<b>The self-serving review rule that's still quietly demoting sites</b>

<b>The self-serving review rule that's still quietly demoting sites</b>

Google's policy that you can't show review stars for reviews you collect about your own entity on your own page — the "self-serving" rule — has been in force since 2019, and sites are still getting silently stripped of star treatment for violating it.

The nuance sources miss: it applies to Organization and LocalBusiness review markup, not to Product reviews from your customers, and not to third-party review aggregation. A LocalBusiness showing aggregate stars for itself is the classic trigger.

What it means for you — audit where <code>aggregateRating</code> sits; if it's on your own Organization/LocalBusiness node describing yourself, it won't render and may flag in Search Console. Move ratings to Product or genuine third-party content. Watch this: the same logic is spreading to other self-referential rating types.