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Google November 2023 Reviews Update Rolling Out

Published

10 months ago

November 10, 2023

As expected, the Google November 2023 reviews update has started to roll out this week. It started on November 8, 2023 at about 12 pm ET. This will be the last time Google confirms a reviews update because it is now more of a regular update, compared to past reviews updates.

Google posted about the update on its search status dashboard saying, “Released the November 2023 reviews update. Learn more about how to write high quality reviews. Going forward, as the reviews system is now being improved at a regular and ongoing pace, we will no longer be posting about future updates on the status dashboard.”

Here is the tweet:

the November 2023 reviews update is also rolling out now (as per my last email: https://t.co/xny94FOVvn)

we’ll update the ranking release history page when the rollout is finished: https://t.co/hgjEkfpbA2

— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) November 8, 2023

Google told us last week that this specific update will “mark a point when we’ll no longer be giving periodic notifications of improvements to our reviews system, because they will be happening at a regular and ongoing pace.”

As a reminder, the last reviews update was a big one in that it no longer just impacted product reviews but also impacted products, services, and things in more general.

Google April 2023 Reviews Update Quick Facts

Here are the most important things that we know right now in short form:

Name: Google November 2023 Reviews Update

Launched: November 8, 2023 at around 12 pm ET

Rollout: It will take about one to two weeks to roll out

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 said this update is now regular and they won’t confirm future refreshes or updates.

Documentation Updates

Google also tweaked some of its reviews system documentation page for this update. The changes include:

Adding: “The reviews system is improved at a regular and ongoing pace.”

Removed the words “and updates to it” from this line, “What does this system and updates to it mean for my site?”

Removed this line: “Periodically, we improve how the reviews system works. When we do this in a notable way, we share this as a “reviews update” on our Google Search Status Dashboard.”

Updating this line: “Content impacted by the reviews system may recover over time, if you’ve made improvements to your content. However, note that our automated assessment of review content is only one of many factors used in ranking content, so changes can happen at any time for various reasons.”

Other Updates

As you know, Google is currently rolling out the November 2023 core update which will take about two weeks to roll out and overlap with this update. That core update is super volatile and heated, so good luck figuring out which update hit you. Of course, the November core update hit hard already, but it was still pretty heated through yesterday.

It will be hard to know if the ongoing heated core update is shaking things up for your site or if it is the reviews update.

My gut feeling is we have not yet seen the impact of the reviews update, not by the time I published this. I believe it has all been core update volatility up until this point. But I can easily be wrong.

Google Tracking Tools On The November 2023 Reviews Update

Let’s take a look at just how heated and volatile the Google Search tracking tools are:

Semrush:

SERPmetrics:

Advanced Web Rankings:

Previous product Reviews Updates:

November 8, 2023 – November 2023 Reviews Update, is still rolling out

April 15, 2023 – April 2023 Reviews Update and finished 13 days later on April 25, 2023

February 21, 2023 – February 2023 Product Reviews Update and finished two weeks later on March 7 2023.

Septmeber 20, 2022 -
September 2022 Google Product Reviews Update and completed September 26th.

July 27, 2022 – July 2022 Google Product Reviews Update and ended on August 2nd

March 23, 2022 – March 2022 Google Product Reviews Update and ended on April 11th.

December 1, 2021 – December 2021 Google Product Reviews Update and ended on December 21st

April 8, 2021 – April 2021 Product Reviews Update and ended on April 22nd.

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 X and WebmasterWorld and Black Hat World.

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Related Topics:#rolling Google November Reviews searchengine update

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Google Ranking Volatility, Apple Intelligence, Navboost, Ads, Bing & Local

Published

9 hours ago

September 15, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

Google Ranking Volatility, Apple Intelligence, Navboost, Ads, Bing & Local

For the original iTunes version, click here.

Well over a week after the Google August 2024 core update finished, we still have a ton of volatility. Apple Visual Intelligence was demoed at the Apple event this week, it is neat. I covered a bunch of statements on Navboost over the years from Googlers and others. Google replaced the cache link with a link to the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. Google added a spam warning to the Indexing API documentation. A new report shows that about half of the links in the AI Overviews are from the top traditional search results. Google is showing AI Overviews for commercial shopping queries again. Google is testing a new interface for AI Overviews. Google said Exif data is not used for rankings. Google Search now supports a new ineligible region property. Bing may use ProductGroup markup in the future. Bing also treats 308 redirects like 301 redirects. Google Ads is sunsetting eCPC in March 2025. Google Ads is testing a new ad label design. Google Ads introduced confidential matching for privacy reasons. Google is emailing LSA advertisers about verification requirements. There has been an increase in complaints from advertisers about fraud in the Google Ads Search Partner Network. Google Business Profiles emails about broken appointment links. Google Maps shows business photos in reviews. Bing is testing Facebook and Yelp icons in the reviews in the local pack. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

Sponsored by Similarweb, the all-in-one- strategic SEO software. Get clarity of the SEO landscape through competitor analysis, keyword research, rank tracking, SERP insights and more. With industry-leading traffic and keyword data, based on real user journeys, Similarweb gives SEO professionals the whole picture so they can strategize smartly and drive sustainable business growth.

