What You Need To Know About Google’s December 2021 Product Review Update
Product reviews are consumer opinions or feedback regarding goods or services. Many business websites have product review sections that allow customers to rate and review the products they have purchased. Such reviews are public, and they may influence the purchase decisions of other prospects. These reviews often use an affiliate link to products listed on a commerce site, intending to guide those finding the reviews useful towards the purchasing page. Recently, Google announced the December 2021 product review update. The algorithm update will impact product review pages and will take three weeks to complete. Here’s what you should know about Google’s product review update.
Product Review Page Ranking Assessment
In its announcement, Google indicates that the update will occur through an automated assessment specific to the product reviews webpage. It also communicated that the product review pages will be subject to similar ranking factors as those that apply to regular web pages.
The Timing
The December 2021 product review update has been a gradual process launched and commenced in April. If you have made improvements on your product reviews page, you may see changes in terms of ranking. Google conducted a spam update in early November followed by a core algorithm update during the last days of November. Many might argue that the updates are ill-timed due to the Thanksgiving and Christmas festivities which are the busiest shopping seasons. However, the updates haven’t been too disruptive. Businesses shy away from performing updates during such seasons since it could lead to unintentional loss of web rankings. But the opposite could happen. Google announced that the goal of the update was to reward sites with authentic high-quality reviews and to improve the quality and usefulness of reviews it shows to users.
New Product Review Best Practices
Based on clientele feedback, Google warned that the two new product review requirements are aimed at fishing out fake product reviews. First of all, any product review should show that the person writing it has used the product in question. That’s because many of the reviews are low-quality reviews stemming from affiliate sites that post a rewritten version of the product’s specifications and features. The second requirement is that the product reviews offer multiple purchase options. The goal is to enhance the customer experience. Google is looking to adopt these measures as part of its future product review algorithm updates. Therefore, these two best practices have a high likelihood of becoming future ranking factors for product review pages. The sooner you adopt and implement the practices for your product review pages, the better your SEO position.
Promoting Quality Product Reviews
With user feedback in mind, Google provided guidelines on how to review products through a new document titled writing high-quality reviews. Let’s explore some recommendations you should follow to abide by Google’s guidelines:
- The product under review should be from a user’s perspective or point of view.
- The reviews should demonstrate that you are knowledgeable about the products under review. It’s imperative to show that you are an expert in your niche.
- The product reviews should incorporate audio, videos, or other links which give evidence of the specific experiences reviewers have had with the product. That helps to support your expertise and the review’s authenticity.
- Share and provide quantitative evidence on how the products measure up in various performance categories.
- Provide evidence for the unique features of the products and how these features set them apart from other products they compete with.
- Offer coverage for other comparable products potential clients can consider or provide explanations about which product might be best for certain circumstances or uses.
- Provide reviews that discuss the benefits and drawbacks of a particular product based on original research conducted on the product.
- It also helps to have a comprehensive description of how products have evolved from previous releases. That addresses any issues and influences consumers’ final purchase decisions.
- Reviews should identify key decision-making factors for the products category and how the product performs in those areas. For instance, a review on a car could provide information on safety, handling, fuel economy, and energy efficiency, which are vital decision-making factors before purchasing a vehicle.
- Have reviews that incorporate descriptions of a product’s design and its effect on the user beyond what the manufacturer says.
- Product reviews should include inbound or outbound links to other resources to help the reader make an informed decision.
- Quality product reviews also include outbound links to multiple sellers to give the reader options to purchase from a seller of their own choice.
To Sum It Up
With product review algorithm updates taking force, it’s time that you align your website and product reviews page with the above requirements. It can be a daunting endeavor to embark on the process yourself, but that shouldn’t worry you. You can contact the website specialists like those at Virtual Surge. Let us manage your reviews and align them with Google’s update requirements while you focus on what you do best-run your business!
