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Google Releases The February 2023 Product Reviews Update With Language Support

Published

1 year ago

February 22, 2023

Google, at about 5pm ET last night on February 21, 2023, has unleashed the sixth product reviews update. This is named the February 2023 product reviews update and it expands to several more languages in addition to just English.

Like most other updates, Google says this will take about two weeks to rollout.

The languages now supported include English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, and Polish.

Google wrote on Twitter, “Today we released the February 2023 product reviews update, which applies to these languages globally: English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Polish. It’ll take ~2 weeks to fully roll out.”

Google linked to this product reviews update page which was updated to say it covers more than English and some other changes to the document.

The new content is on the left and the old content is on the right (click to enlarge):

Google Product Reviews Update Quick Facts

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

Name: Google February 2023 Product Reviews Update

Launched: February 21, 2023 at around 5pm ET

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

Targets: It looks at product review content

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.

Did We See Signs Of This Coming

We have seen a lot of unconfirmed Google search ranking updates in the past several weeks, many that seemed to have impacted product reviews sites throughout these tremors.

Glenn Gabe thinks maybe this was the case…

Huge heads-up! And this makes sense given all of the crazy volatility we’ve seen since 1/26 FOR PRODUCT REVIEW SITES. Stay tuned. https://t.co/vfSqGwgSEY
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) February 21, 2023

Here are those updates we covered:

Another Unconfirmed Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update Around February 14th, February 15, 2023

February 8th/9th Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update (Unconfirmed), February 10, 2023

Unconfirmed Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update On February 4th, February 6, 2023

Unconfirmed Google Update Impacting Product Reviews Sites On Thursday, January 26th?, January 30, 2023

Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update On Wednesday?, January 19, 2023

Weekend Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update – Saturday, January 14, January 16, 2023

It was super volatile the days and weeks leading up to this confirmed Google update.

What We’re Seeing Now

I believe we are seeing some early signs of this update, early signs. I am seeing some super limited chatter right now at WebmasterWorld and some other chatter here and in other areas. Here is some of that chatter, I might update it throughout the day or do a new story when the chatter picks up more:

Still seeing low USA traffic here, although most of the rest of the world is higher today. USA traffic is -21% from an average Tuesday so far at 6:30pm. Traffic dropped off a cliff at 2pm and stayed down. Most likely an overabundance of ads in the US market, but I have noticed that my traffic is mostly down on days when the stock market takes a steep dive.

Very low traffic this morning after one of our best weekends in ages.
Google Discover seems to be like a tap that’s either fully on or completely off.

Fluctuation has started again for a few hours…

Today I am seeing unusual traffic, out of my range, other countries or areas where I do not ship my products.
It is normal to have some information queries, today it is not normal, because it has multiplied x10.

The product review searches I’m seeing produce results that are mostly ads. Not sure how/why Google justifies rolling out these product review updates when Google’s intent is to force users to click ads. My guess is the jobs of those working on these updates will soon be on the same chopping block Google used to chop us out of the economy.
From where it stands now, and before, if you’re Amazon you’re golden. If your product reviews lead to Amazon with an affiliate link, you are golden as well. If you’re an American based business trying to get your products in front of American shoppers then you either must pay big bucks to be above Amazon’s ads and organic listings or sell on Amazon yourself. For a company like Google that publicly preaches about diversity, their search results have never been more Amazon biased.

It’s very early on, but I’m seeing signs of volatility already across product review sites. I’ll share examples as more data comes in. Also, we have seen insane volatility since 1/26 ACROSS PRODUCT REVIEW SITES, so totally makes sense we now have a PRU rolling out. Stay tuned. 🙂 https://t.co/vKnwf457qn
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) February 22, 2023

The tracking tools are pretty calm but many still need to update today, so again, I might update this story later on today or do a new post when things heat up more.

Like Semrush is starting to climb now:

Maybe also Accuranker:

And also Mozcast:

RankRanger just at around 7am ET started to show heat:

And Cognitive SEO now:

But as you can see, the previous weeks and days were super volatile – as I covered in the section above.

Previous Product Review Updates

Here are the dates for the previous Product Reviews Updates:

Google Product Review Update Advice

Here is the original advice but Google has posted this in a newish help document with the new advice from December 2022, this does not include the specific new points listed above:

Express expert knowledge about products where appropriate?

Show what the product is like physically, or how it is used, with unique content beyond what’s provided by the manufacturer?

Provide quantitative measurements about how a product measures up in various categories of performance?

Explain what sets a product apart from its competitors?

Cover comparable products to consider, or explain which products might be best for certain uses or circumstances?

Discuss the benefits and drawbacks of a particular product, based on research into it?

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?

Identify key decision-making factors for the product’s category and how the product performs in those areas? For example, a car review might determine that fuel economy, safety, and handling 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?

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.

Include links to multiple sellers to give the reader the option to purchase from their merchant of choice.

Here is the updated advice from the March update:
(1) Are product review updates relevant to ranked lists and comparison reviews? Yes. Product review updates apply to all forms of review content. The best practices Google shared also apply. However, due to the shorter nature of ranked lists, you may want to demonstrate expertise and reinforce authenticity in a more concise way. Citing pertinent results and including original images from tests you performed with the product can be good ways to do this.

