If your Google review stars stopped showing, first work out which stars you lost. The stars next to your business name in Google Maps and the local pack come from reviews customers left on your Google Business Profile. The stars under your website's blue link are a review snippet, which Google builds from structured data on the page. Since September 2019 Google has refused review snippets for a business's reviews of itself on its own website, so a homepage or service page that showed stars from a reviews widget lost them for good. Product pages, recipes, software and the other supported types can still earn stars when the markup is valid and the reviews are genuine.
Each place where stars appear has its own source, its own usual cause and its own first check:
| Where the stars went missing | Where Google gets them | Most common reason | First check |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your homepage or service page in Google Search | Review or AggregateRating markup on the page | The page reviews your own business (self-serving rule) | Which schema type the markup uses |
| Your product pages in Google Search | Product markup with reviews or a rating | Broken markup or a missing required property | Rich Results Test and the Review snippets report in Search Console |
| Your Google Business Profile (Maps, local pack) | Reviews customers left on Google | Reviews held for checks, removed for policy, or a profile restriction | Your profile's reviews and any email from Google |
| Shopping results and ads | Merchant Center product ratings or seller ratings | Separate programs with their own rules (not covered here) | Merchant Center |
Why review stars disappear from your website's search result
Google calls these stars review snippets. Its review snippet documentation sets the rules, and these six cover the usual reasons stars go missing from a business website.
1. The page reviews your own business
This is the rule that catches homepages and service pages. Google's guidelines say that if the entity being reviewed controls the reviews about itself, its pages that use LocalBusiness or any other type of Organization structured data are ineligible for star review features. Google's own example is a review of business A placed on business A's website, either directly in the markup or through an embedded third-party widget such as a Google Business reviews or Facebook reviews widget.
Take a plumber who embeds their Google reviews on the homepage and marks them up as LocalBusiness. That page will not show stars, however many reviews it carries. Google announced the rule in September 2019 in Making Review Rich Results more helpful and rolled it out gradually. If your homepage stars went then, no change to the markup will bring them back.
Sites that review other businesses, such as directories and review platforms, can still use LocalBusiness and Organization markup. Your own reviews keep showing as stars on your Business Profile in Maps and the local pack.
2. The page type is not supported
Google shows review snippets only for these types: Book, Course list, Event, LocalBusiness, Movie, Product, Recipe and SoftwareApplication, plus CreativeWorkSeason, CreativeWorkSeries, Episode, Game, MediaObject, MusicPlaylist, MusicRecording and Organization (both business types with the self-serving limit above). Blog posts, category pages and generic service pages are not on the list. Google also asks for reviews of one specific item, never of a category or a list of items.
Marking a service page or an article up as a Product to get stars breaks the guidelines. Google can show the stars for a while and then remove them, or apply a manual action.
3. The markup has errors or misses a required property
A theme update, a new plugin or a page builder change can break markup without anyone noticing. Check these properties first:
- Review: an
author(a Person or Organization whose name is under 100 characters), areviewRatingwith aratingValue, and the item it reviews, either nested or named initemReviewed. - AggregateRating: a
ratingValueand at least one ofratingCountorreviewCount. - One way of saying what is reviewed. Since November 2025 Google's documentation tells you to avoid combining several, for example nesting a rating inside a Product and also pointing
itemReviewedsomewhere else.
Run the URL through Google's Rich Results Test, then open the Review snippets report in Search Console to see when valid items dropped. If you edit JSON-LD by hand, a JSON validator catches syntax errors before the page goes live.
4. The reviews are not on the page, or they come from another site
The reviews you mark up must be visible to visitors on the marked-up page. Google also tells you not to aggregate reviews or ratings from other websites. A badge that pulls your Trustpilot or Google score into your own markup fails both rules, even when the number is accurate.
5. The reviews are fake or hide an incentive
On July 24, 2026 Google added a new guideline to the review snippet documentation: "Don't include fake or undisclosed incentivized reviews on your page or in your structured data markup." Its examples are reviews that are not based on a genuine experience of the product or service, and reviews written in exchange for money, discounts, vouchers or free products that don't clearly and prominently disclose the incentive.
A page that breaks the structured data guidelines can get a manual action. Google's general structured data guidelines say a structured data manual action removes the page's eligibility for rich results without affecting how it ranks. Open the Manual actions report in Search Console to see whether you have one.
Google Maps is stricter than this website rule. On your Business Profile, Google doesn't allow any incentive for a review, disclosed or not (see the Business Profile section below).
6. Google decided not to show them
Valid markup makes a page eligible for stars, and Google still decides per search whether to show them. Google says it does not guarantee structured data will show up, even when the Rich Results Test passes, and that results depend on search history, location and device. So stars can appear for one query and not for another.
Some sectors have lost stars without any markup change. In October 2026 Search Engine Roundtable reported that Schema App saw review snippets drop for healthcare websites from late May 2026, with a second drop in early August, even with correct markup. Google had not confirmed a change at the time of the report. If you run a clinic or practice site and your markup tests clean, this may be the reason.
Why stars and reviews disappear from your Google Business Profile
Business Profile stars have nothing to do with your website's markup. They come from the ratings customers left on your profile. When the rating or the review count drops, Google's help page About missing or delayed reviews lists these causes:
- Google checks new reviews against its policies, and the check can delay a review by a few days.
- After you merge two Business Profiles, reviews from both can take a few days to show on Search and Maps.
- Google removes reviews that break its policies, spam for example, and does not restore them.
- Google can temporarily disable reviews for some profiles or business categories. Profiles primarily categorized as schools for students aged 6 to 18 lost their reviews and ratings altogether.
- Reviews can disappear after a suspended profile is reinstated. Google asks you to contact support when that happens.
