Affiliate marketers and anyone that creates product reviews should rejoice, because Google has released an algorithm update that caters to us in many ways which will help us make more money online. In this post, I’ll show you 3 specific ways you can profit with this new update.
The new Google product reviews algorithm update explained:
On April 8th of this year, Google released an official article that explained a new algorithm change has arrived which is specifically catered towards people who create product reviews. Here is the link to Google’s product reviews update article.
The summary of the new Google product reviews update:
In short, in that article, they explained what they want to see from people who create product reviews in order to get higher rankings with that content and in short, it’s really not that complicated (or anything new for that matter). Simply put:
- If you provide good analysis of the product you’re reviewing.
- If you give a good explanation of how it works and compare it to others.
- And basically give people good content that helps them enjoy the review, this is really all there is to it.
Now you can read that article for details, but anyone who has already been creating successful, high ranking product reviews for years already knew much of this stuff and in a way, this update just confirmed it.
Being someone who knows about how to write and create videos on product reviews, this was more of a confirmation that I was on the right track this whole time than anything else.
And this is why I’ll be sharing 3 things you can do today to really put yourself ahead with this update if you’re not either just getting into the world of writing product reviews or not getting good rankings with them (yet). I’m also going to be including a video to help you understand this all better.
First, here’s the video to help you understand and profit from Google’s product reviews update:
Here are the 3 ways to profit with the product reviews algorithm update released by Google:
- Use the WP product reviews lite plugin in your reviews (on your blog).
- Create YouTube video reviews alongside your blog reviews.
- Read my posts on how to write product reviews (they adhere to the new update).
Let’s discuss in detail these 3 details and why they will absolutely help you get on top of this new update and get the most out of it, that being:
- More higher rankings.
- More traffic.
- More sales (affiliate marketing, display ad earnings and more).
1) Use the following plugin in your blog reviews: WP Product Reviews Lite:
This is a free plugin you can use if you have a WordPress website. It basically adds a table at the bottom or top of your product review where you can show people the most important things about that review. It could be the pros, cons, features or more.
There’s also an option to add the product image and link to get it which is great for affiliates. Here is an example of how this plugin looks on one of my websites where I review a popular jacket:
If you’d like to see in more detail, see my REI Co Op Stormhendge 850 Down Jacket review here (on my travel blog). This review has actually gotten at least 7 sales thus far (alongside my YouTube video on it too).
For the past few years, this plugin would be used in Google’s search results and people would literally be able to see a short report of it there.
However, throughout these years, this would come and go and it was one of the reasons I was seldom using it, but I can tell you with 100% certainty that it has always been an important tool to use in your product reviews and you should use it if you aren’t already (it’s free).
I had this conversation with my affiliate coach recently and he told me this is making a comeback and he called it perfectly. I’m glad I listened to his advice and started investing a little extra time to use this plugin in my reviews.
It really helps give readers a good overview of the product you’re reviewing which adheres to multiple things the Google article I linked above says they look for.
2) Aim to make YouTube video reviews on the same products you’re reviewing on your blog/site:
There’s a few reasons why you will want to do this:
1) First, YouTube videos rank on Google and a video review you do on YouTube can literally be ranked on Google’s search results, both in the main search and video search.
2) Second, it’s not that difficult to make product review videos on YouTube and you can get some good sales that way (I do it).
3) And third, you can link your video review to your blog to help that blog rank better (in addition to promoting the product in the YouTube video as well).
Here’s a couple of YouTube resources to help you do this:
- See this YouTube product review post help guide.
- You should also look at my full YouTube affiliate marketing guide.
- SEO is important too, so here’s a YouTube SEO guide that’s easy to implement.
- And finally, here’s a keywords guide to YouTube so you can improve your view counts.
3) Check out my posts that help you create quality product reviews:
These posts all pretty much already do what Google’s article is asking for so if you’re new to this and want to get some things like a template, a basic understanding of what works in this, these articles will really help you:
1) First, we have my general post on how to write affiliate product reviews.
2) Second, we have my product reviews template article (good for beginners).
3) Third, you may run into situations where you will need to review products you don’t own, which is why this guide to reviewing affiliate products you don’t own will help you with that problem.
Basically these guides encompass product reviewing as a whole to help you understand how to succeed doing this and it’s based on my many years doing it personally (and profiting with it).
How to take full advantage of the product reviews Google update:
My personal advice with this has always been (and still is) to do the following:
Find your ideal niche (see 10 niche examples here) and review products in that niche on both a blog and through YouTube videos. This will absolutely help you naturally create good, quality reviews (without overthinking it).
Now you should know that even if you do adhere to everything Google asks for, to not assume that all of your product review posts or YouTube videos will automatically rank well.
You are after all going to be competing against others who do this too, so if you follow the general guideline I outlined on the ideal niche and making review after review, you’ll be able to beat most of the competition.