Review Schema

What Is Review Schema?

Star ratings in search results are one of the strongest click-through rate drivers — they increase CTR by up to 35 percent because users see reviews as a trust signal. What matters is that the reviews are genuine: Google detects fake reviews and deactivates the rich result. Combine review schema with active review management where you systematically ask satisfied customers for feedback.

Review schema is a structured data format that marks reviews, ratings, and testimonials on a webpage. With review schema, a company can tell Google: “This is a 5-star customer review, written on 03/15/2024, by John Doe.” When this schema is correctly implemented, Google shows star ratings in the search result — this is a rich result and increases click-through rate by 20–30%. Review schema works particularly well for e-commerce products, services, and restaurants where reviews serve as a trust signal.

Technically, review schema is implemented in JSON-LD format and contains the following information: the reviewed entity (product, service, restaurant), the ratingValue (1–5 stars), the number of reviews, the reviewer name, and the review date. Google has strict requirements: the reviews must be genuine, not fabricated. The reviewer must be a real person (or in special cases an organization). Ratings must be current, and when an old review is deleted, the schema should be updated as well. Violations of these guidelines can cause Google to deactivate the rich result.

In practice, websites with genuine customer reviews should implement review schema. Tools like Google’s structured data testing tool show whether the schema is correct. E-commerce websites should use review schema on product pages. Local businesses should optimally use Google Business Profile reviews (these automatically have review rich results). An important point: you must not write reviews yourself and present them as genuine reviews — that is spam and violates Google’s guidelines. Review schema works best with genuine, variable reviews (different star counts), as this appears more trustworthy.