What did the update target?
The update was designed to reward in-depth reviews versus thinner review content (whether that’s a single product review, a group of products, service reviews, UGC reviews, etc.)
Thin vs. Valuable:
Google knows that people are looking for high-quality, insightful, and helpful content while researching products or services. They don't want thin content.
So it's beyond just a page versus page comparison. Think holisitically about your site and reviews content.
Site and section-level evaluation made sense since some sites previously impacted by broad core updates surged back.
E.g., some sites saw recovery-like visiblity gains after December core update drops.
This is NOT the typical way sites recover from core updates.
Types of reviews impacted:
Google explained that several types of reviews can be impacted, including product, service, and UGC reviews.
Google explained that the Product Reviews Update requires a periodic refresh and we might not be told when that happens. Sites need to improve and wait for the refresh to see recovery.
Google's Danny Sullivan responded on Twitter about the refresh.
Google Discover Impact:
Since Google is evaluating sites & sections more broadly with the update, Discover visbility can be impacted (just like with core updates). See the next page for an example >>
Great Example of Discover Impact:
This site surged into Discover with the Products Review Update after having *no visibility at all* prior to the update (ever).
Google provided an important list of questions that site owners should consider (and objectively answer) about their reviews content.
Google also linked to its original blog post about broad core updates containing even more questions site owners should ask themsevles about their content.
To better understand thin vs. valuable reviews content, visit my blog post about the Product Reviews Update. I also provide the anatomy of a great review article.
To learn more about the update, check out my blog post covering analysis and key findings.
Learn more about Glenn Gabe of GSQi.
Visit Glenn's blog for more SEO posts.