Social Proof
Turns Plain Text Reviews Into Visually Impactful, Shareable Graphics
January 27, 2020
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5 min read
Google Seller ratings are the stars that appear under a listing for a business in Paid Search/Google Ads.
A business' Seller Rating is aggregated from trusted review sources, including Google Customer Reviews and Google Licensed Review Partners such as Reviews.io.
Only reviews collected from trusted review sources can be aggregated - stars collected from third-party sites such as Facebook will not be counted.The Seller Ratings is there to give searchers an overall picture of your performance and trustworthiness. They give businesses significant advantages in Paid Search Engine Results Pages.
Why are the holy grail of review you ask? Well, they're quite hard to get, for one, but mainly, they have a whole host of benefits for your business.
Google Ads can be expensive. So if you're paying for them, we'd advise making the most of that top spot!
See here how Google Seller Ratings will help you to stand out in Google.
Why? Well just imagine. Would you click on a result in the SERPs with gold shiny stars, or without? It's a no brainer.
Not only do they help you stand out and look more clickable, but they 'sing your praises' so to speak. Without having to read anything, Customers can gather an idea of your credibility from the SERPs alone.
The result? Increased Click-Through Rate. In fact, the average is 17%.
Google gives businesses a 'Quality Score' to work out the Cost Per Click you pay for your ads. A Quality Score is made up of three contributing factors:keywords, landing pages and the Ad itself.
Where do Seller Ratings come into this? Well, Google uses your CTR to help it establish the quality of your Ads.
Higher CTR = Higher Quality Score.
If you feel like Google Ads is costing you more than it's worth, Google Seller Ratings can really turn that around.
That increased CTR coupled with an increased Quality Score will lower your CPC, getting you more bang for your buck. Google Seller Ratings and Google Ads really do make the perfect team and you'll be amazed at the impact a few little stars have on your budget.
Lower CPC + more conversions = higher profits.
And when those customers do eventually reach your site, the good news will continue. Unlike Google Ads for businesses without Seller Ratings, your customers will now already have built some trust and confidence in your business, moving them further along the sales funnel.This is great news for on-site conversions too - reviews produce an average of 18% uplift in sales.
Yes. Your potential profits with Google Seller Ratings set up are starting to look real good.
Sounds pretty good, right? There's little not to like about Seller Ratings, but as with all good things, they must be earned. In order to get Google Seller Ratings on your ads, you'll need to:
Google is committed to giving its users the best experience possible.In order to do this, they take trust and transparency really seriously. If you want to bag yourself Google Seller Ratings, you'll need to collect reviews in a way that Google has put its stamp of approval on.
Google only aggregates 'verified' reviews for Seller Ratings. These are reviews that a proof of purchase has been provided for, therefore guaranteeing their authenticity and making them more reliable.
There are two ways to collect verified reviews:
Google Customer Reviews is a free platform that facilitates the collection of feedback from customers that have made a purchase on your site. By enrolling in the Google Customer Reviews program, you can set up and customize survey invitations and post-purchase communications, helping to collect and display customer feedback. This enhances online visibility and trust through features like store ratings that appear on ads and listings, thereby improving the overall online shopping experience.
There are both benefits and drawbacks of using this service, primarily being that it’s free and as such, has limited capabilities.
Google Licensed Review Partners, such as Reviews.io, on the other hand, give you much more flexibility. Whilst you do have to pay to sign up, the benefits are enormous.
Not only will you get those glorious Google Seller Ratings, but review widgets and extras such as Reputation Management and Competitor Analysis allow you to really take control of your online reputation across the board.
Collecting alone isn't quite enough, however. In order to be eligible for Seller Rating status, you'll need to:
To qualify for a Google Seller Rating, follow these steps:
1. Sign up for Google Customer Reviews
Enable Google Customer Reviews in your Merchant Center and integrate the opt-in module to collect post-purchase feedback.
2. Partner with an Approved Review Aggregator
Work with a Google-approved platform like REVIEWS.io to collect and submit verified reviews that count toward your rating.
Maintaining a steady flow of authentic reviews is key - learn how to encourage more customer reviews and handle negative feedback effectively to protect your reputation.
3. Encourage Customers to Leave Reviews
You need at least 100 verified reviews with a 3.5-star average or higher in the last 12 months. Automate review requests, respond to feedback, and use positive reviews to boost customer trust.
Maintaining a strong Google Seller Rating isn’t just about meeting the requirements - it’s about building trust, improving visibility, and ultimately driving more conversions. By following these steps and prioritizing authentic customer feedback, you can strengthen your brand’s reputation and maximize the impact of your reviews.
Google automatically applies Seller Ratings to ads that meet its criteria. To check your eligibility:
Once eligible, follow these steps to enable Seller Ratings in your Google Ads campaigns:
Monitor your Seller Ratings in Google Ads Manager by:
If Google Seller Ratings aren't showing on your ads, we'd recommend revisiting the list above and ensuring you've met all the requirements.
Additionally, as with most things Google, even when you've done everything that should be done to qualify, you still may be left Seller Ratings-less. We advise waiting up to 8 weeks after meeting the requirements to give Google time to catch up.
