September 2022 product reviews update: dates and what to do

What Google changed#

The September 2022 product reviews update was a new run of Google’s product reviews system. The Search Status Dashboard entry says it “applies to English-language product reviews.” Google did not publish a Search Central blog post for it.

Google signposted it a month earlier. On 18 August 2022, announcing the helpful content update, Google wrote that “in the coming weeks, we’ll roll out another update to make it even easier to find high-quality, original reviews.” The same post said the reviews work aimed to show “more helpful, in-depth reviews based on first-hand expertise.”

When it rolled out#

The dashboard says the incident began on 20 September 2022 and that the rollout was complete as of 26 September 2022, a six-day run in US/Pacific time. The entries are timestamped 22 March 2023, when Google added ranking updates to the dashboard.

It ran entirely inside the September 2022 core update, which began on 12 September 2022 and also finished on 26 September 2022. A ranking change on review pages that week could come from either update.

What is known about its impact#

Google published no impact figures for this update: no share of queries affected and no list of affected sites. Treat any percentage attributed to it as a third-party estimate, and check whether it separates this update from the overlapping core update.

What site owners should do#

Google’s guidance on writing high quality reviews is the practical checklist:

• Evaluate products from a user’s perspective and show you know what you are reviewing.
• Provide evidence of your own experience, such as visuals, audio or links.
• Share quantitative measurements of how something performs in different categories.
• Cover comparable products and explain which might suit which uses.
• Discuss benefits and drawbacks based on your own original research.

Google says to focus on “the quality and originality of your reviews, not the length.”

How to check whether it affected you#

In Search Console, filter the Performance report to your review pages and compare clicks for the week before 12 September 2022 with the week starting 3 October 2022, one week after both updates finished. If review pages moved and the rest of the site did not, this update is the more likely cause. The Google Algorithm Updates timeline lists every confirmed update with its dates.

Related updates#

• The July 2022 product reviews update was the product reviews update before it.
• The February 2023 product reviews update was the next one.
• The September 2022 core update overlapped it and finished the same day.