Review snippet
star ratings in search / rich snippet stars / review schema / AggregateRating
A review snippet is the star rating Google can show beside a search result, drawn from structured data on the page. Local businesses cannot get one from reviews about themselves. Google says pages where the reviewed entity controls the reviews, including embedded review widgets, are ineligible.
The stars are made of markup. Schema.org defines a Review as a review of an item, for example of a restaurant, movie or store. It defines an AggregateRating as the average rating based on multiple ratings or reviews. That type carries a count of ratings and a count of reviews. Put the vocabulary in a page and Google may render it as stars.
Then comes the guideline that decides almost every case a service business cares about. Google states that if the entity being reviewed controls the reviews about itself, its pages using LocalBusiness or any other Organization type are ineligible for the star review feature. Its example is direct: a review about entity A, placed on the website of entity A. Google closes the obvious workaround too. The rule applies whether the reviews sit in your structured data or arrive through an embedded widget, and it names Google Business and Facebook review widgets.
Read Google's own list of what qualifies and the pattern is plain. Local business is listed only for sites that capture reviews about other local businesses. Organization is the same. So the eligible case is a directory rating other people. The ineligible case is a business rating itself. That second one is what most businesses are trying to do.
One more sentence to keep in view when anyone promises a result. Google says it does not guarantee that features that consume structured data will show up in search results. Correct markup makes a page eligible. It does not make stars appear.
In practice
This is the real answer to why a competitor has stars and you do not. Google's list of eligible types includes Product, Recipe, Movie, Book, Course, Event and Software App. A shop showing stars on a product page is using a route open to it. That route is closed to a service business reviewing itself. The comparison is usually between two different situations, not two levels of effort.
Not the same as
- The rating on your Google Business Profile
- That comes from Google's own surface, not from structured data you publish on your site.
- AggregateRating versus Review
- One is the averaged score across many. The other is a single person's review, with its own body and rating.
Why it matters to you
Markup to get stars is sold to local businesses regularly. For a business displaying reviews about itself, the feature is documented as unavailable, widget or no widget. That does not make structured data pointless, since it still describes the page for other purposes. It does mean a proposal priced on stars appearing is priced on something Google says will not happen here.
What to ask or check
- 01Are the reviews on our site about us, which Google treats as ineligible?
- 02Which structured data type is this proposal marking up, and is that type ratings-eligible?
- 03Is anyone promising stars will appear, when Google says eligibility is not a guarantee?
What people get wrong
That adding review markup will put stars beside your listing. Google documents pages as ineligible when the reviewed entity controls the reviews, and says eligibility never guarantees the feature appears.
Red flags
- A quote priced on star ratings appearing for a business that reviews itself.
- An embedded review widget presented as a way around the self-serving guideline.
- Any promise that structured data will produce a particular search appearance.
Who owns it
Whoever controls the page templates. The eligibility question is decided by whose reviews they are, not by who writes the markup.
Where you will see it
As the stars under some search results, and in SEO proposals offering schema markup.