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Daily Search Forum Recap: September 13, 2024

Published

1 day ago

September 14, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

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 Ads is launching confidential matching, a new privacy-centric ad feature. Google is testing a new AI Overview interface. Advertisers are complaining about fraud on the Search partner network. Google is testing for reference boxes in search. Google is testing search results without breadcrumbs. Plus, I posted my weekly SEO video recap.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Ranking Volatility, Apple Intelligence, Navboost, Ads, Bing & Local

Well over a week after the Google August 2024 core update finished, we still have a ton of volatility. Apple Visual Intelligence was demoed at the Apple event this week…

Google Ads Introduces Confidential Matching

Google Ads announced what it calls “confidential matching.” Confidential matching is a “way to securely connect your first-party data for our measurement and audience solutions,” Google said. And it will be used on Google Ads in numerous areas.

Google Tests AI Overview With Small “More” Link

Google is testing removing the large “show more” button and replacing it with a small “more” link at the bottom of the AI Overview snippet. Also, the AI Overview header and Gemini logo at the top left is being removed, or at least being tested being removed.

Complaints On Google Ads Search Partners Network Fraud

I am seeing a spike in complaints from the PPC community around there being an increase in fraudulent traffic from the Google Ads Search Partner network. Many have seen an unusual spike in fraud from that network in the past week, say some advertisers.

Google Testing For Reference Search Box

Google is testing a new search box named “for reference” which is placed under a set of search results and contains more news articles related to the query. This seems similar to some other features Google has tested over the years.

Google Tests Search Result Snippets Without Breadcrumbs

Google is testing showing search results snippets without the breadcrumbs in the URL section of the snippet. Google has tested removing URLs and breadcrumbs completely before, but now Google is testing removing just the breadcrumb and leaving the URL.

Hummus Party At Google Dublin

Here is some sort of event where there are a bunch of Googlers eating hummus, and other dips, with pita bread, at the Google office in Dublin, Ireland.

Other Great Search Threads:

Local Pack in Desktop Search Results – Google is now testing showing close up of business location on the map as main image. PS – Quote tweet is also like this one but last image being the map close up and that test was in mo, Gagan Ghotra on X

Every now and then, we get questions about whether “valid HTML” is a ranking factor, or a requirement for Google Search. Jens has done regular analysis of the validity of the top websites’ homepages, and the results are sobering., John Mueller on LinkedIn

here is o1, a series of our most capable and aligned models yet: https://t.co/yzZGNN8HvD o1 is still flawed, still limited, and it still seems more impressive on first use than it does after you spend more time with it., Sam Altman on X

Local businesses that I’ve looked at have been mostly safe from all the core updates in the last year – except this last one. I’m hearing multiple reports on Facebook, Reddit, and our forum of local businesses being hit by the Augu, Joy Hawkins on X

On the one hand, I don’t make the search results, on the other hand, I use both of those sites intensively for programming-related queries, I wouldn’t blindly see one of them as being good and the other as being bad., John Mueller on LinkedIn

Set tROAS recommendation is now also increasing your daily budget if you apply the recommendation! Pay attention, Here all you need, Thomas Eccel on X

These Are The Spam Practices Going On GMB And Google Maps By Lead Gen And Local SEO Agencies in 2024 In India Also where Google takes extra steps to make sure guard Business Profile’s integrity, Ayman Ali on X

Search Engine Land Stories:

Feedback:

Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, on Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky and you can follow us on Facebook and on Google News and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.

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Daily Search Forum Recap: September 12, 2024

Published

2 days ago

September 13, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

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.

I covered some old statements from former Googlers on Navboost from Hacker News. Google replaced the cache link with links to the Wayback Machine, but they are deep inside. Google says it doesn’t use Exif data for ranking. Google updated its Indexing API docs warning not to abuse the API or else. Google has had this get definitions box for a while.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

Ex-Googler Forum Statements On Google Navboost

In my interview with Danny Sullivan, the Google Search Liaison, I tried to get more details on Navboost and how it plays a roll in core updates and general rankings. I was pretty much shot down (I am a good loser). That being said, here are some old posts from ex-Googlers (from what I can tell) on the topic of Navboost from the Hacker News forums.

Google Indexing API: Submissions Go Undergo Rigorous Spam Detection

Google has updated its Indexing API documentation to add a few things but the largest update talks about how “all submissions through the Indexing API undergo rigorous spam detection.” Plus, it says that attempts to abuse the Indexing API “may result in access being revoked.”

Google Replaced Cache Link With Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine

After Google has angered tons of SEOs and searchers over removing the cache link from the search result snippets, Google decided several months later to add links to Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. This will give you snapshots in time of what that webpage looked like, but it is not powered by Google.

Google’s Martin Splitt: We Do Not Use Exif Data For Ranking

Over the years Google has been wishy-washy on if they use or do not use Exif (Exchangeable image file format) data for rankings. In 2014, Google’s Matt Cutts said Google can parse the data and reserves the right to use it. But in 2019, Gary Illyes from Google said it was not used for rankings. Now in 2024, Martin Splitt of Google said it is not used for rankings.

Google: Get Definitions & Translations As You Search

Google is now notifying some searchers of a translation feature within the search results. It says, “Get definitions and translations as you search. Select words to get definitions & translations without leaving the page.”
Google Silence Phone Boxes

We saw the Google silence box before, but it was one box. Now here are photos of many of them, also in the Google Paris, France office.