Local pillar / check review-schema

Self-serving review markup

Flags rating or review markup that a business places on its own LocalBusiness or Organization entity. Google makes such pages ineligible for star results, so we never recommend adding it.

By Shimon Carroll, Founder, SEO for AI Agents · Last updated

What this check measures

Every JSON-LD node on the page whose type is LocalBusiness, Organization, or one of their common subtypes (Dentist, Attorney, MedicalClinic, and others), and whether that node carries an aggregateRating or review property.

Why it matters

Google review snippet guidelines say that if the entity being reviewed controls the reviews about itself, its pages that use LocalBusiness or any other type of Organization structured data are ineligible for the star review feature. This applies to reviews in the site markup and to embedded third-party review widgets. Advice to add this markup for stars is out of date, and markup that misstates reviews is a structured-data policy risk.

How we score it

Never scored. The finding is informational: it reports self-serving rating markup when present and passes when absent. Absence is the correct state and needs no action. When the local checks run: for accountants, lawyers, medical practices and real estate audits they always run, because a missing address or Maps link is itself the finding. For every other audit they run only when the pages we read show a physical location or a service area: a street address or a city and state, a Maps link or embedded map, LocalBusiness, opening-hours, geo or address schema, locations or service-area pages or wording, or a city or state in the title or headings. When none of these appear, each local check is marked not applicable with that reason. It does not score, it is left out of coverage and of the overall, and it never enters the action plan.

Confidence-flag rules

HIGH: the check reads the JSON-LD types and properties directly from the raw HTML, so the evidence is exact.

Common mistakes

  • Adding AggregateRating to your own LocalBusiness schema to try to get stars.
  • Embedding a third-party review widget and expecting it to produce star results for your own business.
  • Stating a rating in markup that is not shown on the page or does not match the source.

How to fix it

Do not rely on self-serving markup for stars. Keep any rating markup truthful and visible, or remove it. Put the effort into collecting genuine reviews from real customers on third-party platforms such as your Google Business Profile.

Primary sources

Changelog

  • · Local checks now apply only to businesses that show a physical location or service area on the pages we read, unless the industry always runs them. Online-only sites see each local check marked not applicable with the reason, and the local pillar does not score.
  • · Reversed. The check used to recommend adding AggregateRating and Review nodes to LocalBusiness schema to earn star results. Google states that self-serving reviews on LocalBusiness or Organization pages are ineligible for the star review feature, including reviews shown through embedded widgets. The check now flags such markup (unscored) and recommends genuine third-party reviews instead.
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