SEARCHENGINES
Daily Search Forum Recap: January 18, 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.
Google Posts insights analytics is no longer; it is gone. Google Search is testing related products as a standalone section. Google says having a website with the same name as another is okay with them (but you may have legal issues with that). Google is testing round map pins with photos.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- Google: Google Quality Updates Can Impact Crawling & Indexing
Google’s John Mueller said again that its quality updates, like core updates and the others in the family, can not just impact the ranking of a page in Google Search but also how Google crawls and if Google decides to index that page. - Google: Having A Website With The Same Name As Another Site Is Fine For Search
Google’s John Mueller was asked about if it is okay with Google Search to have a website with the same name as another site on the internet. John said he could not give legal advice around copyright issues but he said when it comes to Google Search and SEO, it is fine. - Google Discontinues Google Posts Insights
Google Posts insights is no longer working, it has been discontinued according to the Google Business Profiles API documentation for the deprecation schedule. - Google Search “Related Products”
Google has a “related products” section in its search results. This seems similar to the similar products concept, but it looks like the other query expansion options for Google Search results. - Google Maps Tests Business Photo In Round Map Pin
Google is testing displaying a round map pin that has a business photo in the pin itself. This is supposedly working on some Google Maps devices when you request directions. - Singapore Google Product Expert Summit
Here is a photo the Google Search Central team shard on Twitter about a month ago of Daniel Waisberg and some Google product experts, including Kenichi Suzuki, smiling at the event.
Other Great Search Threads:
- December 2022 Update, What if I Change to a Subdomain?, WebmasterWorld
- Google Warns Over “Any Method” Used to Auto Generate Lots of Content For Rankings, WebmasterWorld
- People do it different ways, it … depends on your situation. I’d check out the documentation we have for international sites, I think we mention the variations there., John Mueller on Twitter
- Unfortunately, I think you’ll find that there is no such thing as objective, “pure”, exact data when it comes to the Internet, especially once you compare different source, John Mueller on Twitter
- Are you adding datestamps to your URLs? That can make the number of URLs increase dramatically, and will make it significantly harder to crawl & index your content (and to recognize when things change)., John Mueller on Twitter
- I don’t think there’s a particular reason, but I also struggle to understand how it’s useful to have. Wouldn’t things like keyword planner be more relevant, since sites usually focus more on their target audience?, John Mueller on Mastodon
- I’d look into the difference between lab and field data – there’s a lot of information on that on https://t.co/gfDl8FXFlW, including ways you can measure it on your own., John Mueller on Twitter
- I’m hanging out with the Google Search Console team for a few days. What’s on your mind that you’d like to see in Search Console, or see more of there?, John Mueller on Twitter
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:
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.
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