(2) Are there any recommendations for reviews recommending “best” products? If you recommend a product as the best overall or the best for a certain purpose, be sure to share with the reader why you consider that product the best. What sets the product apart from others in the market? Why is the product particularly suited for its recommended purpose? Be sure to include supporting first-hand evidence.

(3) If I create a review that covers multiple products, should I still create reviews for the products individually? It can be effective to write a high quality ranked list of related products in combination with in-depth single-product reviews for each recommended product. If you write both, make sure there is enough useful content in the ranked list for it to stand on its own.

Google also posted this graphic showing that product review lists can be impacted by this as well:

Google also listed these four points about the criteria Google uses for product reviews:

Include helpful in-depth details, like the benefits or drawbacks of a certain item, specifics on how a product performs or how the product differs from previous versions

Come from people who have actually used the products, and show what the product is physically like or how it’s used

Include unique information beyond what the manufacturer provides — like visuals, audio or links to other content detailing the reviewer’s experience

Cover comparable products, or explain what sets a product apart from its competitors

I have written about every tiny detail of these product reviews update, just do a search on this site for more.

Forum discussion at Twitter, Black Hat World and WebmasterWorld.

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Google Core Update Volatility, Helpful Content Update Gone, Dangerous Google Search Results & Google Ads Confusion

Published

22 hours ago

April 14, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

Google Core Update Volatility, Helpful Content Update Gone, Dangerous Google Search Results & Google Ads Confusion

For the original iTunes version, click here.

This week, we covered that the Google March 2024 core update is still rolling out 38 days later, but we saw more volatility this week. Just a reminder that the Google helpful content update no longer exists. Gary Illyes from Google again says core update and indexing are independent. Google responded to complaints about dangerous and harmful search results. Google says ranking well in other verticals like shopping, images and others, does not negatively impact your web rankings. Google updated its structured data carousels beta documentation. Google says don’t disallow your internal footer links. Google says there are minimal differences between using a 404 and 410 status code. Google is testing short videos in the search bar. Google is not removing the site command. Bing is testing removing the cache link and the estimated number of search results. Google SGE is testing AI overview tabs. Bing is testing sources across the web AI. Google image search now has pixel-level object segmentation. Google Ad strength is not used in the auction, Google says. Google is testing sticky sponsored labels. Google Ads is also testing people also considered labels in the search ads. Google Ads tests “get phone number” buttons instead of the “call” button. Google released its Merchant Center product data specifications for 2024. Google Maps has a new flow for suggest an edit. 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.

Make sure to subscribe to our video feed or subscribe directly on iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or your favorite podcast player to be notified of these updates and download the video in the background. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:

Search Topics of Discussion:

Please do subscribe on YouTube or subscribe via iTunes or on your favorite RSS reader. Don’t forget to comment below with the right answer and good luck!

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Daily Search Forum Recap: April 12, 2024

Published

2 days ago

April 12, 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 says indexing systems and algorithm update systems are independent and don’t impact each other. Google clarified its structured data carousel beta to add feature availability and where the markup goes. Google says ranking well in product results, images, etc does not impact how well you rank in web search. Google is testing mentioned in section within the knowledge panels. Google Maps updated its suggest an edit workflow. We have a recap of the Google Search Central Live event in Romania from Mihai. And I posted the weekly SEO video recap.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

Google: Indexing & Algorithm Updates Are Independent

Google once again said that its indexing systems are completely independent of its ranking updates, like the core update. Gary Illyes from Google said indexing, canonicalization, and those types of “systems are independent” of core updates.

Google Structured Data Carousels Beta Docs Clarifies Feature Availability & Markup Location

Google has made some changes to its new Structured data carousels (beta) documentation to list the feature availability of this carousel and also to clarify where to place the markup. Google wrote the “markup must be on the summary page, and you don’t need to add markup to the detail pages in order to be eligible for this feature.”

Google: Ranking In Shopping, Images & Other Verticals Doesn’t Hurt Your Web Rankings

John Mueller from Google said that ranking well in the Google Shopping or Google Image vertical boxes does not impact your ranking in the core web results. He said, “I can’t imagine that they’d be connected” when asked about how ranking well in the Merchant Center results can impact the web results.

Google Knowledge Panels – Mentioned People

Google is testing a “mentioned” button that shows other people mentioned in the knowledge panels in the Google Search results. We saw variations of “mentioned by” in Google Discover and Explore but now we are seeing something similar in knowledge panels.

Google Maps Suggest An Edit Flow Updated

Google has updated the Suggest an edit feature within Google Maps business listings. Google said the new flow is “easier” and should help make updates to the Google Maps data.

Recap of Google’s Search Central Live Romania 2024

Last week marked the first-ever official Google SEO-focused event in Romania ‘” Search Central Live Romania ‘” on a sunny 4th of April in Bucharest. As a Search Central Product Expert who lives in Bucharest, the event made for an exciting occasion for people from my local SEO community to listen to and interact directly with Googlers…

Google Bowling Alley Is Still There

Google has had its very own bowling alley at the GooglePlex, the main Google headquarters in Mountain View, California for well over a decade now and guess what, it is still there. Here is a recent photo I found on Instagram of some Googlers bowling at that alley.

