How to Get Star Ratings in Google Organic Search Results 4 easy ways⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

UPDATE: Rich snippets not showing in search results? Due to recent changes made by Google, Star Ratings In Google Organic Search Results will only appear alongside search results that use schema markup for individual Products.

Star Ratings In Google Organic Search Snippet

If you want to get stars showing in Google Search Results, then you will need Aggregate Rating Schema. This is what tells Google and other search engines, well, your aggregate rating. This can be an accumulated number of ratings from several sources or just your Google My Business page reviews. This is used with rich snippets as the basis to display stars in your google organic search listing.

If you want to get stars showing in Google Search Results, then you will need Aggregate Rating Schema. Share on X

Rich Snippets Not Showing In Search Results?

Google review stars not showing? You may have mis-configured your schema markup or your chosen CMS may not support rich snippets. Read on to find out more about the various ways that you can add Google Stars to your website.

Star Ratings In Google Search Results

Once the relevant Product schema coding has been built into your website, Google will show stars and your rating in your search snippet, just below your search result title, like this:

If you don’t have any reviews and ratings, take a look at this post on how to get Google Reviews.

Aggregate Rating Schema Markup

Showing 5 shiny gold stars in your Google search snippet is a sure fire way to increase click through rates. Stand out over your competitors listing and potentially receive more clicks over higher ranked listings.

It still shocks me to this day, the limited number of websites that make use of this simple and easy to add schema markup. Which will add stars to your google snippet in search results.

According to a recent internet marketing study, the CTR of a position 2 ranking was about half that of a number 1 ranking. This can be almost flipped on its head, with the simple addition of Aggregate Rating schema data; which will show stars on Google search snippets.

Google Search Ratings Content Types

• Book
• Course
• Event
• How-to
• Local business
• Movie
• Product
• Recipe
• Software App

Google Ratings schema.org Types

• CreativeWorkSeason
• CreativeWorkSeries
• Episode
• Game
• MediaObject
• MusicPlaylist
• MusicRecording
• Organization

How To Get Star Ratings In Google Search Results

As well as your basic Website, Organisation and Local Business schema markup, you can just as easily add your Aggregate Rating schema markup for products; which will in turn provide the correct markup for the stars to show on your Google organic search results snippet.

1. Hard Code Google Stars Rating

It is possible and quite simple to hard code your schema markup in the html code of your website. Check out the Google developer documentation for more on that. For help with compiling the html code to insert your star rating manually on your website, you can use the Structured Data Markup Helper from Google.

WordPress Schema Markup

If you’re running WordPress CMS, adding schema markup to your website couldn’t be simpler. There are several WordPress plugins that offer this function. Here are the ones that will work in most, if not all scenarios:

2. Site Reviews

Once set up correctly, this WordPress plugin will allow you to simply add new reviews with 5 star ratings using forms or you can import them; and they will be shown as your aggregate rating in Google rich snippets on search results. Be sure to include the aggregate snippet shortcode in every page that you want the star rating to appear for and you’re all set.

3. WP SEO Structured Data Schema

More complex and not quite as automated, yet far more versatile. This handy WordPress plugin will enable you to add all types of schema markup to your WordPress website. Not just Aggregate Rating, add all the necessary Website, Local Business and Organisation schema. As well as the other useful schema markup data options available like Services and Events.

Star Ratings In Google Search With Structured Data Schema Plugin

Watch this guide that will show you How To Get 5 Star Ratings In Google Search Results; with the WP Structured Data Schema WordPress Plugin.

4. Emoji Stars In Google SEO Title

Another sneaky way to show stars in your google search result, is by using by Emoji in SERP. Similar to this post you can use star emojis in your page title and Title meta tag; and they will also show as stars in Google search results. Just like with the title of this post, you can copy and paste this star emoji into your page title ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ and meta description if you like.

Google Review Stars Not Showing?

Rich snippets not showing in search results? Your 5 gold stars may well not show up straight away in Google search results. To get stars on Google search results, you’ll need to make sure that your website has been crawled by Google’s bots; after you put the schema markup on your site and updated your pages. Another reason could be a Google Penalty, you can check for this in Search Console too.

Get Stars Showing In Google Search

Resubmit your pages using Search Console to make sure Google has the latest content and schema (don’t forget to clear all your website and hosting cache first). Clear any local cache in your browser, just to be sure, then go and find your website with Star Ratings In Google Search results snippet.

Should I Add Stars In Google Search?

Wondering if you should go through all the trouble of getting Star Ratings In Google Search Results? You certainly don’t want to do it the wrong way. This could lead to a Google penalty and your site being punished in the rankings. See below for more about how not to do it…

Nobody is forcing you to do anything! But in case there is any doubt whether you should add schema data to your website; watch this video from the SEO gurus Moz!

More on Twitter Cards and OpenGraph Markup in a future post…

How Not To Get Stars In Google Search

The most common error we see and a sure fire way to end up in the sin bin, is to add Product Schema to the website header. Pages that do not contain a valid product will get the schema markup too. Seriously, DO NOT DO THAT! I have personally seen this being recommended by alleged SEO professionals on a well known freelance-finder type website.

More Google Search Rich Snippets

Many studies have found that the click through rate (CTR) of a website can be vastly increased with Google Rich Snippets. As well as Stars On Google Search, other snippets available include events and recipes among many more. Giving you a chance to beat other websites ranked in the top spots by filling more of the SERP.

Other Schema Markup

If you really want to delve into all the options available to you for marking up your website; with Schema Data for Rich Snippets in your Google listing; check out this fascinating infographic from Moz.

For help with your rich snippets schema data and adding Star Ratings In Google Search results listing; just drop a line to White Rabbit through the contact page.

Comments & Questions

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