Google will stop showing star ratings in search results for reviews a business publishes about itself, widgets included, and there is no penalty. Keep testimonials on the page, and build your rating where you do not control it.

Stars from your own page

Some small business search results show a row of gold stars under the page title, with a rating and a count of reviews.

On many of those sites, the stars came from the business itself. Testimonials or a review widget on the site were tagged with code that let Google read them as ratings, code known as structured data or markup.

Google announced today that it will stop showing those stars for reviews of a local business or organisation where the business controls the reviews shown. It calls them self-serving.

The change is rolling out gradually, so the stars will fade from listings over the coming days rather than vanish at once. Nothing else about the listing changes.

What is affected

The second surprises most owners. A widget pulling reviews from another service still counts as the business controlling them, because the business chose to embed it and it appears on the business's own pages.

Why Google made the change

Testimonials on a business's own site are chosen by the business. A page of hand-picked praise, rated by the business that picked it, says little about what customers in general think.

Yet the stars looked exactly like ratings gathered independently, so they suggested more than they could support.

Google's position is that a rating shown in its results should come from somewhere the business does not control. That is a fair rule, even for businesses whose testimonials are entirely genuine.

No penalty, and no rush

Google has said there is no action against sites over this. The stars stop appearing, and the change concerns what the listing displays, not where it ranks.

The markup does not need removing urgently either. Google has said it can stay; it will simply not produce stars for these reviews.

Ask whoever maintains the site where it comes from: a plugin setting, a theme feature, a widget, or code added by hand. Then tidy it at the next update, so the site's code describes the business accurately.

What still shows stars

Reviews of products on a store's product pages remain eligible, because the store is rating something it sells rather than itself. Recipes, events, courses and books are among the other types Google still supports.

Independent review sites that collect reviews of many businesses can still show stars on their pages about you.

And the stars on your Google My Business listing, in the map results and the panel that appears when somebody searches your name, are separate and unaffected. They come from Google reviews, not from your website.

That listing is now where your rating does most of its work.

What searchers will see instead

For a search of your business name, the panel beside or above the results usually carries your Google rating, and it is unaffected. Your own website's listing simply loses its row of stars.

For a search such as a trade and a town, the map results near the top show each business's Google rating. Those stars sit above most of the plain listings, including the ones that lose theirs this week.

A worked example

A water heater installation company with four installers in Richmond had a testimonials page and a widget showing its best Google reviews, both marked up so that its search listing displayed a rating.

The owner considered those stars part of what the website was for, and his first instinct today was to look for a different widget that would bring them back.

No widget will, since any reviews shown on the company's own pages count as controlled by the company.

So the testimonials stayed where they were, each with the customer's first name, neighbourhood and the kind of heater installed. Visitors who reach the site still read them.

Every invoice now goes out with a short note asking for a review on Google, with a direct link, sent to every customer rather than only the happy ones.

The widget stayed for now. The markup will come out at the next site update.

Testimonials still do their job

The stars were for the searcher who had not clicked yet. Testimonials are for the visitor who did, and that visitor is still reading.

A specific testimonial, naming the job, the person and the place with permission, answers the doubts somebody has while deciding, which no row of stars in a search result ever did.

So nothing about this change is a reason to take testimonials down. Keep them current, though; a glowing quote from eight years ago mainly says the business was good eight years ago.

Where reviews need to live

Google My Business first, because it feeds the map results and the panel for searches of your name, and those stars are untouched.

Then the independent sites your customers actually use for your kind of business, which differ from trade to trade.

Ask steadily, after each job, with a direct link. A burst of reviews in one week looks odd and is soon buried; a steady flow keeps the newest reviews recent.

And reply to them, which shows every later reader that somebody is paying attention.

The counter-case

Plenty of small businesses will see no difference. Their listings never showed stars, because their sites never carried the markup.

A store whose product pages show stars from customer reviews keeps them, provided those reviews are of products rather than of the store.

And stars were never the reason a customer chose a business. They were a reason to look closer, and the reviews themselves, and how you answer them, still do that.

Keep testimonials on the page, and put the effort into reviews you do not control.

Before the stars fade

  1. Search your name and main service on a phone.
  2. Note where stars appear today.
  3. Find where the markup comes from on your site.
  4. Leave it in place until the next update.
  5. Keep the testimonials on your pages.
  6. Reply to every review on your listing.
  7. Ask every customer for a review after each job.

Step seven is the one that replaces what is lost. A rating built steadily on your Google listing, from customers who were each asked once, is the rating searchers will see from now on.

Making the testimonials themselves believable is covered in testimonials with no names attached.

Frequently asked questions

What did Google change today?

It will stop showing review stars in search results for reviews a business publishes about itself on its own site, whether entered directly or shown through a widget.

Is my site being penalised?

No. Google has said there is no action against sites over this. The stars stop appearing, and the change affects what the listing shows, not where it ranks.

Do review widgets still produce stars?

No. Reviews shown on your own pages through a widget still count as controlled by the business, because you chose to embed them, so they no longer produce stars.

Should I remove the review markup?

Not urgently. Google has said it can stay. Find out where it comes from and tidy it at the next update, so the code describes the business accurately.

What still shows stars in search?

Product reviews on store pages, recipes, events and similar types, independent review sites, and your Google My Business listing, whose stars come from Google reviews.

Are testimonials on my site still worth having?

Yes. Stars were for searchers who had not clicked. Specific testimonials with names and places answer the doubts of visitors deciding whether to call.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Stars about to vanish from your listing?

Send us your site's address. We will find where the markup comes from and plan your reviews from here.

Start a Conversation