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Core Update Volatility, Helpful Content Update Gone, Dangerous Google Search Results & Google Ads Confusion

This week, we covered that the Google March 2024 core update is still rolling out 38 days later, but we saw more volatility this week. Just a reminder that the Google helpful content update no longer exists. Gary Illyes from…

Other Great Search Threads:

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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Google Search Results Can Be Harmful & Dangerous In Some Cases

Published

3 days ago

April 11, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

Over the past few weeks, Google’s Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, has been replying to complaints about some examples of search results being not just low-quality but also potentially harmful and dangerous. The sad part to me is that a couple of years ago, this was not the case with the Google search results (for the most part).

When I interviewed Hyung-Jin Kim, the Vice President of Google Search, at SMX a couple of years back, he told a touching story about this topic. He explained that a family member of his was going through a medical issue and that he went to Google Search to find answers. As a VP of Google Search, his goal was to make sure that the Google Search results never led anyone to information that can end up hurting that searcher. That is where EEAT came from, partially, to ensure the search results did no harm and were not dangerous.

Now, we have way too many complaints about the Google search results offering up dangerous and harmful results. Google has responded to some of those saying they are taking in the feedback and will do better in the future. A lot of it stems from Google showing more Reddit results because they say searchers seek it out. But as Steve Jobs use to say, “Some people say, “Give the customers what they want.” But that’s not my approach. Our job is to figure out what they’re going to want before they do.”

Danny Sullivan wrote, “Appreciate the feedback. Aware of these concerns. Have passed them on. Have been talking with the team about them.”

Here are some examples, some we shared before, of Google responding to some of these examples:

That unit appears automatically if the systems think it might be relevant and useful. I’s not like someone said “put it first for that particular query” — which I know you understand, but others reading this might not. That said, I can appreciate the concern and issue, and I’ve…
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) April 3, 2024

I did understand that point and concern. I didn’t say “because users all seem to like something, we show it regardless of relevancy.” But let me take a swing at some of those points again:
1) We want to ensure that *any* content we show in results — including forum content –…
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) April 3, 2024

I sort of thought this:
“As with any change to our ranking systems, nothing is perfect. There will be issues that come up, as I talked about in the past: https://t.co/urIBxL3gcQ… So our goal will be to keep improving things forward, and constructive feedback like this is…
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) April 4, 2024

That’s not what I said. I said we show forum content *at times* because users can find forum content to be useful, which is a fairly reasonable thing. People do find forum content useful.
That doesn’t mean it’s always useful, which is also why we don’t always show forum content.…
Advertisement

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) April 4, 2024

Great to know that Reddit, Quora, and a 3-year-old Avvo thread are “better” results for this legal query than the American Bar Association 🤦‍♀️
Makes it even better that the top answer on one of the Reddit threads is from someone with an 18+ profile with some answers so gross I… pic.twitter.com/5x4DR5T4CZ
— Joy Hawkins (@JoyanneHawkins) April 8, 2024

Appreciate the feedback. Aware of these concerns. Have passed them on. Have been talking with the team about them. Here’s some of what I’ve shared on this:https://t.co/9DpdWyDp4A https://t.co/SRGGWu5dXx https://t.co/FUJen9R6Oa https://t.co/Fsd4XP8ti5
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) April 9, 2024

Yeah, why is this affecting *so* many university sites? Any hackers/spammers care to chime in here? 😅 https://t.co/4UKmoFM5qz
— Lily Ray 😏 (@lilyraynyc) April 10, 2024

Example of unhelpful results pic.twitter.com/uiycU8xIPh
— AI Digital Marketing (@AiDigitalMktg) April 8, 2024
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I really don’t think the forum results are what anyone wants.
The 1st result I get is this nonsense (see image)
Aside from the fact that most ppl will see this and ask “why the hell is the 1st thing I see – this is crap” it’s dangerous.
Kids with eating disorders should not… pic.twitter.com/nn6Mmf4uVa
— Mordy Oberstein *Mistakes Happen* (@MordyOberstein) April 7, 2024

It is actually something we spoke about a bit on our daily recap video (a new series) yesterday.

Maybe Google needs to show this warning more often these days when Reddit shows up as Higman points out:

While Google continues to say search quality is better and unhelpful content will be reduced by 40% or so, while also promising quality improvements time and time again – most SEOs don’t expect much change.

I analysed the top-ranking sites for 1,000 health symptom keywords — many covering serious concerns.
The most prominent domain Google ranks is Mayoclinic.
The second most prominent is Quora, where it’s easy to find spammed, copied or AI-generated medical advice.
For instance,… pic.twitter.com/SbFaG6gEud
— Glen Allsopp 👾 (@ViperChill) April 11, 2024

I didn’t embed a ton of examples but I do expect Google to work on this issue and for this to be a thing of the past at some point… I hope…

Forum discussion at X.