Understanding Google Star Ratings

Understanding Google star ratings can help you enhance your business’s online reputation, build trust, and drive more conversions.

In the past, a five-star review might have only been showcased on your website. Now, Google has made these ratings highly visible on search engine results pages (SERPs), giving them greater importance.

Star ratings play a crucial role in gaining customer trust, improving your local search rankings, and increasing conversion rates.

Here’s a simple guide to how Google star ratings work and why they matter for your business.

Stars And SERPs: What Is The Google Star Rating?

A Google star rating is a system where customers rate a business from one to five stars, showing how satisfied they are with the service.

These ratings can appear on Google Maps, search results, ads, local listings, recipe cards, review sites, and even app store results. They help potential customers quickly gauge a business’s quality based on real user feedback.

How Does The Google Star Rating Work?

When someone searches on Google, star ratings appear in the results. These stars are determined by Google’s algorithm, which averages all published reviews for a business.

Google’s star rating system is based on the overall average of all reviews left on its platform. However, this average doesn’t update immediately and may take up to two weeks after a new review is posted.

When users leave a review on Google, they are asked to rate specific aspects of their experience, depending on the type of business and services provided. For example, plumbers might get options like “Install faucet” or “Repair toilet,” and businesses can also add custom services not listed by Google.

Customers can provide both positive or negative feedback, or they can skip specific aspects. If an aspect isn’t rated, it isn’t included in the business’s average score. Google calculates a business’s star rating by dividing the number of positive ratings by the total number of ratings, excluding those where no aspect was rated.

However, Google star ratings work differently in some regions. In the UK and EU, stricter regulations are in place due to concerns over fake reviews, following investigations by the EU Consumer Protection Cooperation and the UK’s Competitions and Market Authority.

The way Google star ratings function can also vary depending on the type of search result. Different properties of the rating system may have their own methods for gathering and managing reviews. Keep reading for a detailed look at how each type of Google star rating appears on search engine result pages (SERPs).

How To Get Google Star Ratings On Different Search Properties

As noted earlier, Google star ratings can appear in various types of search results, including standard blue-link listings, ads, local pack results, rich snippets, third-party review sites, and app store results.

Here’s a breakdown of how star ratings are displayed and function across these different listing types in Google search results.

Standard “Blue Link” Listings And Google Stars

In 2021, Google began testing star ratings in organic search results, and this feature has remained available.

These star ratings can help websites stand out from competitors by displaying stars next to their organic search result listings.

How To Get Google Stars On Organic SERPs

To get star ratings to appear in your organic search results, you’ll need to add schema markup to your website. Work with your development team to input the necessary code, which will include details like your average rating, highest and lowest ratings, and the total number of reviews.

After adding the rich snippet, there’s no set timeline for when the stars will appear in search results—that’s controlled by Google. Google has mentioned that reviews might take time to show up, especially when business profiles are merged.

Once you’ve added the markup, you can verify it using Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool.

While adding schema is recommended, even without it, Google may still display star ratings for retail businesses in the search results. This is part of their effort to provide diverse results to users. Google also notes that content related to retail, once crawled, can appear in product listings and annotations.

For Shopping Ads, however, you’ll need to pay to have star ratings displayed.

Paid Ads And Google Stars

When Google stars show up in paid search ads, they’re referred to as seller ratings. These are an automated extension that highlights advertisers with strong customer feedback. These ratings can be seen in text ads, shopping ads, and free listings, displaying both the star rating and the total number of reviews.

To have Google stars appear in free listings, sellers need to follow specific guidelines. They must comply with all policies, submit a feed through Google Merchant Center or use structured data markup on their site, and ensure their shipping settings are up to date.

Even without structured data markup, some ecommerce sellers may still see their content featured in search results. For star ratings to show up in text and shopping ads, sellers generally need at least 100 reviews in the last 12 months.

Text ads require a minimum rating of 3.5 for the stars to appear, ensuring that higher-rated advertisers are more visible. Google applies review requirements on a regional basis, so a business must meet the 100-review minimum in each country they operate in.

Reviews from Google Customer Reviews and a set of 29 third-party review sites are considered, making it easier for sellers to meet the threshold annually.

Google also has specific requirements:

The domain displaying the ratings must match the one shown in the ad.
Google or its partners need to conduct an evaluation of your site.
The reviews included must pertain to the product or service being offered.

Local Pack Results And Google Stars

Local businesses have several ways to appear on Google through Places, local map results, and their Google Business Profile page, all of which can display star ratings.

Consumers can even sort local pack results based on ratings, as illustrated in the example below.

How to Get Google Stars in Local Search Results

To show up in local search results, a Google Business Profile is essential.

Customers can leave reviews on local business listings without prompting, but Google recommends that business owners actively request reviews from their customers. Here are some best practices:

Ask customers to leave a review and provide a direct link to your review pages to simplify the process.
Ensure that review prompts are user-friendly for both desktop and mobile.
Respond to customer reviews (after verifying your business on Google).

Remember, do not offer incentives in exchange for reviews.

Customers can leave star ratings on various local review sites, and Google can aggregate these to display them on local business search results. It may take up to two weeks for new local reviews to reflect in your overall score.

Once customers start leaving reviews, owners of Google Business Profiles have several options for managing them:

Rich Results, Like Recipes, And Google Stars

Food is an essential part of life, and one way we celebrate it is through recipe blogs.

While restaurants often depend on local reviews, organic search results, and paid advertising, food bloggers aim to have their recipes rated.

