This is a constant theme with recent Google updates, they aren’t looking to punish low-quality reviews, rather reward high-quality ones. The message they always look to push is ‘rewarding high-quality content’, however, if your website loses out in any of these updates it will certainly feel like a punishment.

Google stated that their reasoning for this update was because “we know people appreciate product reviews that share in-depth research, rather than thin content that simply summarizes a bunch of products. That's why we're sharing an improvement to our ranking systems, which we call the product reviews update, that's designed to better reward such content."  

Whilst this update is mainly focused on affiliate sites there has been some indication that it will also impact eCommerce stores but much it will impact eCommerce websites remains to be seen.

Google has also stated that currently, this is a separate part of the algorithm and will be updated periodically, in time however it could be integrated into the wider algorithm much like the Penguin and Panda updates have been.

We know that Google is continually updating the algorithms and if you have experienced a drop in organic traffic or want to make your website more visible online then get in contact with one of our SEO experts  0203 368 8556 or info@kaumediagroup.com to see how we can help grow your brand online.