It’s that time again! Google rolls out another Product Reviews Update. The reviews system is extremely important for users researching which product or service will best fit their needs. To better understand the Product Reviews check out one, or both, of our previous articles:
Update Alert:
September 2022: Google releases a product reviews update. This update applies to English-language product reviews. The rollout was complete as of September 26, 2022.
Additionally, in preparation of this rollout, the New Search Console Merchant Listing report was announced.
All You Need to Know About Google Product Reviews Update September 2022
The fifth product reviews update has just been released! Basically, it is an algorithm that Google has designed to prioritize content that is most helpful and useful to searchers when it comes to product reviews. We want to note that this update is not intended to penalize any product review creators. If you are writing product reviews correctly, then you should benefit from these updates.
This time around, Google released both a Product Reviews Update and a Core Update (add link to article when complete) around the same time. If you noticed a change, this may make it difficult to figure out why. Thankfully, Google states:
New Search Console Merchant Listing
The largest announcement in preparation of this Product Reviews update includes Google’s new Search Console Merchant Listing report (add link to Cyberlicious article once written). In short, eligibility criteria for websites with structured data has been broadened by the tech giant, with merchants now eligible for merchant listing experiences without the need for a Merchant Center account. All that is required is for product data to be available on their web pages.
Product Snippets, which are used for products and product reviews, allows data to be pulled directly from webpages. This information can include ratings, review information, price, and availability. All you have to do is add structured data.
What Did the Update Do?
Google isn’t the most forthright when it comes to the details of their updates. Therefore, we can’t tell you what we don’t know. We can only assume that a slight change was made to the algorithm that allows it to identify more useful product reviews. As of now, this update only applies to English-language product reviews, but will likely open to other languages in the future.
We do know that if you focus on your content creation and SEO for your product reviews, then this update should not hurt you. If you write product reviews and notice a drop in ranking, then we suggest looking at your content to make sure you are taking Google’s advice into account. If you are having trouble, reach out to the Cyberlicious® experts. We know what you need, and we can find out what your users want.