SEARCHENGINES
Google May 1st Algorithm Update, Moz Removed From Google Search, Google Ads Safety Report, New In Microsoft Advertising & More
This week in search, we had another unconfirmed Google search ranking algorithm update that touched down in a big way on May 1st with a lot of weirdness the week prior. Moz’s home page was removed from Google Search for a 12 hour period after a fraudulent DMCA takedown request. Google is dropping support for some sitemap extensions to make things easier? Some are saying they saw a spike in crawl activity after Google removed the URL parameter tool. Bing gave some SEO advice on subscription based and paywall content. Do you think Google is doing away with web stories and replacing them with short videos? Google is offering digital marketing certification, where SEO is part of the curriculum. Google blocked a ton ads and suspected millions of advertisers in 2021. Google had a reporting issue wit h the Google Ads API, Google AdWords API and Google Ads Scripts. Google Ads customer match list will work with smart bidding and optimized targeting. Google Ads rolled out a slightly updated add new ad screen. Microsoft Advertising extended the RSA deadline, released auto-generated marketing lists and so much more. Microsoft Advertising also revamped its certification program and learning lab. Google is testing continuous or infinite scroll again in the desktop results. Google Maps added “this business does not exist” to the Business redressal complaint form. Google launched a slew of new travel search features. 67% of SEOs have university degrees, a poll says. And John Mueller of Google changed how he records the SEO office hours YouTube videos. That was this past week in search at the Search Engine Roundtable. And if you want to help sponsor those vlogs, go to patreon.com/barryschwartz. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.
Sponsored by BruceClay who has been doing search marketing optimization since 1996 and also has an amazing SEO training platform.
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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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