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Google Reviews Update Heating Up Again

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Google Reviews Update Explode

Google’s April 2023 reviews update is now just almost two weeks since it started rolling out, and while the update seemed to have started slow, this past week, we’ve seen some significant movement and volatility. This weekend was no exception and we are seeing some big movement this weekend.

I assume it is related to the Google April 2023 reviews update but who knows, it can be a combination of that and something else.

As a reminder, the April 2023 reviews update kicked off on April 12th at noon. Early on, we saw some sites get hit hard but it wasn’t that widespread of an update. Then as we hit the second week of the update, we saw some tremors that seemed to have a more widespread net and impacted more sites than it did in week one. I posted an update in that story on April 20th that showed the renewed chatter and volatility.

Now, I figured I’d do a new post based on what I saw over the weekend. Again, I expect this update to be completed by Google any day now, so this might just be the tail end of this update.

SEO Chatter

Here is some new chatter since I last posted on April 20th from WebmasterWorld and social:

Today, I notice high traffic. Looks like it’s getting back to normal. Did anyone else notice anything different today?

I am seeing non-USA traffic back to normal. USA traffic has been unusually low since the Easter weekend and has never reverted. That is due to a large loss in traffic to some of my most important landing pages, despite no change in rank. Upon closer inspection of the SERPS I am finding that the results are returning a block of images, three ads, local results, a block of videos, and then the first organic site link. The 1st and 2nd place results are the same two sites over and over, one of which had dropped off the map for months but now is at #1 again for every search…there is definitely some sort of manipulation going on there. These are all searches that include a place name like “New York XYZ” “London XYZ” and “Dubai XYZ”. My ranking is still strong, but for most of these searches the image carousel has been stripped from all of the links, so it’s hard to stand out. These apparently slight changes have resulted in massive losses of traffic…up to 80% less traffic for each of the landing pages.

Absolutely massive drop in USA / Canada traffic starting 7 am sharp today (April 21st)…-35% at 2:30. Anyone else seeing this?

Yes, unfortunately, I’ve taken a beating today.

Google has taken a targetted hit out on exactly one of my site’s most trafficked landing pages…a 92% loss in traffic, despite no drop in rank over the last three months. The traffic for all of the similar/associated search terms has vanished in tandem, in some cases the clicks reported from GSC for a term went from 20 per day to zero and has stayed there since April 14th. The traffic to this page and these terms increased steadily for the last 9 months, and then just vanished all at once….the image below says it all.

60% loss on a huge website. Lost #1 positions to page 3. No clue what is going on.
Don’t see any penalties in search console. Freaking out right now.

We are back to full traffic of zombies, lawless #*$!s

I am seeing a huge divergence between impressions and clicks in GSC and in one case both dropped and clicks went to zero for the last ten days. Losing one term would not produce an 80%+ loss of traffic. It seems to be hitting some of my other landing pages to a lesser extent…20%-40% losses instead of 80%.

Google Tracking Tools

Here is what the tracking tools are showing over the past couple of weeks, notice the past week and then this weekend:

Semrush:

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RankRanger:

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SERPmetrics:

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Mozcast:

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Advanced Web Rankings:

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Accuranker:

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Cognitive SEO:

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Algoroo:

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So there does seem to be some steam at the end of this update. What are you all noticing?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.



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Google Hanukkah Decorations Are Live For 2023

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Google Hanukkah 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.

Google Hanukkah Decorations 2023

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.

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Google Pay Accepted Icons In Google Search Results

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Woman Checking Out Store Google Logo

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:

G Pay Accepted Google Search

Here are some more screenshots:

Brodie Clark also posted some screenshots after on X:

Google Pay Accepted Google Search

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.



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Google Discover Showing Older Content Since Follow Feature Arrived

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Dog Astronut Google Logo

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:

Google Discover Old Stories Follow

Google Discover Old Stories Follow2

Have you noticed this in your Discover feed?

Forum discussion at X.



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