SEARCHENGINES
Google Product Reviews Update III Is Not That Huge Yet

So far, I will say that the Google Products Reviews update version 3, the March 2022 version, is not that huge. That is, not that huge compared to the previous product review updates or core updates. Some would say this update is a mild update, again, so far…
I’ve been closely following the forums and social sites and the “chatter” within the industry has been pretty mild for an update of this kind. Yes, we have some chatter here and there, but is no where near what we saw with the December product reviews volatility or even that of the first product reviews update impact. I know it has only been less than six days and this update rolls out over a few weeks, but typically, we see the brunt of these updates in the first few days or so and I am not sure I would call this a big update thus far.
Of course, if your site was his by this product reviews update, it was a big update for you. What I mean by not big is that it is not as widespread, impacting as many sites, as the previous update. Maybe this update is more targeted in, maybe there was a delay in rolling it out, maybe I am missing all the marks and I am wrong? I am just throwing out theories here.
I did ask Alan Kent, who is the person at Google fielding questions on this update, if there is some sort of delayed rollout. He basically said he does not know:
I don’t know sorry. (Some previous companies slowed rolls over weekend so staff get a weekend rather than fight internal fires.)
— Alan Kent (@akent99) March 27, 2022
I posted a poll on Twitter shortly after asking if any SEOs have noticed changes with this update. Now I totally expect a good percentage of the responses that say yes and no are incorrect and they are looking at the wrong thing but hey – here it is anyway:
Are you noticing Google ranking changes related to the Product Reviews Update from March 23rd?
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) March 28, 2022
Most, about 60%, are saying no and I suspect many are looking at rankings in general, even for non product reviews sites. Also, some might be looking at unconfirmed Google Spring 2022 update that happened a few days earlier. By the way, that Spring unconfirmed update felt bigger than this product reviews update – so far.
Dan Richardson asked about it over the weekend, I retweeted it and the responses were nope, don’t see anything:
Anyone seen much movement with the product review update?
— Dan Richardson (@dan__richardson) March 26, 2022
There is some chatter in the SEO forums, but I think all of it is unrelated to product reviews category of sites. Both the chatter at two WebmasterWorld thread and all the BlackHat World threads (there are a lot of them) are not really showing complaints specific to product reviews sites. So I don’t have much to quote here from SEOs.
Then we have the tools that some showed a spike on March 25th, two days after the update, but that does not seem to align with the chatter specific to product review sites. I’ll share the charts so you can see them in one place:
As you can see, some show spikes shortly after the announcement of the product reviews update but the spikes are not at levels of previous product review updates or core updates.
In summary, so far this update seems mild – but there is still time.
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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