SEARCHENGINES
Daily Search Forum Recap: March 2, 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.
I posted the big Google webmaster report where you can catch up on the more important SEO related changes in the past month. Google Search Console’s URL inspection tool has errors but Google should be fixing it, if it is not fixed already. Google Business Profiles may require you to double verify your business. Google spoke about translated content and garbage parameters in URLs. Google also spoke about blocking users from the USA and how that can lead to huge Google ranking issues.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- March 2022 Google Webmaster Report
It is time for the March 2022 Google webmaster report, where I look back at the past 30-days of SEO news related to Google and highlight the most important changes over that time period. This month we had a confirmed rollout begin of the page experience update for desktop, we learned about an update to the Pirate update, a new shopping ranking factor and more. - Google Search Console URL Inspection Tool Errors
Yesterday, Google confirmed that some folks trying to use the URL Inspection tool via the console or even the API may be seeing errors. Google said it is working on a fix but almost a day later, some are still having issues and Google has yet to confirm it is resolved. - Google: Translated Content & Garbage Parameters In URLs
You may end up confusing Google when you have “garbage” parameters trailing in your URLs, espesially when it comes to translated content parameters. There is this interesting conversation when a large multilingual site found its translated content excluded from Google Search with a “crawled currently not indexed” status. - Google Business Profiles May Require Additional Verification
Google has updated the help document on how to verify your business to say “we may require you to verify by more than one method.” So if you verify using one method, Google might decide it needs you to verify again but using a different method. - PSA: Blocking USA Users But Allowing Googlebot Is Against Google’s Webmaster Guidelines
Google sends its crew of crawlers, Googlebot, from the United States. That is where 99% of the crawling originates from. If you are not allowed to show your website to users based in the United States, then you also cannot show that website to Googlebot. - Google Charleston East Dome Almost Ready
Here is a photo from Louis Gray of the new GooglePlex building, he said it is called the Google Charleston East Dome building. He also said it looks almost done and ready to move in.
Other Great Search Threads:
- @yandexcom is the largest technology company in Russia and the country’s second-largest search engine. The former head of its news division, Lev Gershenzon, just made this remarkable post on Facebook, addressed to his form, Ilya Lozovsky on Twitter
- Cloudflare affects SEO?, WebmasterWorld
- March 2022 AdSense Earnings and Observations, WebmasterWorld
- Terrorists use Google maps tags to adjust the fires!! Please help! – Форум , Google Maps Help
- That looks like valid HTML (it’s fine to have multiple attributes on a tag), so it would be fine. That various tools don’t see them would suggest that there’s more to it than just this HTML snippet though, so I’d dig f, 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
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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