SEARCHENGINES
Reviews Update, Core Local Update, Page Experience, Magi, Sitenames & More

While last month’s Google webmaster report was filled with the Google March core update, the product reviews update, Bard, AI, sitenames and more; this month was just as packed. We had the reviews update, a local look at the core update, big updates to the Google ranking system’s document, a new search engine for Google code-named Magi, and so much more.
Google renamed the product reviews update to the reviews update which kicked off in April but heated up in week two before completing on day 13 of the rollout. We also looked at how the March core update impacted the local search results. Google removed page experience and other ranking systems from its official documentation, but Google said while page experience is not ranking system, it is a ranking signal. With that, Google also added page experience to its helpful content guidance documentation.
Google also is working on an all-new search engine code-named Magi, but before that, Google will release AI-features to the current search engine. Speaking of AI, Google made some improvements to Bard (see links below).
Google flexed the powers of SpamBrain, fixed some but not all of the issues with Site names in search, and decided to remove some video thumbnails from some search results (which has a huge impact on click-through rates). Google also may be rewriting more titles and dropped FAQ rich results on mobile search.
Google Search Console will also drop the page experience, mobile usability and mobile-friendly test in the coming months. But Search Console added shipping and return reporting and a new reader revenue manager for publishers.
Plus so much more including new deadlines for the GA 4 switch over.
Here are the top headlines for the past month:
Google Algorithm:
Google Bard & AI:
Google SEO:
Google Search Console:
Google User Interface:
Google Business Profiles & Local:
Google Analytics:
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
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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