Reviews on product pages
Reviews on a product page are the last thing between a visitor and the buy button. Where they go and what to show.
Get star ratings in Google results
Star ratings in search results come from Product schema. What that means for an ecommerce store, and what it means for everyone else.
The problem
A search result with a star rating and a review count gets clicked more than the same result without one. That is the whole mechanism and it is worth having.
Whether you can have it depends on what your reviews are attached to, and for a lot of businesses the honest answer is no.
What actually works
Our widget outputs Product schema with an AggregateRating. Product is the type Google still shows star ratings for, so that is the type we use, and it goes out automatically with the widget.
Google removed review rich results for LocalBusiness and Organization markup in 2019, on the grounds that a business rating itself is not independent evidence. The full explanation.
Getting it right
If you sell products, this is a real promise. A product page carrying a star rating and a count in the search result is measurably more clicked, and the markup goes out without you configuring anything.
If you are a local or service business, be realistic. Your stars already appear where they count — in Maps and the local pack, from your Google Business Profile. That is the asset worth building, and it is not something a widget on your website produces.
How to tell whether it worked
Search Console shows whether Google picked up the markup and whether it is showing a rich result. Validation and display are different things: correct markup makes a rich result possible, and Google still decides.
Questions
Other things reviews solve
Collect customer reviews
Ask at the moment someone is already pleased with you, on the page they are already on, instead of hoping they remember later.
Build trust on your site
Reviews are one of several things that make a site look credible. Here is the whole list, honestly, and where reviews fit.
Turn visitors into buyers
Reviews next to the decision change completion rates. Here is where to put them and how to find out whether it worked.