<b>The self-serving review rule still nukes star ratings — and it's widening</b>

<b>The self-serving review rule still nukes star ratings — and it's widening</b>

Google's policy that you can't show review stars for reviews you host about your own <code>Organization</code> or your own products-as-a-brand has been on the books, but enforcement keeps tightening. Sources in the SERPs report more LocalBusiness and brand pages silently losing stars even with valid <code>AggregateRating</code> markup.

The nuance people miss — it's allowed for products you SELL but not for your own org/service reviews. The markup validates either way, so you get no error, just no stars.

What it means for you — if your homepage or service pages mark up self-authored testimonials with <code>AggregateRating</code>, that's the classic self-serving pattern. Move review stars to product/third-party-reviewable entities only.

Watch this: 'valid but not eligible' is the new normal — validation isn't a guarantee.