Is it true that you can't aggregate reviews from other websites in your structured data?

What exactly does "aggregating reviews from other sites" mean? <\/h3>

This prohibition targets the practice of sucking or copying reviews published on third-party platforms (Google Reviews, Trustpilot, Verified Reviews, etc.) to integrate them into your own structured data. In practical terms: if you are an e-commerce merchant and you retrieve ratings left on Amazon or Google My Business to display on your site with AggregateRating markup, you are violating the rules.<\/p>

Google wants structured data to only reflect reviews collected in-house, meaning on your platform, your internal rating system. The goal: to prevent search results from being polluted by misleading, duplicated, or manipulated stars.<\/p>

Why is Google tightening its stance on this issue? <\/h3>

There are two major reasons. The first: manipulation of rich snippets. Some sites aggregate thousands of reviews from reputable platforms to artificially display 4.8/5 stars in the SERPs, even though they have never collected a single customer feedback directly. This skews competition and degrades user experience.<\/p>

The second reason, more technical: Google does not want to index the same reviews multiple times. If each aggregator republishes the same content with structured markup, the engine ends up with duplicated content on a large scale. This complicates its deduplication work and harms relevance.<\/p>

What exceptions does Google allow? <\/h3>

There are almost none for regular sites. However, third-party review platforms themselves (Trustpilot, Yelp, TripAdvisor) can legitimately markup their own content — as they are the ones who collect and host the original reviews.<\/p>

If you are a reseller, distributor, or affiliate, you cannot appropriate the ratings from the manufacturer or marketplace. Even if these reviews concern a product you sell, they do not come from your own collection system.<\/p>

• Only reviews collected on your own site/service can be marked up as AggregateRating
• Sucking reviews from third-party platforms (Google, Trustpilot, Amazon, etc.) violates the guidelines
• Review platforms themselves can markup their own content without restriction
• No tolerance for aggregators, resellers, or affiliates who republish external ratings
• Possible penalties: loss of rich snippets, manual action, or even partial deindexation

Is this prohibition really enforced in practice? <\/h3>

Let's be honest: we still see a lot of sites marking up aggregated reviews without suffering visible penalties. The reason? Google detects this violation primarily during manual actions, triggered by reports or targeted audits. Large-scale algorithmic enforcement remains patchy.<\/p>

That said, several waves of penalties have hit price comparison sites and e-commerce sites in recent years. The result: immediate loss of stars in the SERPs, drop in CTR, negative impact on organic traffic. The risk is indeed real, even if it is not systematic.<\/p>

What nuances should be added to this rule? <\/h3>

Google does not provide any precise definition of what constitutes a "review collected in-house." If you use a third-party widget (e.g., Verified Reviews, Trusted Shops) to collect reviews on your own transactions, are you compliant? [To be verified]<\/strong> — Google has never clearly stated its position on this borderline case.<\/p>

Similarly, what about multi-vendor marketplaces? If you are Amazon or Cdiscount and a third-party seller uses your rating system, can they markup those reviews on their own external store? Again, total gray area. Logic would suggest no, but no official documentation clarifies it.<\/p>

Attention: If you use a third-party review system (Trustpilot, Verified Reviews, etc.), ensure that the reviews are indeed collected for your business and not aggregated from other sources. The boundary is thin, and Google can interpret it strictly.<\/div>

In what cases does this rule not apply? <\/h3>

If you are a review platform itself (Trustpilot, Yelp, etc.), you can markup your own content without restriction — it's even recommended. The same goes for recognized specialized aggregators by Google as legitimate sources (e.g., Rotten Tomatoes for movies).<\/p>

However, if you republish these reviews on a third-party site, even with source attribution, you fall under the prohibition. Citing the source does not exempt you — it is the aggregation itself that poses the problem.<\/p>