Google’s new guidelines for reviews
Google just finished releasing a significant update.
The update expanded the topics that need to follow Google’s review guidelines.
Which means, if you have reviews on your website that might affect customer’s purchase decisions, you might need to update your content. Let’s look at which topics now need to follow Google’s review guidelines…
Topics that need to follow Google’s guidelines for reviews:
- Reviews about services.
- Reviews about businesses.
- Reviews about destinations.
- Reviews about media (like games and movies).
This means, if your website has reviews covering any of these topics, you want to update your content so it follows Google’s review guidelines, so you don’t risk getting demoted by Google at a later stage.
And so you can take advantage of any ranking advantages that come with following the guidelines.
Google offers 14 best practices, which I hereby impart to you as sacred knowledge.
Follow these best practices whenever you are creating reviews on your website:
Best practices for reviews.
- Evaluate from a user’s perspective.
- Demonstrate your expertise on the topic.
- Provide evidence to support your claims.
- Share quantitative measurements.
- Explain what sets something apart from its competitors.
- Cover comparable alternatives and their suitability for different circumstances.
- Discuss the benefits and drawbacks based on your original research.
- Describe how a product or service has evolved to address issues or improve user experience.
- Focus on the most important decision-making factors.
- Describe key design choices and their effects on users beyond what the manufacturer claims.
- Include links to other useful resources to help readers make decisions.
- Consider linking to multiple sellers to offer purchasing options.
- Explain why you consider something the best, with first-hand supporting evidence.
- Ensure there’s enough useful content in your ranked lists, even if you write separate in-depth reviews.
Closing thoughts
When Google announces guidelines for webmasters to follow, you should always follow them. You avoid getting into trouble by Google at a later stage. And in most cases, your content will outperform competitors who are slow to make the changes.
Google announced that the update affected these languages: English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Russian, Dutch, Portuguese and Polish. Why is this important? Well, if it’s been rolled out on this many languages, then we know it is a major update.
Obviously, it’s a reasonably sized update. And with SEO, the devil is in the details. So if you think this update applied to you and you want to read up further, you can check out the following resources.
Resource for Google’s April 2023 Review Update.
https://developers.google.com/search/docs/specialty/ecommerce/write-high-quality-reviews
https://searchengineland.com/googles-april-2023-reviews-update-was-more-volatile-than-the-previous-product-reviews-update-data-providers-say-398825
https://searchengineland.com/google-april-2023-reviews-update-is-finished-rolling-out-395916
About the author – Adam Clarke.
Adam Clarke, author of the #1 best-selling SEO book and certified by the Digital Marketing Institute and the American Marketing Association, has 10 years experience as an SEO director. With a passion for building businesses and teaching digital marketing, Adam has helped companies achieve significant growth through SEO. In his spare time, he enjoys motorbike rides, exploring exotic locations and travel photography.