The other cause is a penalty. When Google decides a business broke its Fake Engagement policy, its page on Business Profile restrictions says it can block new reviews for a set period, unpublish existing reviews and ratings for a set period, or show customers a warning that fake reviews were removed. Google emails the owner before it applies a restriction, and you can appeal.
The policy behind those restrictions leaves little room. Google's Maps content policy bans paid reviews, any incentive such as a discount or a free service in exchange for a review, discouraging negative reviews, and asking only happy customers. You may ask every customer for an honest review, as long as you don't pressure anyone to write one on the spot. Buying Google reviews gets the paid reviews removed and can get your profile restricted.
If the count dropped and you broke no rule, Google may be behind it. We cover the known review-count glitch in Google reviews missing, the spring removal pattern in why Google reviews disappear, and what you can still recover in deleted Google reviews recovery.
If you manage several profiles, GLocal (from $29.99 a month) lets you reply to reviews with AI drafts you approve, send review requests automatically and track each profile's performance. It cannot bring back a review Google removed.
How to find out what happened
- Search for your page and your business name, and note where the stars are missing: under your website's link, on your Business Profile, or both.
- For a website result, run the URL through the Rich Results Test. Errors or no review items mean a markup problem. A clean test points to the page type, the self-serving rule or Google's choice.
- In Search Console, open the Review snippets report and look for the date valid items fell. If the drop lines up with a theme, plugin or site release, start there. Then open the Manual actions report.
- Compare the date with the timeline below.
- For your Business Profile, read the reviews in your profile manager, check your inbox for a restriction email from Google, and think back to any merge, category change or reinstatement.
What Google changed and when
| Date | Change | Effect on stars |
|---|---|---|
| September 2019 | Self-serving reviews ruled out for LocalBusiness and Organization; review snippets limited to a list of types; the name of the reviewed item made required | Homepages and service pages with reviews of their own business lost their stars |
| January 15, 2025 | Google recommends accepting only ratings that come with a review comment and the author's name | A recommendation, not a requirement |
| November 12, 2025 | Avoid combining several ways of indicating what is reviewed | Ambiguous nesting can stop Google reading the rating |
| May 7, 2026 | FAQ rich results stop showing in Google Search | None on stars, but results lost their FAQ dropdowns at the same time |
| Late May and early August 2026 | Healthcare sites report review snippets dropping (not confirmed by Google) | Some clinic and practice pages lost stars with valid markup |
| July 24, 2026 | New guideline against fake and undisclosed incentivized reviews | Pages with such reviews risk a structured data manual action |
How to get review stars back
Start with the pages that can still earn them. The self-serving rule covers LocalBusiness and Organization markup only, so reviews your customers write about the products you sell, on your own product pages, remain eligible. Recipes, events, courses and software pages work the same way.
- Put Product markup with an AggregateRating and the individual reviews on each product page, and make sure the same reviews are visible on that page. Our guide on how to get stars in Google search results walks through the setup.
- On WooCommerce, the Wiremo plugin has an Enable JSON-LD Schema setting that adds review markup to product pages (setup guide). Store-wide reviews about your shop fall under the self-serving rule, so expect stars on product pages only.
- Review and AggregateRating markup about your own business on the homepage or a service page cannot earn stars. Stop testing those pages for stars and put the effort into the pages that qualify.
- After a fix, use URL Inspection in Search Console to request indexing. Stars return only after Google recrawls the page and decides to show them, and Google gives no fixed timeline.
For your Business Profile, the fix is more genuine reviews, collected the way Google allows. Google's own help suggests sharing your review link or a QR code, so a Google review QR code at the counter and a short message with your review link after each job both fit the rules. Our templates for asking for Google reviews keep to the policy, and replying to reviews shows new customers someone reads them.
Why some competitors still have stars
You will find competitors whose homepage still shows stars. Some mark the homepage or a blog post up as a Product. Others wrap a reviews widget in Product markup. Google may show those stars for a while, since it doesn't catch every case right away. The markup still breaks the guidelines, and the site can lose its rich results to a manual action. Copying the trick puts your own pages at the same risk.
If you think a competitor is posting fake reviews on Google Maps, see how to fight fake reviews and unfair competition.
FAQ
Why are my Google review stars not showing?
If the stars are missing from your website's search result, the page most likely reviews your own business (Google ignores self-serving LocalBusiness and Organization reviews), uses an unsupported page type, or has broken markup. If they are missing from your Business Profile, Google may be holding new reviews for checks, may have removed reviews for policy reasons, or may have restricted the profile.
How do I get Google review stars in search results?
Add valid Product, Recipe, Event, Course or SoftwareApplication markup with real reviews that visitors can read on the same page, then test it with the Rich Results Test. Google decides whether to show the stars, and it won't show them for reviews of your own business on your own site.
Can my Google Business Profile reviews show as stars on my website's search result?
No. Google treats reviews of your business shown on your own site as self-serving, including reviews embedded with a Google or Facebook widget. They keep showing as stars on your Business Profile in Maps and the local pack.
How long does it take for review stars to come back?
Google has to recrawl the page first, which you can prompt with URL Inspection in Search Console. Google gives no fixed timeline, and after a manual action the stars stay off until Google approves your reconsideration request.
Are incentivized reviews allowed in review markup?
On your own website, Google's review snippet guidelines allow incentivized reviews only when the incentive is clearly and prominently disclosed. On your Google Business Profile, Google bans incentives for reviews outright, disclosed or not.
Why does my competitor have stars when I don't?
Their page may be a supported type, such as a product page, or they may be marking up a page as something it is not. Google does not catch every misuse right away, but stars gained that way can disappear with a manual action.
