How do you get a star rating on Google results? You get a star rating on Google search results by using a schema.org plugin, and you get stars for Google Ads with the seller ratings ad extension.
How does a star rating on Google help your business? Star ratings on Google cause higher click-through rates (CTR), more web traffic, higher ad Quality Scores, and lowering ad cost-per-click (CPC).
That’s partly because the star rating itself is visually appealing and attracts searchers’ attention. And it’s partly because a high star rating gives searchers greater confidence that clicking the link will lead to a solution to their problems.
In the case of star ratings for Google Ads, a higher CTR has the added benefit of driving up Quality Score, which means you’ll pay a lower cost-per-click (CPC) for better ad placements.
How many Google reviews do I need? Here’s how many reviews you need to get a star rating on Google, based on your goal for the star rating:
| Your star rating goal | How many Google reviews you need |
| Local 3-pack | 2 or more |
| Organic search results (using schema.org) | 1 or more |
| Google Ads (using seller ratings extension) | 100 or more |
| Get the average searcher to believe your overall star rating | 40 or more |
Although you can get your star rating in Google’s organic search results with relatively few reviews, notice that the average searcher won’t believe your star rating is accurate unless it’s based on at least 40 reviews.
Here’s how to get a star rating on all of your Google results:
- Get a star rating in Google’s local 3-pack with Google reviews
- Get a star rating on Google’s organic search results using schema.org
- Get a star rating in Google Ads using the seller ratings extension
Related questions:
- How do you get 5 star reviews on Google?
- Can you offer incentives for Google reviews?
- How do you ask customers for Google reviews that get results?
- How do you get good Google reviews?
Get a star rating in Google’s local 3-pack with Google reviews
Google’s local 3-pack drives a tremendous amount of traffic to the local businesses that show up there.
Businesses that make it into the local 3-pack for the first time often find their sales explode so suddenly that they have to hire new employees to keep up with the increased demand.
And businesses in the local 3-pack almost always include reviews.
In fact, the greatest ranking factor that could get your business in the local 3-pack is the review star rating of your business, along with the number of reviews your business has on Google.
To find out how to get more reviews and a higher star rating, see our ultimate guide on how to get Google reviews.
But although reviews are the single most important ranking factor, it can sometimes take a more complete Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy to beat your competition into the local 3-pack. So if you’d like expert help from a professional, check out our directory of local SEO experts in your area.
Get a star rating on Google’s organic search results using schema.org
Aside from Google’s local 3-pack, you can also get a star rating on Google’s other organic search results.
Often, the reviews that show up for web pages are not reviews of your business, since organic search results often show a variety of web pages on a variety of different topics, not just the topic of your business.
For example, if you publish product pages, you may want to show a star rating for the specific product that each product page shows.
Or in the case of blog posts or other content, you may want to show a star rating for how much the readers of that page think the content there is helpful.
To create these page-specific star ratings that show up in Google’s organic search results, you’ll need to use the schema.org markup standard.
There are plenty of schema.org plugins available for all the most popular web publishing platforms.
The WordPress plugin we recommend for getting a star rating on Google search results is Schema & Structured Data for WP & AMP.
When you implement schema.org, be careful not to violate Google’s policies when you apply schema.org to your web pages.
For complete guidance, check out “Google Rating Stars in Search Results (Fast & Easy).”
The guide also includes steps to troubleshoot if you’re having trouble getting star ratings to show up in Google search results even after you add schema.org markup.
Get a star rating in Google Ads using the seller ratings extension
To get a star rating on Google Ads, you need the Google seller ratings ad extension.
Google gives advertisers this extension when they have at least 100 reviews within the previous 12 month period, and an average rating of at least 3.5 stars.
For more details, check out the chapter on reducing SEM/PPC costs in our ultimate guide to Google reviews.
Our Google Review Management tool helps businesses with their Google reviews. We help companies to manage their reviews, and we also assist businesses in getting more reviews. Every business should have a star rating on google results, and reviews are a big part of that.
Related questions:
