search result descriptions. Plus we have a new vlog with Jamie Reedy and Jordan Mazza.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- Google August 2023 Core Update Hit Hard Around August 25th For Some Sites
As you know, Google released its first core update in over five months, the Google August 2023 core update, on August 22nd at around 1:30 pm ET. Since then, I’ve been tracking the volatility and the chatter from within the SEO community to see how widespread, extensive, and impactful this update has been. - Screenshots Of Google Search Console News Showcase Filters & Reports
A while ago we reported that Google Search Console will gain specific reports for Google News Showcase and it now seems Google is testing this in the wild. Clara Soteras shared some screenshots of these reports on Twitter and she shared an email and additional screenshots with me directly that I can post here. - Google Search Generative Experience Local Results Gain More Link Cards
The new Google Search Generative Experience now shows more links and link cards in the local results interface for some users. The link cards show below the listing and also at the top right of the map interface in the SGE interface on both desktop and mobile. - Google: Word Location In URLs Does Not Matter For SEO
Google’s John Mueller was asked if it matters SEO-wise or search ranking-wise if you place /services/ before /location/ in your URL structure or the other way. John said when it comes to SEO, it really does not matter. - Google Tests Clickable Links Within The Search Result Description
Google seems to be testing clickable links within a search result description area. I am not sure if this is a bug or a feature but I was able to replicate this myself. - Vlog #238: Jamie Reedy and Jordan Mazza On E-Commerce SEO
Jamie Reedy and Jordan Mazza from Amsive Digital stopped by to chat about SEO and all things search… - Bing Logo In Beach Sand From Flip Flops
Michael Schechter, a VP at Microsoft Bing, posted a photo of him at the beach, well not him… He posted a photo of the sand where you can see the Bing logo imprinted in the sand because of his specia
Other Great Search Threads:
- If you’re worried about crawl budget, you could just robot the URL pattern out. Otherwise, I wouldn’t sweat it., John Mueller on X
- It sounds like you should have worked on your old site instead of making a new one., John Mueller on Twitter
- Noticing a slight variation to the “Things to know” feature in Google., Christina LeVasseur (Brodzky) on X
- Since hreflang is per-page, it’s fine to just implement it on pages where you’re seeing issues (like the informational ones, or any others). One thing that might help in your case is the “x-default” hreflang, which is basically “every other country”. That, John Mueller on Mastodon
- Interested in Discover and focused on Local? I’m seeing a “Top sights in…” module again leading to fresh searches in Google for those places. The module started appearing this summer for me and contains four listings along with their r, Glenn Gabe on X
- Tip: Want to load your (LCP) hero image sooner? Try
to boost its priority @ChromeDevTools now also shows the initial and final priority of requests in the Performance & Network panels, Addy Osmani on X
Search Engine Land Stories:
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
Industry & Business
Links & Content Marketing
Local & Maps
Mobile & Voice
SEO
- How to Manage Your Schema Markup, Schema App Solutions
- Map Your Keywords to the Buyer’s Journey and User Intent — Whiteboard Friday, Moz
- Detailed Q: Analysing The SEO Playbook of Digital Goliaths In-Depth, Every Quarter, Detailed
- Google News Surfaces: Terminology, Impact on Traffic and More, NewzDash
- How to Learn SEO in 2023, SEO Testing
- SEO Work for Category Pages, Stephanie Briggs
- Duplicate Without User-Selected Canonical, SEOSLY
- Most interesting Google Patents for SEO in 2023, Kopp
- The Only SEO Checklist You Need in 2023 [Incl. Template], Ahrefs
PPC
Search Features
Other Search
Feedback:
Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, on Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky and you can follow us on Facebook and on Google News and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.
SEARCHENGINES
Google Hanukkah Decorations Are Live For 2023

Hanukkah (aka Chanukah) starts this coming Thursday night, December 7th. Google has added its Hanukkah decorations to the Google Search results interface to celebrate. Google does this every year and I expect to see the same rollout in the coming weeks for Christmas and Kawanzaa but for now, since Chanukah is in the coming days, we have the Hanukkah decorations live at Google Search.
Here is a screenshot of the Chanukah decorations as they look like on the mobile search results.
You can see it yourself by searching on Google for [chanukah], [hanukkah], but not yet [חֲנוּכָּה] or other spelling variations yet but it should soon. It looks better on mobile than it does on desktop results.
To see the past, the 2023 decorations, 2021 decorations, 2020 Chanukah decorations, 2019 Google holiday decorations, the 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010 and so on.
Happy Chanukah, everyone!
Forum discussion at X.
SEARCHENGINES
Google Pay Accepted Icons In Google Search Results

Google seems to be testing a Google Pay Accepted label or icon in the Google search results. This label has the super G logo followed by the words “Pay accepted” words next to search result snippets that support Google Pay and notate such in their structured data.
This was first spotted by Khushal Bherwani who shared some screenshots of this on X – here is one:
Here are some more screenshots:
Here is test and without test window for same query. pic.twitter.com/n9cYWBOsro
— Khushal Bherwani (@b4k_khushal) October 20, 2023
Brodie Clark also posted some screenshots after on X:
In continuation from the test from October, Google is now testing out a new Google Pay label associated with organic results. Last month, Google was testing Pay Accepted text, with this month changing it to Pay encrypted checkout. More details: https://t.co/MvFNoPmMDR pic.twitter.com/WDVVc4RbTO
— SERPs Up 🌊 (@SERPalerts) November 30, 2023
I tried to replicate this but I came up short.
This is not the first time Google had similar icons like this in its search results.
Forum discussion at X.
SEARCHENGINES
Google Discover Showing Older Content Since Follow Feature Arrived

Typically, Google Discover shows content that is less than a day old, but it can show content that is weeks, months, or even years old. However, typically, Google will show more recent content in the Discover feed. Well, that may have changed with the new Google follow feature.
Glenn Gabe, who is a very active Google Discover user, noticed that since the Follow feature rolled out, he has been seeing content that is weeks and months old way more often than before the follow feature rolled out. Glenn wrote on X that “this could also be playing a role. i.e. Google isn’t providing as much recent content, but instead, focusing on providing targeted content based on the topics you are following.”
It makes sense that if you follow a specific topic and if Google Discover only shows the most authoritative types of content, it might be hard for Google to find new content on that topic. So it does make sense that Google may show older content more often for that specific topic you follow.
Here are screenshots Glenn shared:
Have you noticed this in your Discover feed?
Forum discussion at X.
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