SEOmediumtechnical

Add Review schema markup

rule · review

Review and AggregateRating schema markup allows Google to display star ratings directly in search results, creating a rich snippet that stands out from plain blue links.

Code Example

HTML

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Product",
  "name": "Wireless Noise-Cancelling Headphones",
  "image": "https://example.com/headphones.jpg",
  "description": "Premium headphones with 30-hour battery life.",
  "aggregateRating": {
    "@type": "AggregateRating",
    "ratingValue": "4.7",
    "reviewCount": "312",
    "bestRating": "5",
    "worstRating": "1"
  }
}
</script>

Why It Matters

Star ratings in search results increase click-through rates by up to 35%; incorrect or missing schema means competitors with valid markup capture that visibility advantage.

Individual Review Schema

HTML

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Review",
  "itemReviewed": {
    "@type": "Product",
    "name": "Wireless Headphones"
  },
  "author": {
    "@type": "Person",
    "name": "Jane Smith"
  },
  "datePublished": "2025-02-14",
  "reviewBody": "Excellent sound quality and very comfortable for long sessions.",
  "reviewRating": {
    "@type": "Rating",
    "ratingValue": "5",
    "bestRating": "5"
  }
}
</script>

Required Properties for Rich Results

AggregateRating (within a supported type)

Property	Required	Notes
`ratingValue`	Yes	The average rating (numeric string)
`ratingCount` or `reviewCount`	Yes	Total number of ratings
`bestRating`	Recommended	Maximum possible rating (default: 5)
`worstRating`	Recommended	Minimum possible rating (default: 1)

Review

Property	Required	Notes
`author`	Yes	`Person` or `Organization`
`reviewRating`	Yes	A `Rating` with `ratingValue`
`itemReviewed`	Yes	The thing being reviewed

Supported Entity Types for Star Ratings

Google shows star ratings for reviews of: Product, Recipe, Movie, Book, Software, LocalBusiness, Course, Event.

❌ Policy Violations

Self-authored reviews ("Review your own business")
Reviews that don't reflect genuine user experiences
AggregateRating with reviewCount: 0
Markup on pages that don't display review content to users

Validation

Use Google's Rich Results Test (opens in a new tab) to confirm:

Schema is detected without errors
The correct rich result type is eligible
All required properties are present

Exceptions

Only add or enforce schema types that the page can truthfully support; irrelevant structured data is worse than no structured data.
A technically valid schema block can still be misleading if the page content does not visibly back it up; audit rendered content and schema together.
If indexability, canonical-url, or main content quality is wrong, fix that foundation before optimizing schema details.

Standards

Use these references as the standard for the final search-facing HTML, metadata, and crawl behavior.
Check the implementation against Google: Review snippet structured data before treating the rule as satisfied.
Check the implementation against Schema.org: AggregateRating before treating the rule as satisfied.

Verification

Automated Checks

Inspect rendered HTML and HTTP headers to confirm the expected metadata or crawlability signal is present.
Test the affected URL with Google Search Console or equivalent tooling where relevant.
Re-crawl a representative page set after deployment.

Manual Checks

Confirm the change does not create conflicting canonical-url, robots, or structured-data signals.