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Review Schema Generator

Build Review or AggregateRating JSON-LD for the item types Google actually shows stars for: products, books, movies, software, recipes — and local businesses when reviewed by a third party. The tool validates rating ranges, requires the author Google insists on, and warns you the moment you pick a combination that falls under the self-serving review restriction, because that single policy is behind most “my stars disappeared” complaints since 2019.

Markup mode
  • ✕ The name of the item being reviewed is required.
  • ✕ Reviewer name is required — Google rejects reviews without a valid author.

Fill in the required fields above to generate the JSON-LD markup.

How to use the review schema generator

  1. Choose what is being reviewed and name it. The type matters: it becomes the itemReviewed (single review) or root entity (aggregate) in the markup.
  2. Pick a mode. Single review marks up one written review with its author and rating; aggregate rating marks up the average across all reviews.
  3. Fill in the fields. For a single review, the reviewer name is mandatory — Google explicitly rejects reviews without a valid author. For aggregates, the average must sit between 1 and your bestRating.
  4. Heed the red warning if you selected Local business: stars only appear when the markup sits on a site other than the business being reviewed.
  5. Copy the <script> block into the page that visibly displays the review or rating, then test with Google’s Rich Results Test.

The self-serving review rule, in practice

This is the rule that breaks most review-schema plans, so it is worth being precise. Since September 2019, Google ignores review and rating markup where the itemReviewed is a LocalBusiness or Organization (or any subtype — Dentist, Restaurant, Attorney) and the markup is published by that same entity. The decisive question: who controls the page?

  • Your law firm’s site, marking up client testimonials about the firm — self-serving. Valid markup, zero stars, forever.
  • A local directory reviewing that same law firm — eligible. Third party controls the page, so LocalBusiness review stars can render.
  • That law firm’s site reviewing legal software it uses — eligible. The itemReviewed is a SoftwareApplication, not the firm itself.

If you run a local business, channel the energy into Google Business Profile reviews (those stars show in the map pack and knowledge panel) and keep testimonials on your site as plain, persuasive content — without rating markup.

Worked example: aggregate rating on a product page

A product page showing 89 customer reviews averaging 4.4 out of 5 would carry this block — note the rating lives inside the Product, not as a free-floating AggregateRating:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Product",
  "name": "Acme Standing Desk Pro",
  "aggregateRating": {
    "@type": "AggregateRating",
    "ratingValue": 4.4,
    "reviewCount": 89,
    "bestRating": 5
  }
}

The numbers must reconcile with the page: if a visitor can count the reviews and compute a different average, the markup is misleading. And resist rounding 4.43 up to 4.5 — Google renders fractional stars, and the mismatch between markup and your visible “4.43” is exactly the kind of inconsistency audits flag.

Frequently asked questions

Why did Google stop showing stars for my own business reviews?

In September 2019 Google rolled out the “self-serving reviews” update: review snippets for LocalBusiness and Organization no longer appear when the entity being reviewed controls the markup — i.e., on the business’s own website. Google reasoned that businesses publishing hand-picked five-star reviews about themselves were not useful to searchers. The markup still parses as valid, which is exactly why this mistake survives: validators pass it, but the stars never render. Stars for a business now come from Google Business Profile reviews or from genuine third-party review sites.

So is review schema on my own site ever worthwhile?

Yes — for things you sell or publish, not for yourself. Reviews of your products (Product), your app (SoftwareApplication), your recipes, or books you publish are not self-serving in Google’s definition, because the itemReviewed is not your own LocalBusiness or Organization. A plumber cannot get stars for “Smith Plumbing — 5 stars,” but an e-commerce store absolutely can get stars for “Acme Standing Desk Pro — 4.4 (89 reviews)” when real customer reviews appear on that product page.

Should I use a single Review or AggregateRating?

Use both when you have them, but they serve different cases. A single Review fits editorial content — a critic’s movie review, your in-depth review of a software tool — and needs an author, a rating, and ideally the review text and date. AggregateRating fits pages collecting many customer ratings and needs ratingValue, reviewCount (or ratingCount), and the scale. For product pages the strongest pattern is an aggregateRating plus a few individual review objects nested inside the same Product, mirroring what the visitor sees.

Can I import star ratings from Yelp, Amazon, or Google reviews?

No. Google’s review snippet guidelines require that ratings be sourced directly from users of your site and prohibit marking up third-party reviews aggregated from other platforms. Scraping your Yelp average into AggregateRating markup violates the guidelines even though the numbers are real, because Google cannot verify the chain. Collect reviews on your own pages — even a simple post-purchase form — and mark up only what your site gathered and displays.

What does Google require inside the rating itself?

Three things trip people up. First, the ratingValue must fall within the declared scale — if you rate out of 10, you must include bestRating: 10, because Google assumes a 1–5 scale by default and a 9.2 on an undeclared scale gets discarded. Second, a single Review requires an author with a name; “Anonymous” reviews are routinely flagged. Third, the reviewed item needs a specific type — itemReviewed of plain Thing or WebPage is unsupported, which is why this tool makes you pick Product, Book, Movie, and so on.

The Rich Results Test says my review markup is valid — why no stars in search?

Validity is the entry ticket, not the prize. Common reasons stars still do not show: the self-serving restriction (LocalBusiness/Organization on your own site), the review is not visible on the page (markup-only reviews violate guidelines), the page is a category listing rather than a single item, every product sitewide shows an identical 5.0 (a manipulation pattern Google demotes), or Google has simply chosen not to render the enhancement for your site’s trust level. Rich results are always at Google’s discretion — the markup makes you eligible, nothing more.

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