Google has recently announced that it will start rolling out its November 2023 reviews update from today onwards. This update brings about a change in Google's approach towards content based on reviews. As per the documentation provided by Google, the reviews ranking system is aimed at assessing articles, blog posts, and other stand-alone content that primarily focuses on opinions and analysis. However, it will not evaluate third-party reviews such as those posted by users on product or service pages.
Page-level assessments will be conducted instead of site-wide for sites with reviews as a secondary focus. If a website primarily features reviews, the system will evaluate all of them.
This update also coincides with Google rolling out their latest core search algorithm update. Due to this update, it’s expected that a lot of sites might see some changes in their search traffic and rankings over the next few weeks. Sites reliant on reviews for traffic may see volatility. Depending on how well content aligns with Google’s evolving reviews system, some may gain or lose rankings.
Another significant review update that Google has announced is that their review system changes will now occur regularly, which means that they will no longer announce updates regarding any new review system upgrades since it will be an ongoing process starting today.
More Noteworthy Details About the Update
The November 2023 Google Reviews update starts on November 8, 2023, and usually takes a week or two to complete. The updates will mainly affect sites that have reviews-based content in English. Reviews posted in other languages may be exempted from this update, although Google says they will expand the review update to other review-based content sites written languages over time.
Google has consistently advised users on how to improve these sites to make high-quality content. The update will also further focus on giving Quality Rater Guidelines on how to come up with original, transparent, current, and informative content. Their guide helps users audit their content.
So how do these updates impact websites with reviews?
This could be a positive change for them. In the past, if a site was negatively impacted by Google's review system, it would have to wait months until the next update to bounce back, even if they took quick action to fix the issues. Now, Google's shift towards regular and incremental changes allows for faster recovery.
As of now, sites that are falling behind their ranking can make use of Google aids to gain them again and improve their review content through an audit.
However, there is a slight downside to the whole update. Publishers now face new challenges as they have to constantly monitor and evaluate their review-based content to stay their high site ranking. Google advises sites offering reviews to carefully follow its quality guidelines and focus on that guidance.
The latest rollout of Google’s reviews update marks the beginning of a new process of continuous evaluation and adjustment for sites that provide reviews-based content. While this may cause some disruption in the short term, regular incremental updates will help users in the long run to recover quickly from ranking fluctuations.