Google's review snippet documentation supports Organization and LocalBusiness review markup only for sites that capture reviews about other organisations or local businesses, not about themselves. Product reviews marked up with Review or AggregateRating are treated separately. Marking up your own company testimonials as self-serving reviews falls outside the supported use case and may be ignored or trigger a manual action.
What is the difference between a company testimonial and a product review?
A company testimonial describes an experience with a business as a whole: service quality, delivery, support, or overall satisfaction. A product review describes a specific item, its performance, fit, durability, or value. The distinction matters because Google's structured data guidelines apply different eligibility rules to each.
According to Google's Review snippet documentation, review snippets can appear for Book, Course list, Event, Local business, Movie, Product, Recipe, and Software App. Google also supports reviews for Organization and several CreativeWork types. However, the Local business and Organization types are explicitly limited to sites that capture reviews about other local businesses or organisations. The documentation points to guidelines about self-serving reviews.
A self-serving review, in Google's terms, is a review a site publishes about itself. Google's guidelines also flag reviews not based on a genuine experience, and reviews written in exchange for a benefit such as money, discounts, vouchers, or free products that don't clearly and prominently disclose the incentivization. If your site is the business being reviewed, marking up those testimonials as Organization or LocalBusiness reviews falls outside the supported use case.
When is review schema for a company allowed?
Review schema for a company is allowed when the site publishing the markup is not the company being reviewed. A review platform, a directory, or a comparison site that collects genuine reviews about third-party businesses can use LocalBusiness or Organization review markup. The reviewer must have had a genuine experience, and the review must not be incentivised in a way that compromises its authenticity.
For a brand's own website, the practical position is different. Testimonials from customers are still useful content. They can build trust with visitors. But they should not be marked up with Organization or LocalBusiness review schema on the brand's own site. The visible testimonial can remain, but the structured data should not claim it as a review snippet candidate.
How should product reviews be marked up?
Product reviews are a separate case. If your site sells or reviews products, you can use Review and AggregateRating structured data for the Product type, subject to Google's general review snippet guidelines. The review must be about a specific product, based on a genuine experience, and not written in exchange for a benefit.
This is where many ecommerce sites get into difficulty. A product page may display customer ratings collected through a review platform. If those ratings are genuine and the markup matches what users see, Product review schema can be valid. But if the ratings are aggregated from incentivised reviews, or if the markup shows a rating that is not visible on the page, the structured data may be ineligible.
The same principle applies to review markup: the structured data must reflect what is actually on the page.
What does a practical diagnostic look like?
Start by identifying who is being reviewed. If the reviewed entity is your own company, do not use Organization or LocalBusiness review markup. If the reviewed entity is a third-party business and your site is a review platform, the markup may be appropriate.
Next, check the review source. Was the review based on a genuine experience? Was it written in exchange for money, discounts, vouchers, or free products without clear and prominent disclosure? If yes, it falls into the incentivised category and should not be marked up.
Then compare the markup to the visible page. Does the rating shown in structured data match the rating a user sees? If the page shows five stars but the markup claims four, that is a mismatch. Google's documentation notes that the actual appearance in search results might differ, and the Rich Results Test can preview most features.
Finally, decide whether the page is eligible at all. A company testimonial page on your own site is not eligible for Organization or LocalBusiness review snippets. A product page with genuine customer reviews may be eligible for Product review snippets. A third-party review site covering local businesses may be eligible for LocalBusiness review snippets.
Example: a hypothetical decision table
Consider a hypothetical scenario. A UK-based software company publishes customer testimonials on its own website. The testimonials are genuine, but the company marks them up as Organization reviews. Under Google's guidelines, this is a self-serving review use case and the markup is not supported.
In the same hypothetical, the company also sells a software product and collects genuine product reviews from verified buyers. Those reviews can be marked up as Product reviews, provided the ratings match the visible page and the reviews are not incentivised.
A third scenario: a US review directory publishes reviews about local restaurants. The directory is not the restaurant. If the reviews are genuine, LocalBusiness review markup may be appropriate.
| Scenario | Reviewed entity | Site owner | Eligible for review snippet? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brand's own testimonials | The brand | The brand | No, self-serving |
| Product reviews on brand site | The product | The brand | Yes, if genuine and visible |
| Review directory covering local businesses | Third-party business | The directory | Yes, if genuine |
| Incentivised reviews | Any | Any | No |
What are the uncertainties?
Google's documentation describes supported types and eligibility rules, but it does not guarantee that valid markup will produce a rich result. The documentation states that when Google finds valid reviews or ratings markup, it may show a rich snippet. The word may matters. Rich results are not guaranteed.
The self-serving review guidelines are referenced but not fully reproduced in the review snippet page. The exact boundary between a genuine testimonial and a self-serving review can require judgement. A testimonial from a customer who received a discount may be genuine in experience but still fall into the incentivised category if the incentivization is not clearly and prominently disclosed.
Enforcement is also not fully transparent. Google may ignore markup, or it may take manual action. The documentation does not specify a fixed penalty for every case. The safest approach is to follow the stated eligibility rules and avoid marking up reviews about your own organisation.
How do you verify your own markup?
Use Google's Rich Results Test to check whether a page is eligible for review snippets. The test can preview most features, though the actual appearance in search results might differ. Check that the reviewed entity is correctly identified, that the review is about the right type, and that the rating matches the visible page.
Review your review collection process. If reviews are collected in exchange for a benefit without clear and prominent disclosure, they should not be marked up. If reviews are about your own company, they should not use Organization or LocalBusiness review markup.
Document your decisions. A simple internal note explaining why a page uses or does not use review schema can help when reviewing the site later. This is not a Google requirement, but it supports consistent implementation.
Follow-up questions
Can I use AggregateRating for my own company's testimonials?
No. Google supports LocalBusiness and Organization review snippets only for sites that capture reviews about other local businesses or organizations. If your site is the company being reviewed, the markup is not supported. You can display testimonials visibly without marking them up as review snippets.
Does review schema guarantee stars in search results?
No. Google's documentation says it may show a rich snippet when it finds valid markup. Eligibility does not guarantee appearance. The actual appearance in search results might differ, and the Rich Results Test can preview most features.