Google’s Product Review Update: What You Need to Know
It is no secret that Google is constantly updating its platform, keeping us all very busy and focused. Google’s most recent update is the ‘December 2021 Product Review Update (PRU)’, which has caused changes in rankings.
On the 2nd of December, a tweet from Google Search Central announced:
“Our December 2021 product reviews update is now rolling out for English-language pages. It will take about three weeks to complete.”
In a recent blog by Google Search Central related to the product reviews update, they stated that:
“Over time we have received more feedback from users on what type of review content is deemed trustworthy and useful, motivating us to provide additional product review guidance.”
“Users have told us that they trust reviews with evidence of products actually being tested and prefer to have more options to purchase the product.”
Due to this, Google has introduced new best practices for product reviews to take effect. So, what does this update mean for your business? Here is what you need to know:
- When reviewing, provide evidence such as visuals, audio, or other links of your own experience with the product, to support your expertise and reinforce the authenticity of your review.
- Product reviews should contain links to multiple sellers, allowing customers to make a purchase from a retailer of their choice
- Pages with in-depth and comprehensive reviews of products will be rewarded.
- Affiliate sites with a low amount of reviews will be considered less valuable
These best practices, combined with the best practices announced by Google back in April 2021, have been merged into a single document found here: Write high-quality product reviews.
It’s important to note that Google does not call these best practices ‘ranking factors’, however, these practices will be folded into future product review algorithm updates, thus potentially becoming important ranking factors in the future.
At WebEagles, we aim to stay up to date with all Google updates and implement these best practices within our work. For more information regarding Google’s latest updates, contact us on 1300 123 808, and one of our digital marketing experts will be able to answer any questions.