Generate Review & Rating Schema in Seconds

Review schema is the structured-data markup that lets Google show those eye-catching gold stars beneath your search result. Pages that earn star ratings stand out in a crowded SERP, and that extra visual weight is one of the most reliable ways to lift click-through rate without changing a single ranking position.

This guide explains what Review and AggregateRating schema are, how they differ, the exact properties Google requires, and how to generate valid JSON-LD in seconds — plus the eligibility rules that decide whether your stars actually show.

What Is Review Schema?

Review schema is a piece of schema.org structured data that describes a rating someone gave to a thing — a product, a local business, a recipe, a movie, a piece of software, and so on. You add it to your page as JSON-LD (a small script in the page head), and search engines read it to understand that the page contains a review.

There are two closely related markup types, and the difference matters:

• Review — a single, individual review from one author, with one rating and (usually) some review text.
• AggregateRating — a summary of many ratings, expressed as an average value plus a count (for example, "4.8 out of 5 from 327 ratings").

Both attach to the item being reviewed rather than standing alone. A Product, for instance, carries a review array and/or an aggregateRating object. That nesting is what tells Google "this rating belongs to this thing."

Review vs AggregateRating: Which Should You Use?

Use whichever reflects what is genuinely on the page:

In practice, the strongest pages combine both: an AggregateRating for the headline star average, plus a handful of representative individual Reviews. Our generator can emit either one or both in a single block.

The Properties Google Requires

For a review snippet to be eligible, your markup must include specific properties. Miss a required one and Google simply ignores the markup.

Required for a single Review

• author — the name of the person or organization who wrote the review (a Person or Organization, never your own brand name as a generic).
• reviewRating — with a ratingValue, plus bestRating and worstRating if your scale isn't the default 1–5.
• The thing being reviewed (the itemReviewed, which in JSON-LD is simply the item the review is nested inside).

Required for AggregateRating

• ratingValue — the average score.
• ratingCount or reviewCount — you must supply at least one; ratingCount counts all ratings, reviewCount counts written reviews.
• bestRating / worstRating when your scale is not 1–5.

A common, snippet-killing mistake is an AggregateRating with a ratingValue but no count. Always include a count.

How to Generate Review Schema, Step by Step

1. Name the item and pick its type

Choose the schema.org type that matches what's reviewed — Product, SoftwareApplication, Recipe, LocalBusiness, and so on. The type determines which rich result you're eligible for, so be accurate.

2. Set your rating scale

Most sites use 1–5, but the markup supports any range. Set bestRating and worstRating so a 4 on a 1–10 scale isn't misread as near-perfect.

3. Add the ratings and reviews

Enter the average and counts for an aggregate, and/or paste individual reviews with their author, rating, and text. A good tool will derive the average from your reviews automatically so the numbers can't contradict each other.

4. Copy the JSON-LD and validate

Paste the generated <script type="application/ld+json"> block into the head of the page that actually displays those reviews, then run it through Google's Rich Results Test before you publish.

Review Schema Best Practices

• Mark up only what's visible. The reviews in your schema must appear on the page for real users — invisible or fabricated reviews are a guideline violation.
• Don't self-serve. Google won't show review stars for ratings of your own LocalBusiness, Organization, or Service that you host yourself. Use genuine third-party reviews for those entity types.
• Keep counts honest. ratingCount and reviewCount should reflect the true number on the page or in your store.
• Use a real author. "By Admin" or your brand name as the author of every review looks spammy and can trigger a manual action.
• Match the average to the math. If you list five reviews, the aggregate average should be consistent with them.

Common Review Schema Mistakes

• Adding AggregateRating with no ratingCount or reviewCount.
• Marking up reviews that aren't shown to visitors on the page.
• Using review schema across the whole site instead of on the specific item page.
• Self-serving ratings of your own business that will never produce stars.
• Leaving bestRating/worstRating off a non-default scale.