Google seller ratings, now store ratings: 2026 guide

What are Google seller ratings?

They rate the experience of buying from your shop: delivery, service and the order as a whole. Product ratings, which rate individual items, are a separate programme.

The name has changed. Google's help page is titled "Google store ratings: An overview for Merchants", and the old name survives in one heading: "How to view performance report of store ratings in Google Ads (Google Seller Ratings)" (Google). This guide uses "store ratings" from here on.

Where store ratings appear

Google says "Store ratings showcase your store's customer experience in ads and unpaid formats, and may show up on mobile and web across the Search Network and YouTube" (Google). In practice that means:

• Free product listings: "Store ratings display a rating next to a merchant's name when shoppers interact with a free product listing within Search or Shopping".
• Ads: "Store ratings display a rating and qualifier next to your ads", and "A rating of 3.5 or above is required to display a store rating on ads."
• Your own website: only through Google's own programme. Google says "Google Customer Reviews is the only way to get the Google brand and store ratings on your site", and that showing the badge "is optional" (Google).

Store ratings requirements

Where Google gets the reviews

Google calculates store ratings "using data from multiple sources, including Google Customer Reviews and third-party aggregators", weighted differently, and also gathers them "from users on Google" (Google). For a merchant, there are two routes in:

Google Customer Reviews. Google describes it as "A free program that collects post-fulfillment reviews on behalf of merchants, managed in Google Merchant Center."

A supported review partner. Google says "merchants are free to work with one or multiple of these supported partners", and to "Reach out to any partner you'd like to work with directly." The list as we read it on 25 October 2026: Ausgezeichnet.org, Bazaarvoice, Birdeye, Bizrate Insights, eKomi, Emplifi, Feedaty, Feedback Company, Feefo, KiyOh, Klantenvertellen, Okendo, PowerReviews, ProductReview.com.au, RA Trustvox, Reco.se, Reputation.com, ResellerRatings, Reviews.io, Reevoo, Shopper Approved, ShopVote.de, ShopAuskunft, SmartCustomer, Stamped.io, Trusted Shops, TrustPilot, Verified Reviews and Yotpo. The list changes, so check Google's page before you sign up with anyone.

To see what Google already holds for your shop, Google gives this address: https://www.google.com/storepages?q={your website}.

How to get Google seller ratings, step by step

1. 1
   Set up Google Merchant Center with the domain your customers buy on. Reviews are matched to that registered domain.
2. 2
   Choose your route. Use Google Customer Reviews, set up in Merchant Center, or contact a partner from Google's list. You can use more than one.
3. 3
   Ask every customer after the order is fulfilled. Only post-fulfilment reviews count, and the rules below expect you to ask everyone, not only the customers you expect to be happy.
4. 4
   Keep your store name and domain consistent across your reviews and Merchant Center, and build up reviews in each country you sell to.
5. 5
   Check your store page at the storepages address above, and the store ratings report in Google Ads if you advertise.

Why your store rating is not showing

Work through this list:

• Too few eligible reviews for that country (Google's general benchmark is around 100).
• Reviews outside the window Google counts.
• Reviews that are not post-purchase, or that Google filtered as untrustworthy.
• A store name or domain in your reviews that does not match Merchant Center.
• An average below 3.5, which keeps the rating off ads.
• Ad auction factors, which Google says can stop a rating showing on ads even when you have one.
• New reviews still waiting to be counted, since they "aren't added in real-time".

Google's pages describe post-fulfilment reviews and a Merchant Center account, and do not say how store ratings apply to software, apps or services. If you do not ship orders, check with Google before planning around them.

Store ratings vs product ratings vs Business Profile reviews

Sources: store ratings, product ratings, Google Customer Reviews vs Business Profile reviews.

For product ratings, Google says your review feed "must be uploaded at least once a month" (Google), and its policy says "You must collect and own the reviews you share with Google" (Google).

Star ratings beside your own product pages in ordinary search results are a third system again, driven by structured data on your site. Our review schema guide covers it. For how Business Profile reviews compare with a review platform, see Trustpilot vs Google reviews.

Protecting your rating: the rules on fake and incentivised reviews

In the UK, since 6 April 2025, Schedule 20 of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 treats as unfair in all circumstances submitting or commissioning "a fake consumer review" or "a consumer review that conceals the fact it has been incentivised", and publishing reviews "in a misleading way", which includes "failing to publish, or removing from publication, negative consumer reviews whilst publishing positive ones" (legislation.gov.uk). The CMA can fine up to £300,000 or, if higher, 10% of total turnover (section 182). Its guidance says cherry-picking can happen "by encouraging just those who are satisfied to leave reviews" (CMA208, paragraph 4.5).

The safe practice: invite every customer, offer nothing in return for a good review, and publish the bad reviews with the good. Our verified reviews guide goes further into how reviews are checked.

Where GoldStarred fits

GoldStarred puts your reviews to work on your own website, alongside whichever route you use for store ratings. You get a public profile with honest labels on every review, which Google can list once it holds 3 published reviews, a badge for your site and 75 review invites a month, free and with no contract. Growth, at $17 a month (before VAT or sales tax), adds reviews for up to 25 products, apps or courses, each with its own widget and the Google markup that makes its page eligible for star ratings in search results. You paste one snippet, and each product is added the first time its widget loads on your verified site. Pro, at $37 a month, makes products unlimited. We make GoldStarred, so weigh this with that in mind; see GoldStarred plans.