In the August 2024 SEO Office Hours, Google answered the question from Sumit Punia about aggregated reviews in structured data. He asked about feeding reviews from other services like Yelp, Trustpilot, etc, into Google for product pages.
Google’s Matt answer was simple: “Yeah, don’t do that”. This is based on the guidelines in Google’s review documentation.
Follow these guidelines strictly if you don’t, your pages won’t be eligible for review snippets in search results.
So when you add structured data, make sure the reviews are honest and from your site to be compliant and avoid any SEO risks.
What and Why Google Warns Against Aggregated Reviews via Structured Data
In the August 2024 SEO Office Hours, Google answered the question about aggregated reviews in structured data for products. Sumit Punia asked:
“Can we use aggregated reviews from a specific service and feed it to Google via structured data for products on our shop? Would this hurt SEO?”
Google’s answer was simple: “Yeah, don’t do that”.
This answer highlights several key points about the implications of aggregated reviews:
- Guidelines: Google says using aggregated reviews against their documentation is against their guidelines. Get to know the guidelines to avoid penalties.
- Ineligibility for Review Snippets: Aggregated reviews will make your product pages not eligible for review snippets in search results. That’s a big visibility hit.
- Impact on SEO Strategy: Non-compliance with these guidelines will not only affect your page visibility but also your overall SEO strategy and traffic and engagement to your site.
Make sure all reviews displayed via structured data are real and from your site to be compliant with Google’s policies and to protect your SEO.
That’s it!
In summary, Google’s answer in the recent SEO Office Hours is a good reminder to follow their structured data guidelines for reviews.
Aggregated reviews from external services in your structured data will hurt your SEO big time and make your product pages not eligible for review snippets.
Be compliant and protect your site. Reviews should be real and from your site.
Follow this and you’ll be good with Google and rank higher. 😊
