Users have consistently told us that they prefer detailed reviews that show the products in question have actually been tested. Over the past year, based on this feedback and our internal testing and evaluation processes, we’ve adjusted the ranking of reviews in Google Search to prioritize more informed, authentic content. Today we’re making another adjustment to make it even easier for us to recognize high-quality reviews. This allows us to give users even more informed purchase recommendations in the future and to reward content creators who honestly try to provide useful information.
The adjustment will roll out over the next few weeks and may impact the ranking of English language reviews on many sites.
We’ve seen a positive impact from our initial changes on English-language content and online shoppers, and plan to expand review support to more languages. If you create reviews in any language, we encourage you to follow our review best practices to get the most impact from your content.
Since we first made review adjustments, we’ve received a number of questions about reviews involving multiple products, which we’d like to answer below:
- Will the review adjustments affect rankings and comparative reviews? Yes. The review adjustments affect all types of reviews. In addition, the best practices provided by us apply. Since rankings are quite short, you should make your expertise and the authenticity of your content recognizable with simpler means. A good way to do this is by citing the relevant results and showing original images from your product tests.
- Do you recommend reviews that call products the “best”? If you recommend a product as the overall best for a particular purpose, be sure to let readers know how you arrived at that rating. What makes the product different from others on the market? Why is the product particularly well suited for the recommended purpose? Be sure to back up your statements with reliable information.
- If I create a review for multiple products, should I still provide reviews for each product as well? A good approach is often to create a high quality ranking of similar products coupled with detailed reviews of each recommended product. Make sure that the ranking list contains enough useful information on its own.