Nearly 3.5 billion searches are performed every day on Google. That’s practically 40,000 searches every second! How does one web page stand out compared to the rest on the page? Often the most relevant search results are shown with what’s known as rich results.
Rich results are search query results that differ from the normal search results with additional data displayed. Rich results use rich snippets to feature web page content within the search engine results pages, in addition to the typical page title, page URL, and meta description. Not only are they favorable for Google users, but they are an absolute gamechanger for e-commerce businesses.
We’ve all seen rich results in some way. For example, we see a snippet of a recipe when we search for dinner ideas, or we see a star rating beneath a restaurant or business within the search results. These star ratings are called review rich snippets, and they’re a huge help when searching for products and services online. Roughly 90% of consumers read product reviews online before purchasing, and reviews assure viewers that not only is this a good product but that they are a trustworthy business.
Simply put, review rich snippets have the ability to drive traffic and conversions, thus providing more opportunities to generate reviews that will in turn drive even more traffic and conversions from organic search.
How do review rich snippets work, and how can star ratings be featured on the search engine results page? Continue reading to learn about the different ways to apply review rich snippets, the types of content Google can display reviews for, and how to easily feature reviews on Google SERPs.
Content Types That Display Reviews On Google
As per Google, technically you can add review markup to any Schema types, but some schema types displaying the star rating does not make any sense. As a result, they have limited the review rich snippets for following schema types. This means that any reviews outside of those limits will no longer show review snippets.
Since not every schema type needs to present reviews on the search results page, Google has limited review rich snippets to the following Schema types:
- Books
- Courses
- Episodes
- Events
- Games
- How-to’s
- Local Businesses
- Media Objects
- Movies
- Music Playlists
- Music Recordings
- Organizations
- Products
- Recipes
- Software Applications
As of Sep, 18 2019, Google has made the change for LocalBusiness and Organization (and their subtypes) Schema types are no longer displayed. These reviews are considered as self-serving review where the review about entity A is placed on the website of entity A – either directly in their markup or via an embedded 3rd party widget.
Ways to add review structured data to a page:
There are four different ways you can add review rich structured data to the page.
Simple Review
Below is an example of a simple review Json-ld code
<html>
<head>
<title>Legal Seafood</title>
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org/",
"@type": "Review",
"itemReviewed": {
"@type": "Restaurant",
"image": "http://www.example.com/seafood-restaurant.jpg",
"name": "Legal Seafood",
"servesCuisine": "Seafood",
"priceRange": "$$$",
"telephone": "1234567",
"address" :{
"@type": "PostalAddress",
"streetAddress": "123 William St",
"addressLocality": "New York",
"addressRegion": "NY",
"postalCode": "10038",
"addressCountry": "US"
}
},
"reviewRating": {
"@type": "Rating",
"ratingValue": "4"
},
"name": "A good seafood place.",
"author": {
"@type": "Person",
"name": "Bob Smith"
},
"reviewBody": "The seafood is great.",
"publisher": {
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "Washington Times"
}
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>
Nested Review
Below is an example of a nested review Json-ld code
<html>
<head>
<title>The Catcher in the Rye</title>
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org/",
"@type": "Product",
"brand": {
"@type": "Brand",
"name": "Penguin Books"
},
"description": "The Catcher in the Rye is a classic coming-of-age story: an story of teenage alienation, capturing the human need for connection and the bewildering sense of loss as we leave childhood behind.",
"sku": "9780241984758",
"mpn": "925872",
"image": "http://www.example.com/catcher-in-the-rye-book-cover.jpg",
"name": "The Catcher in the Rye",
"review": {
"@type": "Review",
"reviewRating": {
"@type": "Rating",
"ratingValue": "5"
},
"author": {
"@type": "Person",
"name": "John Doe"
},
"reviewBody": "I really enjoyed this book. It captures the essential challenge people face as they try make sense of their lives and grow to adulthood."
},
"aggregateRating": {
"@type": "AggregateRating",
"ratingValue": "88",
"bestRating": "100",
"ratingCount": "20"
},
"offers": {
"@type": "Offer",
"url": "https://example.com/offers/catcher-in-the-rye",
"priceCurrency": "USD",
"price": "5.99",
"priceValidUntil": "2020-11-05",
"itemCondition": "https://schema.org/UsedCondition",
"availability": "https://schema.org/InStock",
"seller": {
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "eBay"
}
}
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>
Aggregate rating
Below is an example of a aggregate rating Json-ld code.
<html>
<head>
<title>Legal Seafood</title>
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org/",
"@type": "AggregateRating",
"itemReviewed": {
"@type": "Restaurant",
"image": "http://www.example.com/seafood-restaurant.jpg",
"name": "Legal Seafood",
"servesCuisine": "Seafood",
"telephone": "1234567",
"address" : {
"@type": "PostalAddress",
"streetAddress": "123 William St",
"addressLocality": "New York",
"addressRegion": "NY",
"postalCode": "10038",
"addressCountry": "US"
}
},
"ratingValue": "88",
"bestRating": "100",
"ratingCount": "20"
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>
Nested aggregate rating
Below is an example of a Nested aggregate rating Json-ld code.
<html>
<head>
<title>Executive Anvil</title>
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org/",
"@type": "Product",
"name": "Executive Anvil",
"image": [
"https://example.com/photos/1x1/photo.jpg",
"https://example.com/photos/4x3/photo.jpg",
"https://example.com/photos/16x9/photo.jpg"
],
"brand": {
"@type": "Thing",
"name": "ACME"
},
"aggregateRating": {
"@type": "AggregateRating",
"ratingValue": "4.4",
"ratingCount": "89"
},
"offers": {
"@type": "AggregateOffer",
"lowPrice": "119.99",
"highPrice": "199.99",
"priceCurrency": "USD"
}
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>
Ratings and reviews have a massive impact on sales, and rich review snippets are the SEO tool for capitalizing on them within the SERP. Setting up rich review snippets and making the most of them sounds difficult, but it’s really not. We’ve created a plugin that simplifies the process with no Schema knowledge necessary. Our free Chrome extension provides you easy to copy-and-paste code for implementing reviews on your product and service pages. We even made customization as simple as possible.
Install the Schema.dev Schema Markup Generator to unlock the unused potential of your Google search impressions with one-click structured data for any web page.