Google Reviews
How To Get Organic Stars in Google With Review Rich Snippets
September 22, 2017
â˘
3 min read
Positive Google reviews are important because they directly influence your businessâs search engine rankings and visibility in search engine results. Google reviews are important for building consumer trust, improving your online reputation, and are a key factor in local SEO performance.
Google Customer Reviews is a free service from Google that allows online businesses to collect verified reviews after checkout. These reviews are aggregated and displayed publicly as Google Seller Ratings, the star ratings that show up on Google Ads and Shopping listings.
Unlike reviews on your Google Business Profile, which are location-based, GCR is designed for transactional eCommerce and ties into Google Merchant Center.
Todayâs businesses can't live without reviews - and Google dominates. According to a ReviewTrackers report, Google accounts for over 70% of all online business reviews, and nearly two-thirds of consumers consult Google reviews before making a purchase.
For eCommerce merchants, Google Customer Reviews (GCR) provides a free, structured way to collect buyer feedback and build trust directly in the SERPs. When used right, it can power Google Seller Ratings, contribute to Product Ratings, and increase visibility in Google Shopping - even for businesses with zero ad spend.
There are always benefits of collecting customer feedback, but let's take a look at how collecting with Google Customer Reviews specifically can help your business's online reputation.
Google User Reviews is the only way you will be able to get Google Seller Ratings (stars that show in Google Ads) without paying to collect with a Google Licensed Review Partner. For smaller stores, thatâs a major win.
All the feedback collected through Google Customer Reviews counts towards your Google Seller Ratings - the stars that show below your business in Google Ads. As we've mentioned, you ordinarily have to pay for this privilege.
Seller Ratings have been shown to increase CTR by 17% and on-site conversions by up to 28%. These stars create powerful trust signals right where they matter most.
Remember: In order to qualify for Google Seller Ratings, you must collect at least 100 reviews per country within a 24-month period and have an average star rating of at least 3.5.
Along with Google Seller Ratings, if you set up your Google Customer Reviews to ask for feedback on specific products, the feedback collected will count towards your product ratings. When product-level reviews are collected, they can power Product Ratings - the stars that appear beneath items in Google Shopping and search results.
Again, these stars increase conversion and will do wonders for your online success. This is how Google Business Reviews help your business grow.
You canât display individual GCR reviews on your site, but you can show a Google badge with your rating. This is marked 'Google Rating', a well-recognized trust mark, especially in competitive verticals
By collecting and analyzing customer reviews, businesses gain valuable insights into feedback trends like customer satisfaction and areas for improvement. You can view this data in your Merchant Center, helping you optimize product, delivery, and service experience.
Although Google Customer Reviews is a free service, it's not right - or even possible - for every business.
Why? Well, the platform needs you to have a certain few things in place. Google Customer Reviews also require that its participants adhere to the productâs policies.
To use GCR, your business must:
If you're a service business, marketplace, or donât control your checkout flow, GCR likely won't be a fit.
The process is simple:
If you enable enhanced setup, product-specific feedback can also be collected - powering Product Ratings.
Setup is relatively simple:
For full implementation instructions, visit Googleâs Help Docs.
Hereâs how to increase your Google Business Reviews:Â
Pro Tip:Â
- SMS requests see 3x higher open rates than email alone.
- Encouraging customers to write reviews and leave Google reviews is easier when you provide clear instructions and offer multiple following methods.Â
For example, include direct review links in your marketing materials, such as emails, SMS, or printed handouts, to simplify the process.
Google Seller Ratings (GSR) are the star ratings that appear alongside your business name in Google Ads and Google Shopping. They help shoppers quickly evaluate your trustworthiness, often before even clicking through to your site.
These stars are not based on product feedback, but on overall customer experience - like delivery times, service quality, and returns.
To qualify, you need to meet Googleâs Seller Rating requirements:
Seller Ratings can be powered by:
REVIEWS.io Bonus: If you collect reviews through our platform, we submit them to Google monthly, helping you qualify faster - and without relying solely on GCR.
