What is an aggregate rating?

Three facts: what was rated, the average, and how many ratings or reviews it's based on. In schema.org terms that's `itemReviewed`, `ratingValue`, and `ratingCount` or `reviewCount`. Google requires at least one of the two counts, and numbers default to a five-point scale unless the markup sets `bestRating` and `worstRating`.

Google adds two conditions on the page itself. "If you use AggregateRating, users should be able to see that aggregate rating on the page," and for local businesses, "Ratings must be sourced directly from users," not compiled by editors. So the markup has to describe a visible rating that real customers gave, never a number typed into the code.

No. Google says that if a business "controls the reviews about itself, their pages that use LocalBusiness or any other type of Organization structured data are ineligible for star review feature." That includes reviews shown through "an embedded third-party widget (for example, Google Business reviews or Facebook reviews widget)."

Google announced this on September 16, 2019, calling such reviews "self-serving." Guides written before then are still online and still show how to add the markup. In our contractor website study, 1,610 of 4,433 contractor homepages had a review widget. Marking up those reviews is the case Google's example names: they can't earn stars on your own pages. Showing reviews on your site still helps the people reading them; it just doesn't produce stars in Google.

Mostly in places other than your own search listing. Your Google Business Profile shows your Google rating in Maps and the local pack. Sites that collect reviews about many businesses, such as directories, can qualify for review snippets on their own pages, because Google allows LocalBusiness review markup "only for sites that capture reviews about other local businesses."

So when a homeowner sees stars next to your name in search, they're usually looking at your profile or a third-party page about you. That's where effort pays: a steady flow of genuine Google reviews and accurate profiles on the review sites that rank for your name. Our reputation management page explains how we run a review program that asks every customer, never just the happy ones, which our review gating entry covers.

If it describes your own business, it isn't earning stars, so it's doing little for you. Some site builders and review plugins add it automatically. Whether to remove it is a judgment call; Google's rule makes those pages ineligible for stars rather than naming a penalty for the markup itself.

What you shouldn't do is mark up a rating that isn't on the page or that customers didn't give. In our study, review-rating markup turned up on 47 of 298 homepages of Google Maps top-three businesses that ChatGPT named, and 99 of 648 that it didn't. That's an association from homepages saved in October 2026, not proof of anything. It does suggest the markup isn't what separates the businesses that get named.

Related terms: Schema markup · LocalBusiness schema · Review gating · All glossary terms

Where to go next: How do I respond to reviews on Google? covers the reviews that do show stars. Our reputation management page explains the review program.

All read November 1, 2026.

• Schema.org, AggregateRating
• Google Search Central, Review snippet (Review, AggregateRating) structured data (last updated September 8, 2026)
• Google Search Central Blog, Making Review Rich Results more helpful (September 16, 2019)
• Google Search Central, Local business (LocalBusiness) structured data (last updated September 8, 2026)
• Mindflow, Contractor website study (homepages saved October 2026; see the study for method)

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