SEARCHENGINES
Google Say Writing You Tested A Product Is Not Enough For Product Reviews Update

One of the newish lines from the March 2022 Google Product Reviews update, which is now completely rolled out, announcement is where Google said “including original images from tests you performed with the product can be good ways to do this” But writing that you tested a product in your content is not enough to convince Google you actually tested a product.
Alan Kent from Google was asked about this by Vlad Rappoport on Twitter and Alan replied “don’t expect big boosts if the review only adds a few sentences saying ‘I tested it myself too’ with the rest paraphrasing the original product description.” So again, just putting a label that you tested the product onsite or writing that you tested it onsite, is simply not enough.
Look at the overall best practices for product reviews from Google to see what Google really wants. Alan also added on Twitter “I would focus on the intent: create useful, authentic, trusted, reviews that bring new insights and deliver value to users. The published best practices are guidance towards these goals, not binary in/out decision points.”
So again, this is not about having a couple words that says tested and approved or some meta tag, it is about the content itself showing that you actually tested it. Now, not all reviewers can test all products they review, but the best ones can. They some how manage to get the product, either as a loaner from the manufacturer, or they buy it themselves to test. Heck, I am buying a super expensive Lucid Air and that will help me really be an authority on it for my Lucid Insider blog. But Lucid Motors gave loaners to car reviewers so they can spend time with the car and test it themselves and some even bought the car and spent weeks with it before publishing their reviews. I also looked deep into forums to find feedback from real Lucid Air owners for some of my content. But I won’t fully understand this car without owning it myself. It is just the competitive content world we live in these days.
Here are those tweets:
You can certainly create a useful review without eating the product. E.g. people know too much sugar is not good for you. But dont expect big boosts if the review only adds a few sentences saying “I tested it myself too” with the rest paraphrasing the original product description
— Alan Kent (@akent99) April 13, 2022
Given ML models will never be perfect, I would focus on the intent: create useful, authentic, trusted, reviews that bring new insights and deliver value to users. The published best practices are guidance towards these goals, not binary in/out decision points.
— Alan Kent (@akent99) April 13, 2022
Forum discussion at Twitter.
Source: www.seroundtable.com
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.
SEARCHENGINES
Google Core Update Done Followed By Intense Search Volatility, New Structured Data, Google Ads Head Steps Down & 20 Years Covering Search

Google’s November 2023 core update finally finished rolling out this week, and it was the longest core update rollout. Then, a day later, we saw more intense Google search ranking volatility and chatter. Google added new organization structured data and also added a new profile page and discussion forum structured data, both with Search Console and Rich Results test support. Google’s crawl rate setting is going away soon. Google Search Console went down a couple of times this week. Google spoke about the SEO value of bringing back 404 pages for links. Did you see the Google patent for what appears to be SGE? Microsoft is working to bring GPT-4 Turbo to Copilot and Bing Chat. Google Ads won’t allow personalized ads for consumer finance topics in February 2024. Google Local Service Ads has new impression metrics. Google Ads released its Ads API schedule for 2024. Google is testing Gray accepted labels in the search results. Google is testing line separators between sitelinks. Google is testing an interview label for news results. Google local photos is testing hearts and other emotion reactions. Google is testing removing the cache link from the search result listings. Google’s head of search ads, Jerry Dischler, is stepping down after 15 years. And I’ve been covering the search industry and search for 20 years now. 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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