beginner6 min read·Schema Markup

Review & AggregateRating Schema

AggregateRating and Review schema trigger star ratings in SERPs - one of the highest CTR boosters and a strong trust signal for AI answer selection.

Reading level:

Review schema and AggregateRating schema are structured data types that tell Google about product and service reviews on your page - enabling the gold star rating display you see below search results. They work together: AggregateRating provides the summary score (4.7★ from 348 reviews) while individual Review entities provide the specific reviews from named authors. Both must be present for Google to display star ratings in standard SERPs - AggregateRating alone is no longer sufficient for rich result eligibility as of Google's 2023 review policy update.

Review schema also feeds AI answer systems - when AI systems answer "is [product] good for X use case?" or compare multiple products, they extract and reference review data from pages with properly implemented Review schema. The reviewBody text of individual reviews is used for AI sentiment synthesis, and the AggregateRating score appears in AI comparison tables. Implementing review schema is one of the few direct links between your structured data and your AI citation quality for purchase-intent queries.

Review Schema Patterns: Three Implementation Types

Google distinguishes between individual reviews, aggregate ratings, and nested review patterns - each with different rich result eligibility and different AEO implications. Click each type to see the complete JSON-LD and when to use it.

When to use

Use on individual product, service, or entity pages - each review is authored by a specific reviewer.

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Review",
  "itemReviewed": {
    "@type": "Product",
    "name": "SEO Analytics Pro"
  },
  "reviewRating": {
    "@type": "Rating",
    "ratingValue": "5",
    "bestRating": "5",
    "worstRating": "1"
  },
  "name": "Best AEO tracking tool available",
  "reviewBody": "After 6 months using this platform, our AI citation appearances increased by 42%. The snippet monitoring feature caught 3 competitor theft attempts we would have missed.",
  "author": {
    "@type": "Person",
    "name": "Sarah Chen",
    "url": "https://acme.com/reviews/sarah-chen"
  },
  "datePublished": "2026-02-10",
  "publisher": {
    "@type": "Organization",
    "name": "G2 Crowd"
  }
}

Common Review Schema Errors

These are the most frequently flagged review schema errors in Google's Rich Results Test and Search Console reports.

ErrorImpactFix
AggregateRating without individual reviewsRich results may be suppressedAdd at least one Review entity nested in the Product or itemReviewed
ratingValue outside bestRating/worstRating rangeSchema validation error - rich result suppressedEnsure ratingValue is between worstRating and bestRating values
Missing bestRating and worstRatingGoogle may misinterpret rating scaleAlways specify: bestRating: '5', worstRating: '1'
Self-written editorial reviews in Review schemaPotential manual action (review policy violation)Only include genuine third-party or user reviews from real reviewers
Review schema on different page than what's reviewedRich results suppressed, potential manual actionReview schema must appear on the page describing the reviewed item
datePublished missing from reviewsReduced review freshness signalAdd ISO 8601 datePublished to every Review entity

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Topics