Recently, Google rolled out an algorithm update that affected product review websites and their search rankings. The update was known as the December Product Reviews update and was rolled out to only affect English-language product review websites.<\/p>\n
But it seems like more websites are being affected by the update.<\/span><\/p>\n The goal of the December Product Review update was to encourage reviewers to provide high-quality and authentic reviews to users, enhancing the usefulness of online reviews.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n According to the update, Google recommended the following two suggestions to include in product reviews. The existence (or lack thereof) of the following new best practices in the reviews will affect search rankings:<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The official tweet mentioned that the update was solely for English-language product review websites.<\/span><\/p>\n But is the update targeting other language websites too?<\/span><\/p>\n Google\u2019s John Mueller was recently asked this question as there had been an influence of updates noticed in German searches. The question was:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI was seeing some movements in German search as well.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n So I was wondering if there could also be an effect on websites in other languages by this product reviews update because we had lots of movement and volatility in the last weeks. My question is, is it possible that the product reviews update affects other sites as well?\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Mueller, at first, seems to be surprised with the contradiction between blog posts and update status but then replies that the update is most likely deemed to be global, and perhaps it just wasn\u2019t mentioned in the blog post.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMy assumption was this was global and across all languages. But I don\u2019t know what we announced in the blog post specifically.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Mueller also said that regardless of what happened, he believes that this update should roll out globally because it is \u201crelevant across the board.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Although the tweet highlighted English-only product review websites, product review websites in other English-language websites must be ready for any changes caused by this update.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Google was not much empathetic on their update timing and they still have not clarified if the update changes will roll out internationally. The best action is to stay prepared and follow the two key points that are most critical to this December update.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Recently, Google rolled out an algorithm update that affected product review websites and their search rankings. The update was known as the December Product Reviews update and was rolled out to only affect English-language product review websites. But it seems like more websites are being affected by the update.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oct_exclude_from_cache":false,"inline_featured_image":false},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat was the December Product Reviews update?<\/b><\/h2>\n
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Could the update also have affected non-English websites?<\/b><\/h2>\n
Takeaway<\/b><\/h2>\n