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Seller ratings

Seller ratings, now called store ratings, are Google's five-star score for a whole online store, built mainly from customer reviews and shown with its ads and listings.

How it works

Google rates the whole store rather than one product: the score mainly reflects how buyers rated the purchase after delivery. Reviews come from Google Customer Reviews, a free Merchant Center programme, and from Google’s own shopping research. They also come from review sites on Google’s partner list, such as Trustpilot and Trusted Shops. Google filters out reviews that don’t point to a real transaction.

The rating is counted per country: reviews from Czech buyers count only towards the Czech rating. A country gets a rating once Google has enough unique reviews from the last 24 months, or has evaluated the site itself. Most stores get there at 100 or more reviews.

To show next to Search text ads, the stars need an average of at least 3.5 and an ad domain that matches the rated one. Free listings can show a lower score. The stars are on by default. Where Czech, Slovak and Ukrainian stores can get reviews is covered in stars in Google Shopping.

Where you see it

  • Google Search: a star rating next to text ads, sometimes with a reason such as delivery time, and beside the store’s name in free listings.
  • Google Ads: the “Account-level automated assets” report, for text ads only.
  • Google’s lookup page: google.com/shopping/ratings with your domain added to the address shows the rating for each country where the store has one.

Example

Example store, not client data.

The tableware shop sells in Czechia and Slovakia. Over 24 months Czech buyers left 140 reviews averaging 4.6, and Slovak buyers left 30. With 140 reviews and an average above 3.5, the Czech text ads can carry stars. The 30 Slovak reviews don’t count towards the Czech 140 and are far below the usual 100, so Slovak ads will likely run without stars.

Not to be confused with

  • Product ratings — stars for one product, from product reviews sent to Merchant Center; the programme requires at least 50 of them. Seller ratings cover the whole store.

Right and wrong readings

  • Wrong: “Our 4.9 on Heureka will show next to our Google ads.” Right: Heureka is not on Google’s list of review partners.
  • Wrong: “Stars need a Merchant Center account.” Right: Search text ads can carry store ratings without one.

Sources