Why Do My Google Stars Not Appear?
Sometimes your Google stars don't appear in the search results. Here are a few reasons why this might be happening and some tips to fix them.
Google stars can be an incredibly useful tool for online shops that depend on traffic from the search engine giant. However, it can be frustrating when you can see that your stars aren’t being displayed in the search results. Don’t panic. We’re here to help you figure things out!
Google stars refer to the star ratings displayed throughout the search engine. These ratings are based on the customer reviews published online.
Google uses a 5-star rating system. Sometimes, they are displayed as 5 stars, while other times, Google may display a single star with the rating score next to it. You can see an example of both below:
Source: The Crofthouse
Google stars appear in many places. The most common places to see them:
With this in mind, it’s important to know that Google stars are most often separated into 3 categories:
Note: As we are focused on e-commerce businesses, we will be looking at Google Search and Google Shopping in this article.
Simply put, Google stars build trust in your company and your products.
Whether it’s figuring out which product a user needs or finding a shop that offers the best price, Google is often where the customer journey begins.
Therefore, the first impression your brand makes will often take place in the search results.
When your business shows up in the results with a good reputation, this is a great way to build credibility and inspire clicks. For organic stars, this means more traffic to your site. For paid ads, this means a better click-through rate, more traffic, a boost in conversions, and a lower cost-per-click.
The bad news is that there is no way to guarantee Google displays your stars. The search engine considers stars as a privilege and not a guarantee. Google also changes how reviews are displayed fairly often, experimenting with formats, colours, and placement.
However, there are certain requirements to fulfil in order to have a chance at being displayed. We’ll cover the most common reasons for shops not displaying stars in the next session.
It’s also important to understand that Google limits some reviews from being displayed in certain places: Google no longer allows shops to display their own seller rating/store rating directly next to their own domain in organic search results. That means that store ratings can only appear next to trusted 3rd party review sites (e.g. the dedicated shop reviews page on Trusted Shops).
This rule, however, does not apply for Google Ads. You can still display stars next to your domain in paid ads.
Note: In some markets, Google has been observed placing stars next to a shop’s own domain again. However, these are not sourced directly from the shop, but is generally a compilation of reviews and ratings that Google has collected from trusted reviews platforms. Again, Google often experiments with Google stars, turning on and off certain features quite spontaneously, often without announcements.
Let’s look at the reasons why your shop might not be displaying stars in Google.
Structured data is code added to your site’s HTML. Also known as schema markup, you can think of them as ‘labels’ you can place throughout your website in order to help Google understand your website (and brand) better. Some of the most common schema markups identify your phone number and other contract information.
Customer reviews can be ‘marked up’ in a similar way. Google has to understand that the reviews on your sites are actually customer reviews. With that in mind, product reviews and service reviews are marked up differently.
If there are any mistakes in your structured data, this may be causing an issue with displaying your stars in Google.
Warning: Manipulating your schema markup to show ratings you haven’t earned can backfire tremendously if Google figures this out. This is not advised.
You can learn more about schema markup from our whitepaper:
For Google Shopping, whether it’s free listings or paid ones, proper account setup is crucial. You’ll need to make sure the shop name and domain in your reviews match the shop name and registered domain in your Google Merchant Center account.
If certain product reviews aren’t showing, consider that products must have unique identifiers like GTIN, SKU, or MPN.
When we talk about things like Google Knowledge Graph (that box that highlights business info at the top of the results), you may need to check your Google Business Profile for accurate information as well.
Google really only collects and publishes reviews from two sources:
A list of approved providers can be found in Google’s Merchant Centre.
As we mentioned earlier, if you’ve been caught doing something shady with your reviews, Google very well might be punishing you by not displaying them. This can include, but is not limited to:
Google has certain requirements for showing reviews. Depending on which reviews (i.e. service or product reviews) you want to display, the number of reviews required varies. The quality of the reviews is sometimes also considered by Google.
Whether we’re talking about organic results or paid results (Google Shopping or Google Ads), Google requires:
For more details, check out Google’s article on displaying product reviews.
The number of service reviews needed in order to display Google stars is not set in stone. According to Google, the number of reviews can vary by merchant (and industry), but most businesses will get a rating after about 100 reviews in the past 24 months (per country where stars will be displayed).
In addition to the number of reviews per country, service ratings also need to have a higher average than 3.5 stars.
For more details, check out Google’s article on displaying store ratings.
Note: Google also limits reviews for certain industries, namely education. If you’ve categorised your business as a school in your Google accounts, you may want to reconsider this if possible.
Even if you’ve addressed all of the above points, it is still no guarantee that Google will display your star ratings. Here are a few additional tips for improving your odds of displaying those Google stars:
Shutterstock/PeskyMonkey
Google consider the recency of reviews when deciding to display star ratings. That is why it’s important to have a constant stream of new reviews coming in. There are some tips for making sure your customers actually take the time to leave reviews for your business:
We provided a list of Google-approved review providers earlier in the article. Many of these providers make it easier to not only get your stars showing in Google, but they can also make reviews look nice on your website.
So, how can you decide? Consider what options the review provider has in addition to just the ability to transfer reviews to Google. Ask yourself:
Reviews are about building trust with your audience. The best review providers provide more solutions than just helping you display reviews in Google. They help you build confidence with your customers.
Trusted Shops not only offers a trusted reviews platform, but also provides trust solutions to boost your brand as a whole.
The Trustmark & Buyer Protection add 3rd party certification along with 30-day protections that bring peace of mind to new customers. We call the Trustmark the ‘6th star’.
Google Integration helps you keep Google up to date with all the reviews you’ve collected. Set it and forget it. It does a lot of the work for you to boost your chances of displaying Google stars.
The Reputation Manager helps you boost your ratings on open review platforms (like Trustpilot). By redirecting some of your review invites to other review platforms, your business can shape a consistent reputation across the Google search results.
It doesn’t end there. Explore our B2B website to learn more about our trust solutions.
Make sure you are checking the right boxes to improve your odds of getting your Google stars displayed throughout their platform. Working with a Google trusted review provider can make things much easier. Regardless of that, it’s important to have realistic expectations regarding Google stars. There is no guarantee of anything. The best you can do is take the actions needed to improve your odds.
24/09/25Sometimes your Google stars don't appear in the search results. Here are a few reasons why this might be happening and some tips to fix them.