SEARCHENGINES
Daily Search Forum Recap: January 18, 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 has released a new report to measure your page experience for desktop, and in a few weeks the desktop version of the page experience update will be live. Do you think Google will soon target “fluff” content in 2022? Google Maps is testing shows review snippets in the map interface, by the map pins. Google said you should still not use commas, brackets or other non standard encoding for URLs an faceted navigation. Google Business Profiles edits are being promoted with a new gigantic overlay in web search.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- Desktop Page Experience Report Now In Google Search Console
As promised, Google has released the desktop version of the page experience report in Google Search Console. The desktop version is pretty similar to the mobile version, as you’d expect. With the page experience update algorithm coming to desktop next month, you now have a report you can use to see how well you are performing. - Will Google Target Fluff Content In Search?
The other day I wrote about how Google said fluff content is hard for search engines to understand and thus rank. I explained how Google does rank content that is surrounded by a lot of fluff. But then I heard John Mueller of Google once again talk about content fluff and how you should not add fluff to your content. - Google Maps Pins With Review Snippets
Google Maps, the map interface, is testing displaying review snippets, short selected reviews, directly under the name of the business or organization in the map interface under the pin. This was spotted by Allie Margeson who said on Twitter “seeing review snippets get some prominence directly on the map and I like it!” - Google Business Profile Edit Large Overlay In Search Results
With Google’s new effort to get business owners to manage their business listing in web search and not in the Google Business Profile manager, formerly Google My Business, Google is now using large overlays to tell businesses they can do so in search. - Google: Do Not Use Commas, Brackets Or Non-Standard URL Encoding For Faceted Navigation
Google’s John Mueller confirmed that the search company’s 2014 guidance with faceted navigation remains true today – do not use non-standard URL encoding. That means do not use commas, brackets or other non-standard URL encoding in your URL structure. - Empty Google Cafe
Two years into COVID the Google offices are still pretty empty, here is a recent photo from the main Google headquarters, the GooglePlex, from one of the cafes. It is pretty empty, you can see more ph
Other Great Search Threads:
- It’s always a good practice to balance your sources of traffic. For affiliate bloggers, I’d recommend checking out https://t.co/v0Hpt72oIe and thinking about ways to improve your site overall. More is not bett, John Mueller on Twitter
- “On sale” organic in Google mobile serp. CC – @rustybrick 1/1 #onsale https://t.co/TjfUpcrLi1, Khushal Bherwani on Twitter
- Bugs are always possible, but I don’t see a lot of complaints around this… At least not yet :). Maybe it’s from old crawl attempts? or perhaps the robots.txt was unreachable temporarily?, John Mueller on Twitter
- Let me just ask the obvious question; if you know this is unnecesary duplicate content, why are you publishing it? Understanding of quality is irrelevant, it just seems like a bad idea from the st, John Mueller on Twitter
- DMCA is a per-page process, so if you feel it applies, you’d need to do it on a per-page basis., John Mueller on Twitter
- I’m a fan of “less is more” when it comes to the number of sites. However, the overall effect of merging or splitting sites is always hard to estimate in advance., John Mueller on Twitter
- Please, please pleaseeee – only disavow links if you KNOW they’re spammy and have been built unnaturally otherwise you’ll do more harm than good. Conducting a traffic drop analysis and I checked their disavow file and found, Andy Chadwick on Twitter
- Report: Safari Bug Could Leak Some User Data, WebmasterWorld
- We’ll take a look. I know searching by headline is common for writers and yes, I’d expect this to show first for that. But it doesn’t reflect how most people might seek this content (and for how they might s, Danny Sullivan on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
Industry & Business
Links & Content Marketing
Local & Maps
Mobile & Voice
SEO
PPC
Other Search
Feedback:
Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, you can follow us on Facebook 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.
-
WORDPRESS4 days ago
8 Best Zapier Alternatives to Automate Your Website
-
MARKETING7 days ago
How Does Success of Your Business Depend on Choosing Type of Native Advertising?
-
MARKETING6 days ago
Intro to Amazon Non-endemic Advertising: Benefits & Examples
-
SOCIAL4 days ago
YouTube Highlights its Top Trends, Topics and Creators of 2023
-
SOCIAL7 days ago
Paris mayor to stop using ‘global sewer’ X
-
MARKETING5 days ago
Mastering The Laws of Marketing in Madness
-
SOCIAL6 days ago
With the end of the Hollywood writers and actors strikes, the creator economy is the next frontier for organized labor
-
PPC5 days ago
12 Holiday Emails for Customers (Templates & Examples!)
You must be logged in to post a comment Login