SEARCHENGINES
Daily Search Forum Recap: November 22, 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 now documented its ranking updates/systems that they are using and some notable ones that were retired. Google also added a new search spam policy named policy circumvention. Google’s Gary Illyes asked for URLs that should be indexed but are discovered and not indexed. Google said the last batch of sites not on mobile-first indexing will be moved over soon. Google AdSense launched a new rewarded ad gate beta program.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- Google Documents Search Ranking Updates As Systems; Labels Live Or Archived Notable Algorithms
Google has published a new document named a guide to Google search ranking system. That document outlines the “notable” ranking updates that are currently live and running for Google Search and also some of the historical updates that are either no longer in use or incorporated into other algorithms. - Google’s New Spam Policy: Policy Circumvention
Google has added a new spam policy for policy circumvention. The new section was added to the Google spam policies document and basically says if you try to go around the Google spam policies, you can be penalized. - Google Wants Examples Of URLs That Should Be Indexed But Are Discovered – Currently Not Indexed
Gary Illyes is back on social, not Twitter, but on Mastodon and he asked for examples of URLs that you think should be indexed but instead give you the status Discovered, currently not indexed in Google Search Console. - Google: Last Batch Of Sites Moving To Mobile-First Indexing Coming Soon, Again
Once again, Google’s John Mueller said the last batch of sites still being indexed using desktop indexing is going to be moved over to mobile-first indexing “soon.” John said this on Twitter this morning, saying “The last batches of sites are afaik coming soon.” - Google AdSense Rewarded Ad Gate Beta
Google AdSense is testing a new ad type for publishers named Rewarded Ad Gate beta program. This program is something Google has in AdMob and basically lets you serve some of your more “loyal” visitors with longer-form ads, even playable ads. - Stan, The Google Patriotic Dinosaur
Stan is Google’s dinosaur and if you have been watching these search photos of the day, you have seen Stand dressed up often. Here he was dressed up in US army, air force, etc stuff probably for Veter
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:
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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