Google announced an English language product review update is rolling out today, Wednesday December 1, 2021. Product review pages that have made improvements since the last product review update may see them reflected in the new update.

The update is called the December 201 Product Review Update and will take three weeks to fully roll out.

This update is preceded by a Spam Update in early November and a Core Algorithm Update that finished rolling out at the end of November.

While some may feel it ill-timed or mean for Google to roll out updates during the busiest shopping season, so far these updates have not been especially disruptive.

Yet it would be most unfortunate if legitimate product review sites unintentionally lost rankings during this critical time of the year.

A tweet from Google Search Central announced:

“Our December 2021 product reviews update is now rolling out for English-language pages. It will take about three weeks to complete.”

Google Developer Advocate Alan Kent tweeted:

“It is one of many ranking signals, but certainly the goal is to reward authentic high quality reviews. The docs page lists our recommendations for good reviews.”

Alan tweeted clarification of what kinds of sites will be affected by the product reviews update:

“Mainly relevant to sites that post articles reviewing products. Think of sites like “best TVs under $200″.com. Goal is to improve the quality and usefulness of reviews we show users.”

The response on Twitter generally took the announcement in stride:

Bring it on… pic.twitter.com/yn4B38AjvV

— TechReview (@besttechreview) December 1, 2021

Product Review Page Ranking Assessment

Google’s announcement makes reference to an “automated assessment” that is specific to product reviews. It also notes that product review pages will also be ranked by the other ranking factors common to other web pages.

“…note that our automated assessment of product review content is only one of many factors used in ranking content, so changes can happen at any time for various reasons.”

New Product Review Best Practices

Google also gave an advanced warning that they will be introducing two new product review requirements that are clearly aimed at fake product reviews.

The first requirement is that a product review provide on-page evidence that a product has actually been handled and reviewed.

Many low quality reviews are clearly affiliate sites posting bogus reviews that are closer to rewritten versions of the product specifications.

The second requirement is that product reviews offer multiple buying options.

Google’s product review update stated:

“Users have told us that they trust reviews with evidence of products actually being tested, and prefer to have more options to purchase the product.

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.”

Google didn’t call these best practices ranking factors but does say that these “best practices” will be folded into a future product reviews update.

So these two best practices can probably be considered ranking factors.

The new documentation is called, Write high quality product reviews.

The best practices page highlights requirements that seem designed to promote actual reviews and eliminate fake reviews.

Here is a sample:

• Share quantitative measurements about how a product measures up in various categories of performance.
• 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.
• 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.

Promoting Quality Product Reviews

Many products are expensive to review, such as kayaks, which is why there are so many fake reviews that do not feature original images of the products because no kayak was actually reviewed.

One has to wonder if these new requirements could backfire by causing fake review sites to respond by adding fake hands-on assessment content and images.

Citations

Announcement of Product Review Update

Product reviews update and your site

Read Google’s Product Reviews Best Practices

Write high quality product reviews