Hit by the Google Product Review Update (Aug 2022). Now what?!?
I was hit by the Google Product Reviews Update. Slammed actually. My website is several years old and about 2/3rds of my posts were lengthly and intensive "10 best ___ of 2022" style posts.
Bing and Yahoo are still ranking most of them in the top 5, but in Google, there are like, just 5 in the top 100 now. Huh?? And I can't figure out why those ones stayed, while the others dropped off the face of the web.
I'm feeling at quite a loss as to what to do from here.
1) Do I cut my losses and just start over with a new site? Feels like "what's the point", if Google can erase all that work in a mere few weeks.
2) Do I sacrifice my integrity and adjust/edit my reviews to change the style from "here's what I've gleaned from reading through countless reviews of these products FOR you, and here are all of the pros and cons for each", to "I've personally tried these out and this one is my favorite because when I did XYZ with it, it... " - which would definiltey be a lie. I did not buy 12 different grills, for example. So that's not the answer. Plus, going this route would take up a TON of time and effort which may or may not be even worth it. Google is so fickle. (Makes me angry when I look at what IS currently ranking and it's thin, useless, generic pages from huge websites. My reviews were better quality by far, haha.)
3) Do I venture into the world of PPC advertising? Many of my posts converted very well. So... do I take the risk of learning and loosing money for a while til I get the hang of it?
4) Do I just truck on, keep building big, thick, quality reviews like I was before (without buying the items) and hope that some day Google randomly reverses its rankings for my site?
-- Is anyone else having these questions and thoughts and uncertainty right now? What are YOU doing with your "Best of" review sites, that were nice and profitable up until a short time ago?
Marlaine
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If this is the first time your site is so badly affected, there may be a small chance that it bounces back. However, this is very unlikely, I have never seen this in my sites. But give it some time.
Now to your items:
1) I have three dead sites and no idea why this is so. Yes, Google can destroy your business overnight. Nothing makes sense, product review business is dead. How I know? I have them more than 2500.
2) This will not help. I can show you several product reviews of items that I own. They do not exist in Google. For one of them, the only existing review is my own, no competitors, new product on the market, yet it is nowhere in Google after 7 months regardless of what I do with it.
3) Do anything that is not product review. It is impossible to deal with Google's updates, it is becoming worse and worse.
4) This is pointless. I have large and up to 8 years old sites, the largest has more than 1200 posts. No matter how many posts are added, the traffic remains flat or it goes down.
Do you notice that when you ask such questions, people do not tell you how it is on their side? I asked many times at various places and no straightforward answer. You get advises from which you can only conclude that all is fine around in Google's universe, it is just something at your side. Well, it isn't. The reality is that Google's rules simply do not hold.
While google will update their algorithms and tweak things that seemingly throw our content off a cliff, the fact of the matter is that quality content always rises to the top. Stay the course. Your site has great content, you know how to rank, you've developed traffic and an audience.
Something you can do to go after more traffic is create YouTube content as well. Maybe you're already doing this, but YouTube is an AMAZING resource where so many go to get their answers and when you have content that is ranking (or has ranked in the past) it can rank even easier on YouTube.
For every post you've published, you could have an accompanying YouTube video as well, so all the content is right there for you.
I see you're Premium Plus, here's a great class with an INCREDIBLE teacher (lol, it's me) all about taking advantage of YouTube: YouTube Blogger Startup Guide - Drive Massive VIDEO Traffic to Your Content! Hope that helps!
Keep your head up!
YOU GOT THIS!
Thanks Eric, also for the class link. I may have to give Youtube a try... seems like a scary field to delve into though. But good old SEO is just not working for web pages alone anymore.
Eric is right! I moved to Youtube a couple years ago after resisting for years, and it's made a huge difference. It's much easier to rank, and reviews do well!
I'll pm you.
Cheers,
Suzanne
Hi Marlaine,
Sorry to hear about your Google plight. We can’t control what Google does. May I ask, how well did your posts that ranked on page 1 do regarding traffic and sales?
My suggestion is to continue with this website and consider the following options. You can do one, two or all three.
1) Edit your old posts one by one.
2) Leave your old posts alone and write new ones on the same topics using the updated guidelines.
3) PPC is a good option following the plan Kyle gave in his webinar this week. It neutralizes anything Google does.
Hope this helps.
Edwin
Thanks Edwin.
I've been doing mathematical research this afternoon and PPC doesn't seem ultra profitable, so far in what I'm seeing, anyway. My sales are mostly on Amazon. My sales average $0.20 per click through to Amazon. And my CTR from page views to Amazon click was nearly 100% (due to multiple clicks off the same page, I'm guessing). So, if I bid up to $0.20 per click in PPC, I'd maybe break even, maybe not.
Before I continue writing more, I want to know if the effort is even worth it. Google is so unreliable though... it doesn't seem to actually penalize weak/100 word reviews and bring quality, in depth stuff forward. So what's the point of writing more?
Hi, Marlaine
That's hard to hear, and I'm sure, very discouraging for you, especially after all your hard work. You sound like a very experienced blogger.
If you want my opinion, I would stay the course and continue to write excellent content with emphasis on informational posts. It may be a glitch in Google's algorithm that will take a little more time to get properly adjusted.
Also, take a look at what Google advises, if you haven't already:
https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2022/08/helpful-content-update
It's always a good idea to entertain other strategies such as PPC.
Perhaps other WA members can be more helpful, but don't give up!
Frank
Thanks for chiming in, Frank. I've looked at the Google info on their update and while most of my work fits WELL into their guidelines, I have NOT bought the products myself nor have I written as if I HAVE...
Hi, Marlaine
It is a tough situation that Google is putting product reviewers in. I think that all your experience and the quality of the articles on your website will shine through. Give it a bit more time and look into other options.
My guitar site doesn't have too many roundup reviews. The articles are mostly informational with internal links to individual product reviews that I either own or try out at the local Guitar Center. So, I'm certainly not going out and buying everything I review.
I actually got a significant traffic boost from the update, but it is too early to know if that will hold steady, so I'm not too excited about it.
The main thing is not to give up. You could always ask Kyle to take a quick look at your site. I'm sure how can help point you in the right direction.
Frank
Thank you, Frank! Good idea. Glad to hear things have gone well for your site. In the past I've had increased rankings or no change when an update rolled through, but this one was not the case.
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I agree, Marlaine, I have always said that Google is a fickle beast! Sorry to hear of the impact to your site!
Jeff