SEARCHENGINES
Google Search Ranking Volatility Exploding Today

So it’s been well over a week of incredible volatility within the Google search results. Pages have been bouncing all over the place, rankings are jumping and then last night and today we are seeing even hotter temperatures from the Google tracking tools and more chatter from within the SEO industry. Everyone is asking, where is the confirmed Google Search ranking algorithm update from Google…
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any hotter or any more volatile, it did.
As a reminder, on Monday we reported about ongoing heated volatility with Google Search. We also reported on an update on June 14th, one around June 14th and ongoing, then June 6th then around May 22/23rd, then around May 17t, then on May 10th and the other around early May.
It has been a wild time for unconfirmed updates but the last confirmed update was the April 2023 reviews update.
Google Tracking Tools
The tools have been heated for weeks, but look at how some have spiked today.
SEO Chatter
The chatter also picked up on the past 24-hours, especially more in the black hat space but also in the white what space of SEO. Here are some quotes from WebmasterWorld, Black Hat World and the comments on this site.
It’s happening again today
Why don’t they get done with it. One day you have 100 visitors, the next day it drops to 30. The following day it spikes to 200. This is hell.
Mine is down too, wondering what’s going on. Google knows how to spoil everything in a minute.
Big drop today coinciding with Semrush sensor spike.
I was just checking and my June USA traffic is 72% of its long-term average plus for my top 10 most visited countries only 4 are from the “West” whereas my long-term data shows 6 from the “West”.
The gap between clicks and impressions keeps growing…more than three months now with declining clicks. Impressions have also dropped recently, but not nearly as much.
Same here too. Not a positive sign, in fact getting worse!
🧐🧐 I noticed many of my keywords highly fluctuated and ranking and traffic dropped.
Is there another G – unconfirmed ranking update? @rustybrick pic.twitter.com/0jRyOAKQsY
— Khushal Bherwani (@b4k_khushal) June 23, 2023
looks like something might be going on, Maybe #Glastonbury23 might be shaking things up I’m going to call it the #GlastonburyUpdate 😂🤣 what do you think @rustybrick @JohnMu pic.twitter.com/U9TPjgH17l
— Paul (@_PaulLovell) June 23, 2023
E.g. 2 of the sites provide reviews/recommendations content, & the third is an e-comm retailer that could rank for similar queries. Notice the drop w/the 5/11 update & recovery w/early June volatility (~6/5). Big drops for each site. Are we nearing a big update? Stay tuned: pic.twitter.com/V8uJfiGTcy
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) June 23, 2023
Something has been cooking for a while and now someone just cranked up the heat even more.
What are you all noticing?
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Black Hat World.
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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