Google releases April 2023 reviews update

Google has released the April 2023 reviews update. This update goes beyond Google’s prior product reviews updates to evaluate reviews of nearly any reviewable topic, including:

• Services and businesses.
• Destinations.
• Media (e.g., games, movies).

Announcement. The update was announced on Twitter:

Google also updated its Search Status dashboard at 9:08 PDT with the following: “Released the April 2023 reviews update, which now covers reviews about products, services, and things. Learn more about how to write high quality reviews.”

Google makes product review guidance review guidance. This is a big change. Google has reworded its article on How to write high-quality reviews in multiple places, providing guidance about “product reviews” to simply apply to all types “reviews” with more generic language.

You can see the changes here, as shared by Marie Haynes:

For example, Google has edited “shoppers” to become “people.” And a “product” becomes a “thing” or “something” or is simply deleted.

Why we care. If your website publishes any type of review content, this will be an important update to watch. Check your rankings to see whether your organic traffic improves, declines or stays the same.

Previous product review updates. This seems to be an evolution of Google’s series of product review updates – of which there have been six since 2021. Here’s a timeline of all Google’s past product reviews updates:

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