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Good morning, Marketers,
It has been about a week since the Google product reviews update started rolling out, and it’s clear that this update had an immediate impact. Sometimes updates like these take time to be visible, but this one was noticeable almost immediately. SEOs reported an impact the day after the update began.
This update affected multiple sectors including health, finance, e-commerce, blogs, technology, and trade businesses. Websites with product review content saw significant gains or losses, with some reporting traffic losses as high as 50% or more, similar to a core update. Industry chatter was high, and automated tracking tools also reported high volatility. I’ve summarized much of this on my personal blog, and I hope to deliver a comprehensive report in the upcoming week or so.
Here’s what we’ve learned since the update was announced:
- The rollout of this update will take about two weeks, so we still have a week to go.
- This update can impact your Google Discover traffic, just like a core update might.
- Google will periodically refresh the update but will not announce all of these refreshes.
- User-generated content likely won’t rank well for product reviews anymore.
Barry Schwartz,
Google product reviews reporter
Google Ads insights page now available globally
After a period in beta, Google is rolling out the new Google Ads Insights page to all advertisers globally starting April 14th. This page offers trends tailored to your business, helping you determine if you’re keeping up with demand for trending products or services.
Google noted, “Consumer demand continues to change, and it’s more important than ever for marketers to keep up. For example, at the start of the pandemic, searches for ‘curbside pickup’ increased by over 3000%. Earlier this year, we saw a surge for ‘staycations,’ and now, we’re seeing a surge for ‘watch party.’ Marketers need more insights to inform their business and marketing decisions.”
Best practices: Here are some best practices when using the Insights page in Google Ads:
- Review keyword, budget, and bidding strategy recommendations to optimize your account for emerging trends.
- Use broad match and Smart Bidding to reach the right customers at the right value.
- Use Keyword Planner for keyword ideas based on emerging trends.
- Plan inventory, promotions, and landing pages based on trending search interest.
Cumulative layout shift metric changes
Google has started rolling out a new way to calculate the cumulative layout shift (CLS) metric for your core web vitals score. The new method is a “maximum session window with a 1-second gap, capped at 5 seconds.” Google states that this will not negatively impact current scores.
On April 13th, these new scores began appearing in Google Search Console. Google announced that the CLS metrics have been updated to reflect a more accurate representation of layout shifts on the page, and these changes should be mostly positive.
Why we care: If you notice changes to your CLS score as reported in the core web vitals section of Google Search Console, this update is likely the reason.
Unconfirmed soft 404 Google search bug impacting ranking
For the past week, there have been reports in the SEO community about a soft 404 processing issue with Google Search that is negatively affecting site rankings. Google has acknowledged that it is investigating these reports. The extent of this issue or its resolution timeline remains unclear.
I posted some issues related to this bug on my personal blog, and I will provide more details once there is official confirmation. For now, keep monitoring your traffic, knowing that this issue is being looked into.
How Google Search serves results.
Google on serving search results: Gary Illyes from Google explained the intricacies of how Google Search serves results. The details shared were so in-depth that 5 minutes had to be cut from the initial explanation. You can listen to the edited podcast to learn more.
Both YMYL and non-YMYL content: John Mueller from Google suggested that, in some cases, it might be beneficial to separate YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) content from non-YMYL content into separate sites. The decision depends on various factors.
Not real-time: The upcoming Google page experience update won’t be a real-time algorithm. This is due to the data being gathered from Chrome’s CrUX data, which takes about 28 days to accumulate.
Local business edits: Google now allows you to update your business profile, including hours, category, and location, directly in web search results. This expands the range of items you can update directly in web search.
We’ve curated our picks from across the web so you can retire your feed reader.
- Can Medical Alexas Make Us Healthier? – New York Times
- Google is poisoning its reputation with AI researchers – The Verge
- Google Ranking Search Results – Go Fish Digital
- How to Use Low Search Volume Keywords to Optimize B2B Tech Content – Moz
- SEO Writers: Are You Making These 5 Common Mistakes? – SuccessWorks
