Star Ratings in Google Search: What Schema.org Markup Can and Cannot Do

A tax advisory firm has read in a guide that review stars in Google search bring more clicks, and has review markup added to its website. Weeks later, the search results for the firm still show no stars. That is not a mistake in the markup. It is a rule from Google that many guides leave out.

This article explains what the markup does, what Google says about it and how to set it up in Mocha without promising more than can be kept.

What schema.org markup is

Schema.org is a shared vocabulary that lets a website tell search engines in machine-readable form what is on it: a business with name, address and phone number, plus an overall rating and individual reviews. The markup sits in the head of the page as a small script (JSON-LD). Visitors do not see it.

The markup describes what is visible on the page. It does not replace the visible reviews, and it does not make them better.

What Google says about stars

The sentence missing from many guides: according to Google's guidance, pages with LocalBusiness markup are not eligible for review stars in search if the reviewed business controls the reviews about itself and marks them up on its own website (the "self-serving" rule). This applies to businesses and organizations and all their subtypes, so also to a medical practice, a law firm or a restaurant. You can read it in Google's documentation on review snippets.

That means for you:

• Do not plan on stars in search results. Neither Google nor Mocha promises them.
• Google sets the rules and can change them. Check the current state.
• Stars in search and reviews on your website are two different things. Reviews influence visitors even without stars in search.

Where Google reviews themselves are strong and where they reach limits is covered in Google reviews compared with Mocha.

What the markup can still do

Even without stars, the markup describes your business unambiguously: name, kind of business, website, and if you wish address and phone number, plus the reviews that are on the page. That can help search engines place the page correctly. Whether and how it affects display or position is up to the search engine. Do not count it as a result.

What Mocha writes into the markup

Besides the visible reviews, the widget can add schema.org markup to the head of the page. Fixed rules apply:

• Approved reviews only, never pending, rejected or withdrawn ones.
• Only reviews from your own form. Imported reviews, such as those from Google, stay out. Google's guidelines do not accept ratings taken over from other sites as review markup.
• Names as your name display allows. Someone who is shown only with initials appears only with initials in the markup.
• An overall rating and up to ten individual reviews.

So the markup contains nothing that visitors could not see, and nothing the reviewers did not agree to.

How to set it up

1. Maintain the business details. In the settings of your space, fill in "Name for search engines", website, "Business type", address and phone. Without a choice, the type is "Local business". Among the options are medical practice, dental practice, psychology and psychotherapy, legal services, accounting and tax advice, and consulting and professional services. When in doubt, keep the general type.
2. Switch the markup on in the widget. Under "Embed", pick a widget, for example the review wall or the star badge, and switch on "Add schema.org markup" in the "Search engines" section. The code you copy then carries the setting.
3. Use it on the right page. Add the markup only to the page that also shows these reviews visibly.
4. Test it. With Google's Rich Results Test you can see whether the markup is read and whether warnings appear.

One detail: schema.org has no type "Psychologist". If you choose "Psychology and psychotherapy", Mocha writes the markup as "MedicalBusiness" so that it stays valid.

Common mistakes

• Promising stars: Whoever promises customers or clients "stars in search" promises something that is not in your hands.
• Marking up reviews nobody sees: The markup should describe visible content.
• Taking over third-party reviews: Mark up only your own reviews, collected with consent.
• Choosing the wrong type: A restaurant is a local business, not a medical practice. Choose what describes your business correctly.
• An address with private data: Enter only details that are public on your website anyway.

Note: This article gives general information and is not legal advice. Questions on data protection and consent are for your data protection adviser.

Conclusion

The markup is a clean way to tell search engines who you are and which reviews are on a page. Stars in Google search are not promised with it, and you should not plan on them. Whoever knows that can set up the markup in a few minutes and spend the time on what visitors actually see: your own reviews with consent, which the guide to the Google Business Profile complements.