Google has announced the release of the February 2023 Product Reviews Update. The update applies globally to eleven languages and will take approximately two weeks to be fully rolled out.
Change to product review guidelines
The February 2023 Product Reviews update is accompanied by an explanation provided of the current Product Reviews update guidelines.
Google has updated the Product Review Update documentation to better reflect that the document is about the product reviews system itself and what it does.
The first noticeable change is the title of the documents.
Previous product reviews document Title:
Update your Google Search product reviews and website
new Product reviews document Title:
Google search product reviews system and your website
Previously there was no mention of the subject “Product Reviews System” and now this phrase is used ten times.
The phrase “Update Product Reviews” appeared ten times in the original version of the Google Product Reviews Update Guidelines but now appears only three times.
While this may seem like a small change, the effect is that it shifts the focus of Google’s guidelines away from updating product reviews.
Changes in guidance have the effect of stressing the product reviews system.
This, in turn, indicates that the update is a change to the Product Reviews System.
A new section in the updated Product Reviews System guide explains:
Periodically, we improve how the product review system works.
When we do this in a notable way, we share this as a Product Reviews Update on the Google Search Ranking Updates page.
Updated product reviews for Eleven Languages
The update announcement made particular mention of the fact that it’s being rolled out in eleven languages.
The languages in which the update will be rolled out are:
- Dutch
- English
- French
- German
- indonesian
- Italian
- polishing
- Portuguese
- Russian
- Spanish
- Vietnamese
Roll out the product review system update for two weeks
Google also announced that the rollout will take approximately two weeks to complete, which puts the end date at March 7, 2023.
What do you do if the site is affected by the update?
It has always been the case that updates to the Google algorithm cause ranking changes that are not necessarily permanent.
If your site is affected by the update, it is best to wait for the update to finish.
About the product reviews system
The purpose of the product reviews system is to weed out bland content that is just summaries and show more product reviews that are based on actual experience and research.
The update to the product reviews system was announced via Twitter.
Today we released our February 2023 Product Reviews Update, which applies to these languages globally: English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Polish. It will take about two weeks to fully roll out the product. More here: https://t.co/YpNnK97G3O
– Google Search Center (googlesearchc) February 21, 2023
Featured image by Shutterstock / Kues
