SEARCHENGINES
Google April 2023 Reviews Update Completed On April 25
The Google April 2023 reviews update finished rolling out yesterday afternoon on April 25, 2023. It took 13 days and two hours to roll out this expanded reviews update, which goes beyond products, that initially kicked off on April 12, 2023.
As a reminder, the reviews update dropped “products” from the name because it now has expanded the product reviews update also to impact content reviews around products, services, destinations, games, movies, or other topics.
Google April 2023 Reviews Update Quick Facts
Here are the most important things that we know right now in short form:
- Name: Google April 2023 Reviews Update
- Launched: April 12, 2023 at around 12 pm ET
- Rollout: 13 days – completed on April 25, 2023 at around 2:30 pm ET
- Targets: It looks at all review content, including products, services, destinations, games, movies, or other topics
- Penalty: It is not a penalty, it promotes or rewards “insightful analysis and original research.”
- Not a core update: Many are going to say this is a core update, it is not.
- Several languages: English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Polish.
- Impact: Google would not tell me what percentage of queries or searches were impacted by this update.
- Discover: This update can impact your performance in Google Discover, Google previously said.
- Recover: If you were hit by this, then you will need to look at your content and see if you can do better with Google’s advice below
- Refreshes: Google will do periodic refreshes to this algorithm but may not communicate those updates in the future. This may be the first refresh that Google has done, it is the first refresh Google communicated about.
Impact: Slow Start But Big Ending
The April 2023 reviews update started off slow, but early into week two of the roll out we saw some big changes. In fact, this past weekend, through yesterday, this update heated up even more.
This update was super strong and even widespread at the tail end of the update, which is not always the case for these types of updates.
Google Tracking Tools
Here is what these tools showed over the weekend over the past couple of weeks. As I said, the biggest volatility in terms of what these tools showed, which correlated with what I saw from the SEO industry chatter, was over the last week of the rollout.
Previous product Reviews Updates:
Google’s Review Update Advice
Google has revised its advice on how to write review content that Google Search rewards. You can review that advice over here. “Publishing high quality reviews can help people learn more about things they are considering, such as products, services, destinations, games, movies or other topics,” Google wrote. Here is Google’s best practices on this topic now:
- Evaluate from a user’s perspective.
- Demonstrate that you are knowledgeable about what you are reviewing—show you are an expert.
- Provide evidence such as visuals, audio, or other links of your own experience with what you are reviewing, to support your expertise and reinforce the authenticity of your review.
- Share quantitative measurements about how something measures up in various categories of performance.
- Explain what sets something apart from its competitors.
- Cover comparable things to consider, or explain which might be best for certain uses or circumstances.
- Discuss the benefits and drawbacks of something, based on your own original research.
- Describe how a product has evolved from previous models or releases to provide improvements, address issues, or otherwise help users in making a purchase decision.
- Focus on the most important decision-making factors, based on your experience or expertise (for example, a car review might determine that fuel economy and safety are key decision-making factors and rate performance in those areas).
- Describe key choices in how a product has been designed and their effect on the users beyond what the manufacturer says.
- Include links to other useful resources (your own or from other sites) to help a reader make a decision.
- Consider including links to multiple sellers to give the reader the option to purchase from their merchant of choice.
- When recommending something as the best overall or the best for a certain purpose, include why you consider it the best, with first-hand supporting evidence.
- Ensure there is enough useful content in your ranked lists for them to stand on their own, even if you choose to write separate in-depth single reviews.
Forum discussion at Twitter and WebmasterWorld.
SEARCHENGINES
Google Volatility With Gains & Losses, Updated Web Spam Policies, Cache Gone & More Search News
Google Search rankings gains were lost for many, followed more more volatility this week. Google updated its web search spam policies, with a focus on site reputation abuse. Google’s cache operator is now fully dead. Google’s site command for image search seems broken. Google fixed a Search Console reporting bug with product snippets. Google Maps has this fake reviews notice on business profiles. There may have been a spike in reviewed removed by Google on September 17th. Also small changes to your business listing may now trigger re-verification on Google Business Profiles. Google merchant listings now added priceType and sale pricing examples. Google spoke about image SEO and the importance of the embedded page. Google is testing new shopping/product cards on the search results. Google is testing “from small businesses” carousel. Google is testing “states in the news” and “backstory” sections for top stutters. Google product detail grids is testing most popular and best price labels. Google is testing for you labels and preferred source labels. Google Ads has a ten sitelinks but it is a bug. We had a poll on if you are using traditional search less now with AI products out. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.
SPONSOR: This week’s video recap is sponsored by Duda, the Professional Website Builder You Can Call Your Own.
