SEARCHENGINES
Google Search Console Notices For Intrusive Interstitials

Google is sending out notices about intrusive interstitials to sites that are placing these interstitials in a possibly annoying manner on their sites. The email subject lines read “Improve your page experience by removing intrusive interstitials from domaingoeshere.”
I have yet to see a screenshot of this notice, so it is hard to say if this is a manual action or some sort of just friendly reminder from Google? I mean, I do not see intrusive interstitial on the list of manual actions yet. We do know there is an algorithmic action there with the page experience update (even for desktop pages), but Google doesn’t email via Google Search Console for algorithmic issues, they email for manual actions, not algorithms….
I spotted a thread at Google Webmaster Help with one person writing the message the received:
I have received the email whose title is “Improve your page experience by removing intrusive interstitials from mtckitchen.com”. I have a pop-up sign-up form and I wonder if there is the best way to keep the sign-up form visible to our audience but not make it an intrusive interstitial. If you have any idea, I would like to hear that! Thank you.
Also, David Iwanow shared on Twitter that he spotted one last week also:
hmm @JohnMu any guidance on the interstitial notice penalty notices in Google Search Console that some sites are seeing? I haven’t received one yet so don’t have a screenshot to share… pic.twitter.com/8Pu8HAouiI
— David Iwanow 🇺🇦 💉💉💉🇺🇦 (@davidiwanow) April 14, 2022
Google does have a detailed help document on this topic explaining that “intrusive interstitials and dialogs are page elements that obstruct users’ view of the content, usually for promotional purposes. Interstitials are overlays on the whole page and dialogs are overlays only on a part of the page, sometimes also obfuscating the underlying content.”
Google added “Intrusive dialogs and interstitials make it hard for Google and other search engines to understand your content, which may lead to poor search performance. Equally, if users find your site hard to use, they are unlikely to want to visit those websites again, including through search engines.”
So maybe it is not a manual action but a heads up from Google, hey – we are having issues understanding your content?
Anyone recently see a screenshot of this notice so we can validate this theory?
Here is a screenshot:
Here is what one of those messages from GSC looks like for intrusive interstitials. Again, NOT a manual action. It’s part of the page experience signal (which is lightweight), but you should still address. They impact the user experience. https://t.co/C65UnJ5c0M
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) April 19, 2022
Forum discussion at Twitter and Google Webmaster Help.
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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