SEARCHENGINES
Google Search Date Filter Does Not Show Your Old Search Rankings

Google’s John Mueller confirmed an unusual SEO myth that said that the date filter in the Google Search tools will show you how pages ranked in the search results during that date range. John confirmed this is not true, all it does is filter search results that were published around that date range.
The date filter tool in Google Search is not some sort of time machine to back track and see how well a site ranked for a query in the past.
Chris Silver Smith asked the question after having some sort of argument with an SEO who believed this to be true. He said on Twitter “I’ve had a preposterous argument with a so-called SEO “expert” who insists that the Date Range search tool shows historic rankings of content, and not just content published within the specified range. Could you confirm it doesn’t represent historic rankings?”
Here is that tweet:
Hey, @JohnMu – I’ve had a preposterous argument with a so-called SEO “expert” who insists that the Date Range search tool shows historic rankings of content, and not just content published within the specified range. Could you confirm it doesn’t represent historic rankings? pic.twitter.com/cuCtWkmlXf
— Chris Silver Smith (@si1very) March 30, 2022
John replied that Chris is correct, that it does not show how the rankings were in Google during that date range:
You’re correct – it’s just a filter for the recognized date on a page (which is sometimes hard to get right). The advanced search page ( https://t.co/NH05DOHtiw ) uses the wording “narrow your results by…” for this.
— 🦝 John (personal) 🦝 (@JohnMu) March 30, 2022
Let, Danny Sullivan also said the same response – saying “it does not.”
It does not.
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) March 31, 2022
The funny things we sometimes make up and I guess I can understand why someone would think this, but I never imagined this before – so I am glad we have Twitter.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
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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