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Search Topics of Discussion:
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SEARCHENGINES
Google’s 26th Birthday Doodle Is Missing
Today is the day Google would be celebrating its birthday or anniversary – September 27th. As Google posted last year, On September 27, 1998, Google Inc. was officially born.
But if you go to Google.com, there is no Doodle on the home page to celebrate. Google generally, but not always, has a special birthday Doodle, unless there is another event they want to commemorate on September 27th.
Instead, all you see is the classic Google logo on the Google home page:
Last year, Google had their 25th birthday Doodle that went through all the old Google logos over the years:
They went all out for their 25th birthday, a lot of events, parties, and celebrations.
Maybe this year, with all the legal issues and troubles, Google is not in the mood to celebrate. Maybe with all the new AI competition, they are feeling sluggish? Maybe with all the search ranking wonkiness, they are feeling tired? I am not sure.
I did email Google’s press team to get a statement and if I hear back, I’ll add it here.
Here are the past Doodles on this date:
Just note, in the old days, Google couldn’t decide on when it was its birthday. Google celebrated the birthday on September 7th, September 8th, September 26th, even on September 4th, but in the most recent years, Google has been consistent with September 27th.
Happy 26th birthday Google – I guess?
Forum discussion at X.
SEARCHENGINES
Daily Search Forum Recap: September 27, 2024
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Google’s 26th birthday is today but there is no celebration or Doodle. Google may have removed a ton of reviews this month. If you update your Google Business Profile, it may trigger a re-verification request. Google local panels are testing “about this place.” Bing short videos show more details. Google is asking searchers if they want to see content suggested in their language. Plus, I posted the weekly SEO video recap.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
-
Today Is Google’s 26th Birthday – Where Is The Doodle?
Today is the day Google would be celebrating its birthday or anniversary – September 27th. As Google posted last year, On September 27, 1998, Google Inc. was officially born. -
Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Volatility With Gains & Losses, Updated Web Spam Policies, Cache Gone & More Search News
Google Search rankings gains were lost for many, followed more more volatility this week. Google updated its web search spam policies, with a focus on site reputation abuse. Google’s cache operator is now fully dead… -
Report: Small Google Business Profile Updates May Trigger Re-Verification
Krystal Taing, a Google local product expert in the Google Business Profiles forum and Vice President at Uberall, said she is seeing a rise in re-verifications from Google Business Profiles even after just making small changes or additions to your Google Business Profile. -
Spike In Removed Google Reviews On September 17th
Google seemed to have removed/deleted a ton of reviews from Google Business Profiles within Google Maps and Local search last week, around September 17th. This came a day or so before Google updated its Google Business Profiles review restrictions policy. -
Bing Short Videos Now With Details
Microsoft is testing adding more details to the short video carousel it shows in Bing Search. Now it is showing video length, descriptions, a swipe to see more and other changes. -
Google Search Content Suggestions In Specific Languages Toggle
Google has this setting some searchers can manage that lets them turn on or off seeing content in a language that is popular in their region. The searcher can either leave the content language suggestion on or turn it off. -
Google Local Panel Adds “About This Place” Section
Google is testing adding a new section named “About this place” to the local panel in the Google Business Profile listings within Google Search and Google Maps. This section shows you text and image reviews of this place in a stacked card format. -
Old Google Basement Robot (Ann Arbor HQ)
Here is a super old photo that was posted to Instagram from the old Google Ann Arbor offices. This was in the basement. Some Googler named David got dressed up as a robot.
Other Great Search Threads:
- Bing is really cool that if you accidently add a keyword as broad, not only does it blow you up in the search campaigns + it compounds that wasted spend on the Audience network., Greg on X
- Google at risk for 10% of global revenue fines ($30B) for Digital Markets Act non-compliance in Travel (hotels, flights) in Europe. European Commission likely to find Google not in compliance in forthcoming report, Greg Sterling on X
- Google Web Spam Policy : buying links = bad. AI overviews: buying links can be worth it if done correctly, Harpreet on X
- Heads-up, not sure if this is related to the spam policy documentation update yesterday (and possible manual actions coming), or if it’s tied to the algorithmic tremors we have seen since the August core update completed, but Forbes, Glenn Gabe on X
- I thought we might have a chance to rank with this new update… Two weeks later, our hope is gone. But I’m sure the pages outranking HouseFresh are great, right? You tell me: The page ranking on position 2 is a paid partnership, Danny Ashton on X
- Welcome, AlphaChip! Today, we are sharing some exciting updates on our work published in @Nature in 2021 on using reinforcement learning for ASIC chip floorplanning and layout. We’re also naming this work AlphaChip. Since w, Jeff Dean on X
Search Engine Land Stories:
Other Great Search Stories:
Industry & Business
Links & Content Marketing
Local & Maps
Mobile & Voice
SEO
PPC
Search Features
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