SEARCHENGINES
Google Says Rich Results Manual Actions Can Lead To Removal Of Rich Results & Broader Spam Penalties

Google’s Danny Sullivan said that not only can a rich result manual action result in the removal of your rich results from displaying in Google Search but also it can lead to a wider “broader spam manual action that involves ranking.”
Just for some history, in 2015 John Mueller of Google said a rich results manual action would only lead to a site’s rich results being illegible (removed) from displaying in Google Search. He said it would not result in a site having a ranking decline because of a rich result manual action.
So this is a bit of a change in what the messaging is around this, or is it?
In 2015 John said “Rich snippet themselves don’t give you ranking boosts. So it would’t kind of make sense to demote a site in rankings if they are doing something wrong with rich snippets. So essentially we just turn off the rich snippets until we are sure that we can trust them.”
And here is what Danny Sullivan said a few days ago on Twitter, “It’s possible that a manual action involving structured data might simply remove eligibility to have that appear. But it is possible it could be seen as a broader spam manual action that involves ranking.”
It’s possible that a manual action involving structured data might simply remove eligibility to have that appear. But it is possible it could be seen as a broader spam manual action that involves ranking.
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) November 16, 2022
Danny then added “In general, it’s probably useful to have a reset here. We don’t say that structured data is a ranking factor, because it’s designed primarily for rich snippets — really a display thing, if content is deemed eligible for it to be supported. In contrast, we have a variety of *policies and* that can potentially involve ranking if violated. The help page is talking about those *policies* in the discussion about ranking.”
In contrast, we have a variety of *policies and* that can potentially involve ranking if violated. The help page is talking about those *policies* in the discussion about ranking.
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) November 16, 2022
So maybe it is not the rich results manual action causing the ranking decline but since the site did get a rich results manual action, then maybe it also got flagged for other policy violations resulting in a ranking decline?
Here is more of the context around this conversion:
They just clarified this https://t.co/tiBuhLSRfQ
— Lily Ray 😏 (@lilyraynyc) November 15, 2022
I read it as – if your site violates their general content guidelines, your rankings may go down *and/or your ability to get rich results*
— Lily Ray 😏 (@lilyraynyc) November 15, 2022
Content that violates our content policies — which includes things like spam — might not rank as well. Those policies (as linked to on that page) is here:https://t.co/kZ5G908N4W
If you violate structured data guidelines, typically you’re not eligible for rich results…
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) November 15, 2022
If structured data is considered to be spammy on a page (not the content that’s visible to users, just the structured data), will that impact the rankings for that page?
— Brodie Clark (@brodieseo) November 16, 2022
It’s possible that a manual action involving structured data might simply remove eligibility to have that appear. But it is possible it could be seen as a broader spam manual action that involves ranking.
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) November 16, 2022
In contrast, we have a variety of *policies and* that can potentially involve ranking if violated. The help page is talking about those *policies* in the discussion about ranking.
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) November 16, 2022
Forum discussion at Twitter.
Update: More from Danny Sullivan of Google on this that pretty much validates what I thought above:
But if you’ve been spammy there, maybe you’ve been spammy elsewhere which could produce — as our docs explain — automatically ranking issues or manual action.
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) November 18, 2022
I mean it’s “More on why Google structured data manual actions that lead to a loss of eligibility for rich results could mean you’re separately doing things against its spam policies that might produce ranking changes.”
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) November 18, 2022
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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