Very rarely, a company may never see Seller Ratings on their ads, and sometimes, they may come and go. Google is always trying to optimise and enhance its user experience, and Seller Ratings play a big part in this.
Google has intensified its efforts to ensure the authenticity of reviews. In response to regulatory pressure, the company has agreed to implement stricter measures against fake reviews, including:
These measures aim to protect consumers and maintain the integrity of online ratings.
You'll also need to adhere to the latest guidelines around Google Seller Ratings, which prohibit the use of incentives for company reviews and require full transparency from both merchants and review collection providers.
- Merchants can no longer offer financial incentives for company reviews – this means any kind of financial incentives, be it a discount code or gift card. However, you can still offer discount codes for product reviews.
- Company reviews can no longer be imported – your company listing must only show reviews collected directly through your current provider, and only these are eligible for submission to the Google feed. You can still import company reviews for widgets on your own site, and you can still import product reviews. Reviews imported before the 1st July 2020 are not affected.
- Merchants with a seller rating must show all reviews on a public page – your review profile page needs to be visible to search engines, and must include all reviews, both positive and negative. These must also be rated on either a 1–5 or 1–10 scale.
- Review submissions now have a timescale – after an invitation is sent, the recipient has up to 90 days to respond. If a customer wishes to edit their review after 90 days, they're free to do so if this functionality is available through your provider. They're also able to delete their review at any time.
Merchants cannot remove or moderate reviews – if a review is deemed unfair or inappropriate, it must be flagged and will only be removed if Google finds it in violation of its policies. The review in question will remain visible until the investigation is complete. This applies to all reviews, both solicited and unsolicited.
You can't delete reviews from a previous provider – if you've switched your review collection platform, your previous provider must maintain a live profile page displaying reviews collected through them. These will continue to appear in your Google feed.
If your Google Seller Rating score is teetering around the 3.8 mark and you want to improve it, or, perhaps you have loads of verified reviews, but your score is too low to qualify, we have a few things to help you out.
In general, customers that are asked to leave a review are not only willing but will return with positive comments about your business.
If your Google Seller Ratings is flagging a bit, now might be a good time to send out a Review Booster - a review email request to both past and present customers.
This should be more than enough to get some high-quality, verified reviews rolling in and up your Seller Rating by at least a few points.
If you're consistently getting poor reviews from your customers, it's probably time to change tact.
Don't just see reviews as static, but use them for the greater good of your business. Review analysis can tell you a great deal about your business' current weak points and help you improve those areas to generate more positive customer experiences in the future.
Whilst this isn't a solution that will help you turn your Seller Ratings around overnight, in the long run, it will definitely pay off.
Google Seller Ratings not working out for you? Don't fret. Although they're an automatic extension, you do have some power over them.
Here's what you can do.
To turn off Google Seller Ratings, you'll first need to log in to your Google Ads account. From there:
Don't want to stop your Google Seller Ratings from showing completely? Understandable - as we've seen they have so many benefits. Unfortunately deleting individual reviews on Google is tricky, as they are verified reviews, and as a rule, Google does not delete verified reviews.
Why? Well, they've been proven to be from real customers, usually with a receipt of purchase.
For example, here at Reviews.io, a reviews will be sent to Google providing it is:
We must emphasise that is extremely rare that verified reviews are deleted. If you have any concerns about the validity of any review visible on Reviews.io then email our moderation team at support@reviews.io and we will conduct a full and impartial investigation.
If a review is found to be infactual, or does not comply with any of the above general guidelines, it will be removed from our feed. When the feed is then updated in Google, it will be discounted from your seller rating.
Below are some common questions people ask about Google Seller Ratings:
If your Seller Ratings aren’t appearing in your Google Ads, it could be due to one of the following reasons:
If your ratings meet the requirements but still aren’t displaying, check your Google Ads account settings or Google’s Seller Ratings lookup page to verify eligibility.
Google Seller Ratings and Product Ratings serve different purposes:
In short, Seller Ratings help build trust in your store, while Product Ratings help potential buyers assess specific items. Both can boost conversions, but they require different review collection methods.
Yes! Google Seller Ratings are not individual product reviews - they are aggregated company reviews to give an overall representation of your company. Whilst you do need to use Google Ads, you don't need to use Google Shopping.
Seller Ratings can be temperamental and often won't show every single time in the SERPs. In order to increase the likelihood of your Seller Ratings showing, make sure to keep collecting reviews of high quality and high scoring.
Google Seller Ratings are an automatic Ad Extension - you only need to meet the requirements then they will begin to show.
Google Seller Ratings are aggregated from many different sources. Along with Google Customer Reviews and Google Licensed Review Partners, Google may use other sources - such as its own private surveys - to pull in data about the performance of your company.
It’s worth noting that some businesses will never be eligible for Seller Ratings due to the nature of their business. Review Platforms, for example, are not permitted to show reviews on Google Ads, likewise with Vaping or Tobacco companies.
Independent review websites play a crucial role in providing unbiased and authentic feedback about businesses, which helps build trust with potential customers.
Google Seller Ratings are an automatic ad extension, so when you’ve met the requirements, all you need to do is sit back and relax - Google will do the rest for you.
Got questions about Google Seller Ratings? Head over to our website or jump on live chat with one of our advisors.
