How review stars end up in your Google result
Those gold stars next to a listing are not random. They come from structured data, and getting it right is a small, honest edge most trades miss.
Colin
Founder, Atwood Systems
You have probably seen a Google result with five gold stars under it and wondered how they got there. It is not because Google likes them. It is because that website carries a piece of code called review schema that tells Google, in a standard machine-readable way, what their rating is and how many reviews it is based on.
What structured data is
Structured data is a block of code search engines read. It does not change what your page looks like to a person; it tells Google what the page is about in a language it can parse cleanly. Reviews, opening hours, pricing, services - all of it can be marked up so Google shows it properly.
The rule most people break
Here is the part to be careful with: the reviews in that schema have to be real. Making up a five-star rating and wiring it into your site is not just dishonest, it is against Google's rules and can get you a penalty. The review stars that help you are the ones that reflect reviews people have actually left - on Google, on Trustpilot, on your own site.
Why it is worth the effort
In a search result full of near-identical trade listings, the one with visible stars and a clean rating attracts the click. It is a small edge, but in a competitive local search, small edges are how the phone rings.
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