SEARCHENGINES
Daily Search Forum Recap: November 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 launched a ton of new features across search, maps, shopping and more. Google said rich result manual actions can lead to broader spam penalties. Google said redirects from non-relevant pages won’t hurt the destination page. Google said don’t change your author names on your content randomly. You should be aware of a rise in fake ownership requests for Google Business Profiles. And I posted my weekly video recap, have a good weekend.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- Google: Rich Results Manual Actions Can Lead To Removal Of Rich Results & Broader Spam Penalties
Google’s Danny Sullivan said that not only can a rich result manual action result in the removal of your rich results from displaying in Google Search but also it can lead to a wider “broader spam manual action that involves ranking.” - Google Rolls Out Multisearch, Lens, AR, Maps & Other Expanded Search Features
Google announced a bunch of features around Google Search, Google Maps, Google Lens and more that are now rolling out in the US and some other regions. This goes across new features for Multisearch, Google Lens, AR, Maps and much more. - Beware Of Fake Ownership Requests From Google Business Profiles
I am sure many of you have received one or two (or more) requests from Google Business Profiles saying the owner is requested access to maintain your business. I just delete them but I am hearing from Local SEOs that this is becoming more and more of an issue. - Google: Don’t Randomly Change The Author Name, Use Author Annotations & Updated Content Use New Author
Google’s John Mueller was asked about the impact of changing the author’s name on an article. John gave three pieces of advice in response to the question, (1) use author annotations, (2) rewritten content should use the new author’s name and (3) do not randomly change author names. - Google: Redirects From Non Relevant Pages Won’t Cause The Destination Page To Be Less Relevant
Dawn Anderson asked Google’s John Mueller if redirecting a non-relevant page would cause the destination page (where the redirect it going towards) to be less relevant and cause any ranking issues for its relevant queries. John said no, “I can’t think of a way that would have a negative effect there,” he added. - Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Coati Update, More Weekend Tremors, Local Reviews Bug, Google Ads Bribe, Apple Search Delayed & More
This week, we learned that Google’s Panda update at one point in time evolved into what was called the Google Coati update. Google also had another weekend update last week. Google Search Console added a new shopping tab with more… - The New Google Viger Montreal Office
Google shared some photos from its new Viger office which is in Montreal, Canada. Here is the lobby but the office is supposedly jammed packed with reminders of the history of that location.
Other Great Search Threads:
- New to me in Google Ads! Just logged in this morning & noticed these Workspaces. Instead of just sorting by campaign type it lets me create and save filters based on campaign name, bid strategy, label, & more. There ar, Christine Zirnheld on Twitter
- Probably ok, but you’re dancing around the question a bit which makes me worry that there’s much more involved :-). “Email provider” vs “Your email” pages seem fine. “Email provider” vs, John Mueller on Twitter
- Users want to see what you’re promising with a rich result, so it should be visible when the page loads., John Mueller on Twitter
- I work for the Google Search team. Most searches don’t have ads, Danny Sullivan on Mastodon
- It keeps them busy (making these “bad links”), so I’d say that’s a win. Spend your time on improving your site instead & ignore them., John Mueller on Twitter
- No, you should not do link building with sites like that. (reading between the lines, you probably shouldn’t be doing that kind of link building even with sites that hav, John Mueller 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.
Source: www.seroundtable.com
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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