Today is two weeks since Google began rolling out the new Google Products Reviews Update. From our early reports, this was a big update and I even posted more data on Search Engine Land about how big. I initially thought the rollout seemed to be isolated to the first few days after it launched but it seems to have kicked up again in the past couple of days.
Update: It is now done rolling out, more details below.
Yes, I know Google told us it would be a two week rollout - but we don't always fully trust Google - right? :)
While the automated tracking tools showed big spikes the day after the Google update was announced, those tools have been pretty quiet recently.
Glenn Gabe, who has been tracking this update closely, has been tracking individual sites impacted by this niche update and he saw big swings for these sites around April 9th, but then again on April 15th and 17th and then again on the 19th.
Here are some charts he shared:
But as I mentioned last night, there are some sites being impacted late in the rollout (either based on the 2-week rollout or tremors based on Google tweaking the algo - which is definitely possible). In particular, I'm seeing sites surge or drop on 4/15 and 4/17). Stay tuned. pic.twitter.com/ZvAp5yEBk1
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) April 20, 2021
Yesterday I shared additional movement I was seeing with the Product Reviews Update (starting on 4/14 and 4/15). I pinged Danny yesterday & he said the update was still rolling out. Now I'm seeing even more movement starting on 4/19 for some review sites. Again, stay tuned. pic.twitter.com/s2GaCvZajY
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) April 21, 2021
And Danny Sullivan confirmed the other day that it is not done rolling out - maybe it will be done later today but as of the past couple of days, it was not done:
It is not.
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) April 20, 2021
Again, this update was super niche, focused on product review style content. It was not as widespread as a core update, and thus had a smaller impact footprint than a core update. But if you are in the product reviews area, you may have felt this impact in a very big way. It is like a baby core update targeting product review content.
Have you noticed recent fluctuations with this update?
Forum discussion at Twitter.
Yep, still seeing movement as of yesterday. Google has been busy over the past two weeks with this update... For example, here's a review site that surged late (on 4/19) and saw another increase yesterday. Once again, stay tuned. :) https://t.co/OPOHjoQtRx pic.twitter.com/ifEZHlErIf
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) April 22, 2021
Update: Google's Danny Sullivan confirmed it is now done rolling out this afternoon:
Actually, just checked, and it's done. So yeah. Caveat is with any update, you can still sometimes have some edge case lingering. But effectively done.
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) April 22, 2021
