SEARCHENGINES
Daily Search Forum Recap: February 8, 2022
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.
Google Search Console performance reports again has more data loss. Google said code to text ratio is not an SEO factor. Google also said having CTAs above the fold is not a bad thing. Google Ads global site tag now supports automatic data collection. Microsoft Bing has expanded car search features.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- Google Search Console Performance Report Suffered A Data Loss Again
Google is having a hard time holding on to its data in Google Search Console. Google posted yet another data logging issue on its site, this time it impacted the performance reports for all – Google Search, Google Discover, and Google News. This happened between February 1st through February 3rd. - Google: Code To Text Ratio Is Not & Has Never Been An SEO Factor
Google’s John Mueller and Gary Illyes both said in a Reddit thread that code to text ratios for SEO does not matter. John Mueller said it is not an SEO factor and Gary Illyes said “it doesn’t matter.” This is not new, Google has said this numerous times in the past but this is the 2022 version of, is code to text ratio and SEO factor. - Google: CTAs Above The Fold Is Not Bad For Google Search Or SEO
There is a new SEO myth floating around that says CTAs, call to action buttons, placed above the fold is bad for Google search ranking and SEO. That is simply not true and John Mueller of Google said so on Reddit saying “Google search doesn’t say anything about CTA buttons.” - Google Ads Tests Global Site Tag With Automatic User Data Collection
Google Ads is testing a new feature for the global site tag that can be configured to automatically collect user data. Dario Zannoni spotted this and wrote on Twitter “Global Site Tag can now automatically collect the information that the user submits on the website (like email and telephone).” - Microsoft Bing Expands Car & Automobile Search
Microsoft Bing, in this crazy car market, has expanded its search features to help you buy a car. Bing also lets you filter the results in numerous ways and a lot of this is powered off of the MSN Autos Marketplace. - New Google Atlanta Tower
Here is a photo of the new Google Atlanta office building tower when it is almost done. There are drone videos of the building on Instagram, this is a photo from one of those, but I embedded the vide
Other Great Search Threads:
Search Engine Land Stories:
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
Industry & Business
Links & Content Marketing
Local & Maps
Mobile & Voice
SEO
PPC
Search Features
Other Search
Feedback:
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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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