Google announced another update to its reviews system. The April 2023 Reviews update started rolling out on 12th April 2023 and was completed on 25th April 2023.
Google has broadened the scope of its review updates to cover product reviews and reviews on services, destinations, and other reviewable topics.
The update focuses on rewarding sites that publish high-quality review content that is insightful and demonstrate experience and expertise.
Google’s Official Announcement
Google announced the update on Twitter and published a blog post to share more details about its review system.
Released the April 2023 reviews update, which now covers reviews about products, services, and things. Learn more about how to write high quality reviews:https://t.co/tdM0JhyyTG
— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) April 12, 2023
What Are People Saying?
Several SEO experts have tweeted about the update sharing their thoughts and insights on the new reviews system update.
Dr. Marie Hyanes, one of the most prominent SEOs, shared details regarding the update.
New Google update! Looks like the Product Reviews system now applies to much more than just products:
Now covers reviews on products, services, destinations, games, movies or other topics. https://t.co/LUwvw3d0xX pic.twitter.com/KiKbX3ujbU
— Marie Haynes (@Marie_Haynes) April 12, 2023
Here’s an example of specific sites hit by the Review update from Glenn Gabe.
OK, here we go. I'm seeing the first movement based on the April Reviews Update. Remember, this is beyond just product reviews now. Here's a site focused on restaurant reviews that's seeing a big drop. Checking the SERPs for those queries, it has dropped out completely for some: pic.twitter.com/f23rqYxkln
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) April 14, 2023
Barry Schwartz also shared insights regarding the update.
The last week of the rollout of the Google April 2023 reviews update was the most volatile, just look at these tracking tool charts – more at https://t.co/buiUYyh0FU pic.twitter.com/BdlDwGv4UC
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) April 26, 2023
What’s Next – Dealing With This Update
Google defines a review can be on a single item, head-to-head comparisons, ranked lists of suggestions, or any reviewable topic. In short, reviews can be on any subject.
This implies that if your website publishes any form of review content, this is a critical update to keep an eye on.
In that case, you can use Rank Math Analytics to check whether your organic traffic has improved and which pages have been impacted. Following that, you can update your content to meet Google’s guidelines for writing high-quality reviews.
Watch our video below to learn how to recover your website from the update.