Google Product Ratings are stars that show for individual products, separate from your store's overall performance.
They are:
While you donât âownâ the rating, collecting high-quality, well-matched product reviews helps influence the aggregated score.
REVIEWS.io simplifies this by submitting both product and company reviews directly to Google.
If you're selling through Google Shopping, your reviews can appear in two places:
Since 2020, Google has offered free product listings, so collecting reviews (even without ad spend) gives you star-powered visibility.
There are two types of reviews you might want to find:
Many businesses also create a dedicated Google reviews page or reviews page on their website to showcase customer feedback and make it easy for new customers to find and leave reviews.
The first thing to remember is only the person who posted the Google Customer Review can edit or delete it.Â
To edit or delete a Google Customer Review as the review poster, follow the following steps:
Unfortunately, if your business receives unfair, inappropriate, or misleading feedback from competitors, you won't be able to remove it. Still, Google allows you to Report a review or Mark it as unhelpful if that review violates Googleâs review policies.
To do this, you can:
Weâd be fools to argue that Google Customer Reviews isnât a great service, because it is. But as a paid review platform, weâve seen what a truly optimized feedback strategy can achieve. And while GCR offers excellent value for zero cost, it comes with its share of limitations.
Hereâs where the cracks start to show:
One of the most common complaints from merchants is the inability to customise almost anything within the Google Customer Reviews setup.
If youâre a fashion, beauty, or luxury brand, this visual clash can undermine your carefully curated customer experience. More importantly, the lack of personalisation can reduce trust, lower open rates, and ultimately result in fewer reviews collected.
GCR is strictly for eCommerce websites with a working checkout flow and order confirmation page. That means:
Itâs also not ideal for multi-location brands or businesses without centralized fulfilment. If your model doesnât involve shipping products directly from your own store, Google Customer Reviews wonât work for you.
We strongly believe all businesses, regardless of industry, should be able to collect customer feedback. Unfortunately, GCR draws a hard line that excludes a lot of deserving use cases.
GCR does not provide any tools for review display beyond the badge.
That means:
For brands that rely on social proof and UGC to convert customers, this is a major disadvantage. Other platforms - including REVIEWS.io - offer a suite of embeddable widgets, product-specific review tiles, and even shoppable UGC galleries.
All GCR gives you is a simple star badge. Functional? Yes. But nowhere near enough to create a trust-rich, high-converting experience.
Another major pain point is limited moderation. With Google Customer Reviews:
In cases of spam, abuse, or competitor sabotage, your only real recourse is to flag the review manually and hope Google agrees it violates their policies.
If a customer leaves a misleading or unfair negative review that doesnât technically break the rules, youâre stuck with it - and so is your potential next customer.
Also, for businesses with multiple locations, GCR is not ideal, as it lacks features to efficiently manage and track reviews across all locations. Businesses operating in multiple locations may require specialized reputation management tools to handle reviews for each location effectively
Google is infamous for changing policies without much warning - and Customer Reviews is no exception.
What you can collect, display, or submit today may change next month:
And if youâre entirely reliant on GCR, a single change in how reviews are handled could derail your entire strategy. Businesses that diversify collection (e.g. using platforms like REVIEWS.io alongside GCR) are far better protected against policy shocks.
While you can collect reviews through GCR, you have limited ability to engage with them.
If a customer leaves a glowing 5-star review or a scathing 1-star rant, you canât easily respond in the way you could on other platforms.
And although asking your customers for a review on Google can be done proactively, responding to their feedback is not that easy - particularly if you want to resolve the issue and turn the experience around.
This lack of two-way interaction makes it harder to close the loop and turn reviews into long-term loyalty.
If GCR isnât right for you, or you want more control:
Our recommended way to power Google Reviews
Plus: boost review volume with SMS invites, video reviews, and shoppable UGC - all in one platform.
Google Customer Reviews is a powerful, free tool for collecting real reviews that boost your performance in Ads, Search, and Shopping.
Still have questions? Book a demo with our friendly sales team - weâll help you build a review strategy that gets results.
