Aggregate Rating

The Schema.org type (AggregateRating) used in structured data markup to declare a summary rating — a ratingValue (e.g., 4.7), a bestRating (typically 5), and a reviewCount — for a product, service, or business.

Definition

AggregateRating is a specific Schema.org type used in JSON-LD or Microdata markup to tell search engines 'this entity has an average rating of X out of Y, across N reviews.' It's distinct from the consumer-facing 'average rating' on a Google profile (which Google computes itself). AggregateRating is what you embed on your own site to drive rich-snippet star ratings in Google search results. Google's guidelines require the reviews backing the AggregateRating to be visible on the same page, genuine, and about the specific entity marked up. Misuse (claiming a 5.0 average when there are no visible reviews, marking up reviews from other sites as if they were your own) is a manual-action risk.

Example

A dentist's services page includes JSON-LD markup: '@type': 'Dentist', 'aggregateRating': { '@type': 'AggregateRating', 'ratingValue': '4.9', 'reviewCount': '83' }, plus 83 actual review objects on the page. Google parses it and shows ⭐ 4.9 (83) below the search-result title. The CTR lift versus a non-rich snippet is typically meaningful.

Related terms

  • Review Schema Markup →Structured data (Schema.org Review and AggregateRating types) added to a webpage's HTML so search engines can display star ratings and reviewer information in search results — the 'rich snippet' stars.
  • Average Rating →The mean star rating across all of a business's Google reviews, displayed prominently on the listing. Most businesses target 4.5 or higher; below 4.0, customers commonly self-report skipping the business in favor of higher-rated competitors.
  • First-Party Reviews →Reviews collected directly by the business and hosted on its own systems (or a tool acting on its behalf), as opposed to reviews left on third-party platforms like Google, Yelp, or Trustpilot.

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