Google’s Last Reviews Update, Completed!

After almost a month of rolling out, the last official Google Reviews update is now completed. The November 2023 Reviews update started rolling out on November 8, 2023 and has completed on December 7, 2023, with a total of 29 days of roll out.

According to Google, the November 2023 reviews update is the last “official” update as moving forward, they will no longer be providing notifications for improvements in the reviews system because they will be happening at a regular and ongoing pace.

If you are a review site, may it be a site reviewing products, services, businesses, destinations, games, movies, or other topics, reviewing the Google’s guidelines is a must especially since the reviews system is now real-time.

Here are some best practices from Google:

• Evaluate from a user’s perspective.
• Demonstrate that you are knowledgeable about what you are reviewing—show you are an expert.
• Provide evidence such as visuals, audio, or other links of your own experience with what you are reviewing, to support your expertise and reinforce the authenticity of your review.
• Share quantitative measurements about how something measures up in various categories of performance.
• Explain what sets something apart from its competitors.
• Cover comparable things to consider, or explain which might be best for certain uses or circumstances.
• Discuss the benefits and drawbacks of something, based on your own original research.
• 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.
• Focus on the most important decision-making factors, based on your experience or expertise (for example, a car review might determine that fuel economy and safety are key decision-making factors and rate performance in those areas).
• 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.
• Consider including links to multiple sellers to give the reader the option to purchase from their merchant of choice.
• When recommending something as the best overall or the best for a certain purpose, include why you consider it the best, with first-hand supporting evidence.
• Ensure there is enough useful content in your ranked lists for them to stand on their own, even if you choose to write separate in-depth single reviews.

Read more about how to write quality reviews in this Google documentation.