Google's April 2021 and December 2021 product reviews update only targeted English language content. But John Mueller of Google said he suspects it will roll out to other languages in the future. He actually thought it did already but no, it did not.
I mentioned this in my story yesterday about how most but not all Google algorithms are for all languages.
In short, John said "usually, that's a goal with these kind of updates, where we try to get started with one language or one location and see what we need to tweak, and then we expand from there." He added that he would "imagine with something that is more content-related, usually it takes a bit longer to expand to different languages." This was in response to a site owner seeing ranking fluctuations on his German language site around the time of the product reviews update. So John said, it is probably not related.
John said that timing wise, he doubts Google would release a more global version of this update over Christmas time. He said "But I honestly don't know what all they're looking at here. But, at the same time, I also wouldn't expect to see this as being something that like over the Christmas holidays we suddenly roll it out in 12 other languages kind of thing, because the team that works on this also goes on holidays, at some point. And if they launch something briefly before they go on holidays, and it breaks, then they have to cancel their holidays as well and fix it again. So we try to avoid that a little bit." Interesting comment, don't you think? :P
Here is where John said that in the video:
Here is the transcript:
JOHN MUELLER: But it's, from my point of view, it seems like something that we could be doing in multiple languages and wouldn't be tied to just English. And even if it were English initially, it feels like something that is relevant across the board, and we should try to find ways to roll that out to other languages over time as well.
So I'm not particularly surprised that you see the changes in Germany, but I also don't know what we actually announced with regards to the locations and languages that are involved.
CHRISTIAN KUNZ: Yeah. I was just checking to be sure, and, yeah, the blog post said it's only English websites, English language websites. So this was because I was so surprised. But yeah, good to know anyway. And even if it's only targeted on English-speaking websites, you say it could affect other sites as well, sooner or later? OK.
JOHN MUELLER: Yeah. Usually, that's a goal with these kind of updates, where we try to get started with one language or one location and see what we need to tweak, and then we expand from there. And I imagine with something that is more content-related, usually it takes a bit longer to expand to different languages.
But I honestly don't know what all they're looking at here. But, at the same time, I also wouldn't expect to see this as being something that like over the Christmas holidays we suddenly roll it out in 12 other languages kind of thing, because the team that works on this also goes on holidays, at some point. And if they launch something briefly before they go on holidays, and it breaks, then they have to cancel their holidays as well and fix it again. So we try to avoid that a little bit.
Here is how Glenn Gabe summed it up:
Via the latest hangout w/@johnmu: Reminder, the Product Reviews Update impacted English language pages globally, but not other languages *yet*. As John explained, it would make sense for G to roll this out to other languages over time (but no ETA though): https://t.co/bQT6jeLFkf pic.twitter.com/y7554z9fz9
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) December 26, 2021
I did ask John to find out:
there seems to be some confusion based on your comments in the Friday hangout, John.
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) December 28, 2021
can someone find out if this product reviews update works in other languages now? cc @dannysullivan
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) December 28, 2021
Or an advantage - you can be ahead of the curve, because you can see what's possibly coming up.
— 🐄 John 🐄 (@JohnMu) December 29, 2021
I honestly don't know (& usually we don't constantly ping the team to ask "are we there yet"), but it seems like the kind of quality-change that we'd want to roll out everywhere. I mean, you can also follow the guidance even if it's not rolled out :-).
— 🐄 John 🐄 (@JohnMu) December 29, 2021
Just keep in mind, the December 1 announcement said English, here is that announcement:
Our December 2021 product reviews update is now rolling out for English-language pages. It will take about three weeks to complete. We have also extended our advice for product review creators: https://t.co/N4rjJWoaqE
— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) December 1, 2021
Forum discussion at Twitter.
