Review

Add Review schema markup

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.

Quick Reference

• Use Review schema on individual review pages and AggregateRating on product/service pages to earn star-rating rich results
• AggregateRating requires ratingValue, ratingCount or reviewCount, and valid bestRating / worstRating values
• Ratings must reflect genuine user reviews — Google penalises self-serving or fabricated ratings
• Validate markup with Google's Rich Results Test before deploying

Check

Inspect the page source or rendered DOM for JSON-LD blocks containing "@type": "Review" or "@type": "AggregateRating". Verify required properties are present: ratingValue, ratingCount/reviewCount, bestRating. Run the URL through Google's Rich Results Test.

Fix

Add a JSON-LD <script> block with AggregateRating nested inside the main entity (Product, LocalBusiness, etc.). Populate ratingValue and ratingCount from real review data. Remove any schema on pages with no genuine user reviews.

Explain

Explain how Review and AggregateRating schema work, which page types are eligible for star-rating rich results in Google Search, and why fabricated ratings violate Google's structured data guidelines.

Code Review

Review metadata generation, rendered HTML, structured data, and response headers related to Add Review schema markup. Flag exact routes or templates where search-facing output violates the rule, and describe how to verify the final page output.

---

For full implementation details, code examples, and framework-specific guidance, see references/rule.md.

Rule page: https://frontendchecklist.io/en/rules/seo/review

Add Review schema markup

Validates Review and AggregateRating schema on product, service, and business pages to enable star-rating rich results.

Priority: medium · Difficulty: intermediate · Time: 10 min

--- 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

<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

<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)

Review

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 to confirm:

1. Schema is detected without errors 2. The correct rich result type is eligible 3. 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.