Like other reviews, recipe cards in search results display the average rating and total number of reviews.

This has sparked debate within the food blogging community, as Google only shows three recipes per search on desktop and four on mobile. These prime positions drive clicks, meaning that factors beyond the recipe quality may influence visibility.

Users can click the “Show more” button to find additional recipes.

Those using Google Home can search for recipes directly and receive results on their phones. Recipe search results can also be sent to the Google Home assistant, allowing for interactive, step-by-step cooking instructions using voice commands like “start recipe,” “next step,” or “how much olive oil?”

How To Get Google Stars On Recipe Results

To display star ratings on their websites, food bloggers and recipe sites need to implement schema markup, similar to what is required for organic blue-link listings.

However, it’s not just a matter of listing the average rating and total number of reviews. Developers must adhere to Google’s guidelines for recipe markup.

There are specific requirements for markup:

Required Markup for Recipes:

– Name of the recipe

– Image of the recipe in formats such as BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, WebP, or SVG

Recommended Markup for Recipes:

– Aggregate rating

– Author

– Cook time, preparation time, and total time

– Date published

– Description

– Keywords

– Nutrition information

– Preparation time

– Recipe category (e.g., “dinner”)

– Associated region

– Ingredients

– Instructions

– Yield or total servings

– Total time

– Video (and related markup if applicable)

To be included in Google Assistant Guided Recipes, the following markup is necessary:

– `recipeIngredient`

– `recipeInstructions`

For videos, ensure to include the `contentUrl`.

Third-Party Review Sites And Google Stars

Many software companies utilise third-party review sites to guide their customers’ purchasing decisions.

Third-party review sites are any platforms that a brand does not control, allowing customers to submit their reviews. Examples include Yelp, G2, and others.

Several of these sites, such as Featured Customers, can display star ratings in Google search results.

Rich snippets from these third-party reviews, including star ratings and summary information, may also appear on a Google Business Profile or in map views when sourced from approved sites.

For local businesses, Google star ratings are shown in different locations compared to third-party reviews on desktops. On mobile devices, ratings are visible on a company’s Google Business Profile, with users needing to click on Reviews or scroll down to access third-party reviews.

On maps, third-party reviews can be more noticeable; for example, a Tripadvisor review may appear for a map search of The Hilton in Vancouver, though it may not show a star rating despite Tripadvisor providing one.

How To Get Google Stars On Third-Party Review Sites

If a software review site like Trustpilot appears in your branded search results, consider launching an email campaign to your customer list encouraging them to leave reviews there.

Here are some third-party review websites recognised by Google:

– Trustpilot

– Reevoo

– Bizrate (via Shopzilla)

Google advises businesses that they cannot opt out of third-party reviews and must address any concerns directly with the owners of those third-party sites.

App Store Results And Google Stars

Businesses that focus on applications often depend on downloads from the App Store and Google Play Store.

Searchers can view an app’s star ratings, total reviews, and key details, such as whether the app is free, directly from the search results.

How to Get Google Stars on App Store Results

To enhance their visibility, businesses should list their iOS apps on the App Store and their Android apps on the Google Play Store. They should also encourage customers to leave reviews and respond to any feedback received.

Does The Google Star Rating Influence SEO Rankings?

John Mueller has confirmed that Google does not use star ratings or customer reviews as a factor in web search rankings. However, he noted that these ratings do play a role in local search results and rankings. He stated, “Google review count and review score factor into local search ranking. More reviews and positive ratings can improve your business’s local ranking.”

While star ratings do not influence non-local organic search rankings, they can be crucial for conversion. They help display social proof, enhance credibility, and improve click-through rates from search engines, which may indirectly affect overall search rankings.

For local businesses, Google stars and third-party ratings are visible in both desktop and mobile searches. These ratings not only help local businesses achieve higher rankings for relevant keywords but also encourage more customers to click on their listings, which is essential for any company’s online visibility.

How Do I Improve My Star Rating?

To enhance their Google star rating, businesses should begin by claiming their Google Business Profile and ensuring that all information is accurate and current.

If a company already has a profile but is looking to improve a low rating, they will need to gather more reviews to raise their average. To increase the number of Google reviews, businesses can make it easy for customers to leave feedback. The first step is to obtain the review link from their Google Business Profile.

Once they have the link, companies can share it directly with customers (there are four sharing options available), post it on social media, and create sections on their website dedicated to collecting and showcasing reviews from other users.

While it’s uncertain whether responding to reviews will directly boost a local business’s ranking, it is still advisable for companies to engage with reviews on their Google Business Profile to improve overall ratings. Responding to reviews can encourage more customers to leave feedback, knowing they will receive a response and that their input is valued.

For service-oriented businesses, Google allows customers to rate specific aspects of their experience. This feature can be beneficial as it enables reviewers with negative experiences to highlight only one aspect instead of providing an overall low rating.

Does Having A Star Rating On Google Matter? Yes! So Shoot For The Stars

Stars signify quality to consumers, leading to improved click-through rates whenever they are displayed.

Customers are more likely to trust and purchase from brands with higher star ratings, whether in local listings, paid ads, or app downloads. Numerous studies have repeatedly shown this trend, so it’s essential to encourage reviews.

Conduct an audit to see where your brand appears in search results and aim to get stars next to as many listings as possible.

Ultimately, the key to achieving good star ratings lies in the quality of service and experiences companies provide, which lead to positive reviews from satisfied customers.