Google This Week: Product Reviews, Prestashop Merchants & More

There’s been some big changes to Google this week with PrestaShop Merchants Google integration, Google’s Product Reviews Update and more accessible healthcare options with Google Search. Have you noticed any changes?

ICYMI, here’s what happened at Google This Week.

• PrestaShop Merchants Can Integrate Products on Google
• Google’s December 2021 Product Reviews Algorithm Update
• Google Postpones Mobile-First Search Index
• Google Announces A Search Bug in News Tab
• Google Business Profile Review Update
• Google Performance Planner New Updates
• More Accessible Healthcare Options with Google Search

PrestaShop Merchants Can Integrate Products on Google

Google announced that it’s allowing PrestaShop merchants around the world to “more easily integrate their product inventory” on the search engine’s platform. The collaboration with PrestaShop marks Google’s first large-scale foray into French and European eCommerce.

PrestaShop Marketing with Google is available across France and in other countries where Shopping campaigns are available. It will allow about 300,000 PrestaShop merchants to show off their wares across Google’s platform after a few clicks, making them discoverable by millions of people through Search, the Shopping tab, Image Search and YouTube.

Google’s December 2021 Product Reviews Algorithm Update

Google Search Central announced a new algorithm update called “December 2021 product reviews update” designed to improve the quality of product reviews ranking in Google’s search results.

The update aims to promote review content that is above and beyond much of the templated information you see on the web. Google said it will promote these types of product reviews in its search results rankings. This is the second time Google is pushing out a products reviews update this year; the first one rolled out in April 2021.

Google Postpones Mobile-First Search Index

Google will not set a date for a switch to a 100% mobile-first search index. The search company does not “have a specific final date for the move to mobile-first indexing” John Mueller of Google said on the company blog. John Mueller announced that the final date for a switch to a 100% mobile-first search index has been set aside, and wants to be thoughtful about the remaining bigger steps in that direction.

Google Announces A Search Bug in News Tab

Google Search Liaison announced that Google News was experiencing a bug and that the problem would not be fixed until Tuesday or sometime after December 1st.

The tweet stated that a user would have to go through a somewhat convoluted series of steps in order to produce the bleed-through of non-news search results.

Google Business Profile Review Update

Google has updated its reviews help document page in the Google Business Profile support area to say that Google values all reviews, not just positive.

Google has added a bullet point to the document that reads “Value all reviews: Reviews are useful for potential customers when they’re honest and objective. Customers find a mix of positive and negative reviews more trustworthy. You can always respond to a review to show the customers that you care and provide additional context. If the review doesn’t follow our posting guidelines, you can request to remove it.”

Google Performance Planner New Updates

Google Performance Planner adds support for ineligible campaigns, secondary metrics, “Suggested changes” and specific time ranges.

Here are the latest updates:

1. Add previously ineligible campaigns to your plan by using past performance or adding manual forecasts to plan across your entire account.
2. Understand Performance Planner recommendations at a glance with the new “Suggested changes” column. This column displays the suggested budget and bid recommendations for a specific campaign.
3. Add secondary metrics to your performance plan. This makes it easier to understand the impact on performance beyond your key metrics. For example, if you create a plan to maximize conversions, you can now also add a column that shows the changes to clicks as well.
4. Choose a specific time range you want to use for historical conversion rate. This means that you can now use a historical conversion rate that’s closer to what you expect for the date range you’re using in your plan.

More Accessible Healthcare Options on Google Search

Google is rolling out a few updates to Google Search to help users find doctors and healthcare providers that are right for them. These updates include being able to see if a doctor or healthcare provider accepts your insurance and if they speak your language.

Additionally, Google has added a directory option that allows clinics to list the languages the staff at their office speak. With today’s launch, there’s support for 12 languages, including Spanish and ASL. Lastly, the company now allows healthcare providers to update their Google Business Profile.

Thank You for Reading

Have you noticed any changes from Google this week?

Check back next Friday for the latest from Google This Week.