Updates are a constant, they keep happening every now and then. Google is the kind of updates. You can regularly see Google updates in news. Just last week news floated all over the internet about an unconfirmed Google algorithm update. And now Google has confirmed the algorithm update. However Google has informed that this update is not a ‘core update’. It is a search algorithm update named as the product review algorithm update.
This update is designed to reward product reviews that ‘share in-depth research rather than thin content that simply summarizes a bunch of products’. Reviews that are written in a way that has ‘insightful analysis and original research’. Especially content that is written by the experts who know the topic very well.
Google product review update
We all look for reviews before buying a particular product. Sometimes they are very helpful but sometimes they are too shallow. Hence the goal of this Google product review update is to promote review content that is beyond the regular reviews that you see on the internet. Google has also said that these types of product reviews will be promoted in its search results rankings.
It’s not that Google is punishing those websites that has such product reviews that have ‘thin content and that summarizes a bunch of products’. However, if you provide such thin content as product reviews then you may see a dip in your site’s Google ranking. Because Google will prefer the site having an in-depth analysis as product review. So, surely it will feel like a punishment. But this is not a penalty or punishment to your website.
It is basically a reward to websites having great quality and in depth product reviews which will put the ranking of that website above yours. It is expected that this product review update will only affect product review content and not the other type of content.
✤ This is not a core update
Google has clarified that this product review update is not a core update. This is a single update which they are calling a product review update. This is different from the core updates. A core update is a noteworthy change Google makes to its ranking algorithm that impacts a huge number of indexed web pages. They are not that frequent as minor updates like this one. They occur once every two to three months. It has been observed that website that ranks usually high for their keywords may see fall in rank after the core update.
✤ Focus of product review update
John Muller of Google has informed in a video that “The product reviews update was focused more on affiliate-like content and not e-commerce sites with customer reviews for products.” So basically what he meant is that this update is not for those reviews that you and I post on e-commerce website for the jeans that we purchased or the sneakers that you bought. But it will impact those affiliates who reviews a product in detail on a page (not on e-commerce site page).
What are affiliates? Affiliate are part of affiliate marketing. It means that these people review products of other companies and put a link to that product in their review. And when someone buy that product using that affiliate’s link the company will pay a certain amount as commission to that affiliate. It is a collaboration between a business and a marketing agent.
An online study has found that 93% of people said that online product reviews have an impact on decisions. And 63% would pay up to 15% more if the reviews are good. John also stated that right now this is a separate algorithm. And maybe over time it can be seen integrated into the overall algorithm. The focus in this update is on those product reviews that provide quality, insightful and original analysis of a product written by experts or people who know the topic very well.
This update is live now but for English language reviews worldwide.
To sum up
This product review algorithm update is really important. The reason is because if this is your work then you make sure that your reviews contain in-depth analysis of that particular product you are reviewing. There should be some quality in your reviews it should not be thin and shallow. You need to make sure that your product review is authentic and genuine from others out there.
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