Back in April 2021, Google announced the product review update to promote high-quality product reviews. The primary focus of Google was to improve the content that provides insightful analysis and original research. Further, Google wants to improve the content trust factors as well.
Monday, December 1, 2021, Google announced further updates to Product Reviews with the below key points.
Google has introduced two new best practises
- Provide evidence such as visuals, audio, or other links of your own experience with the product, to support your expertise and reinforce the authenticity of your review.
- Include links to multiple sellers to give the reader the option to purchase from their merchant of choice.
Contents
Impact to Impact Affiliate Marketers
As Cyrus tweeted below, it’s rare for Google to share direct ranking signals, especially with Affiliate Marketers.
It’s rare for Google to announce ranking factors specifically for affiliate marketers
— Cyrus (@CyrusShepard) December 2, 2021
Millions of affiliate sites offer product reviews linking to a single seller only
In a future update, Google will start rewarding sites that link to “multiple sellers”https://t.co/Nk9vDh2gYG pic.twitter.com/6vNGUIxSnv
On the other hand, a question to ask is why Google wants improvements in product reviews.
According to supermetrics.com ,
The largest affiliate networks have 100K+ active affiliates
- Amazon Associates: 900,000+
- ShareASale: 700,000+
- Awin: 205,000+
- ClickBank: 100,000+
Search interest in “affiliate marketing” is up over 200% since 2015
85% of online shoppers check Google for information before making a purchase.
A Kenshoo research paper reports that 85% of online shoppers turn to Google for ideas and information before making a purchase.
This update will impact overall affiliate marketing websites, review sites and comparison websites.
Including links to multiple sellers will give challenges to affiliate marketers as most of the affiliate markets will not be able to find the same product with multiple networks or businesses.
Secondly, most affiliate marketers promote the product based on the content available not based on personal experience or use. Content with added personal experience will hugely impact your rankings.
With the Google MUM update, Google now has the ability to better analyse visual and audio content. So the evidence of your product experience will actually make your content more unique than common content available on the net. This can certainly boost your rankings for all content in future.
Tharindu is a passionate digital marketing specialist with over 14 years of experience planning and executing cross-channel digital media campaigns in the Asia Pacific and Australia. He is also known as the SEO wizard due to his extensive knowledge and technical skill in SEO.
