Google February 2023 Product Reviews Update Has Finally Completed Rolling Out

Google has finally announced that the February 2023 product reviews update has completed rolling out on March 7, 2023. This update announced on February 21, 2023, has completed rolling out over a 14-day period. Compared to other updates, this update has brought new languages to the product reviews update including English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, and Polish.

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Google’s product reviews system is designed to better rewarding high quality product reviews that provides insightful analysis and original research, written by experts or enthusiasts who know the topic well. It ensure that people see product reviews that share in-depth research, rather than thin content that simply summarizes a bunch of products.

Update More Volatile Than Other Updates

Semrush and Rank Ranger data has reported that the February 2023 update was more significant than the July 2022 product reviews update. It has created more volatility than any other product review updates.

Search Engine Land has highlighted that according to the Semrush report, “The February 2023 product reviews update showed a volatility increase that was 156% more significant than the July update. The volatility for the July 2022 update, the baseline prior to the update was 1.8 on the Semrush Sensor’s scale to a 2.7 on the Semrush Sensor’s scale for July product reviews update. Compare that to the February 2023 update that had a basement of 3.1 and it went to a 5.4 – that showed a much bigger change.”

Semrush Sensor Data also shows the volatility by category for the February 2023 product reviews update:

Comparison of niches from the July 2022 and February 2023 product reviews update:

For the March 2022 Product Reviews Update, Google has published new guidance on writing product reviews, such as the reviews need to include –

• expert knowledge about products where appropriate
• 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
• show what the product is like physically, or how it is used, with unique content beyond what’s provided by the manufacturer

There’s much more.

This is the sixth release of the product reviews update. The previous five were launched on dates such as – April 8, 2021, December 1, 2021, March 23, 2022, July 27, 2022, and Sept. 20, 2022.

Best Practices to Help Shoppers Discover Product Review Pages

Google recommends these best practices to help shoppers discover product review pages in Google Search and other Google surfaces:

• Evaluate the product from a user’s perspective.
• Demonstrate that you are knowledgeable about the products reviewed – show you are an expert.
• 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.
• Share 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 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.
• Identify key decision-making factors for the product’s category and how the product performs 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 a product as the best overall or the best for a certain purpose, include why you consider that product 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 product reviews for each recommended product.

In addition, Google provided two new best practices around this update:

• 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.

At MedResponsive, we’re up to date with Google’s updates and we follow the recommendations strictly. We can create unique, well-researched, and focused content for any industry.