As of September 26, 2022, Google has completed spreading out its latest core algorithm upgrade and product review update. Google made the announcement public via its search ranking updates page.
The release of the September 2022 core update began on September 12. A week later, on September 20th, the product review update went live.
If you’re anxious to evaluate the effects of these changes, you’ll be happy to know that they both concluded their rollout on the same day: September 26.
Now that the changes have been released, you can see how they affect your website’s rankings and traffic. By looking at these metrics, any noticeable and long-lasting changes are probably the consequence of the updates.
Know If You’re Affected By The Core Update And How To Tell
Changes to Google’s basic algorithms can have a significant impact on a site’s visibility in the search engine’s overall results.
Google Search AdvocateJohn Mueller outlines how foundational updates affect the entire site rather than individual pages or features:
“With the core updates, we don’t focus so much on just individual issues but rather the relevance of the website overall. And that can include things like the usability and the ads on a page, but it’s essentially the website overall.”
If you see significant shifts in search engine rankings throughout a large portion of your site, it’s likely that the core update had an effect on you.
Identifying Whether or Not You Are Affected by the Product Review Change
There is less of a learning curve here, as only search results for product reviews are affected by the latest revisions.
Basically, if you don’t publish any product reviews, this update will not affect your site.
But pay close attention to your rankings if you do submit product reviews. Any changes you see on review pages should be attributed to this recent update.
Changes in your site’s overall ranking, on the other hand, are likely due to the core update.