Businesses must have 100 reviews per country to be eligible for Seller Rating.
Google began notifying advertisers in September that it would start counting and displaying Seller Ratings at the country level as of October 1. After some delay, Chee Lo, head of SEO at reviews platform Trustpilot alerted us that the change went into effect early Friday.
Seller Ratings are the stars that appear in ads on the Google Search Network via an automated extension. Google sources the ratings and reviews from Google Customer Reviews, StellaService, Google Consumer Surveys, third-party review sites and other sources.
What’s changed? Google is taking a more local approach to Seller Ratings to show searchers ratings submitted only by users in their own country, rather than globally. It also means ratings are broken out by country and cannot be viewed globally. A new dropdown allows users to change the country setting, as seen in the screenshot above.
New requirements. Prior to this change, businesses had to have a total of 150 reviews worldwide and an average score of 3.5 for ratings to display. Now, businesses must have 100 reviews per country for their reviews to be eligible to display in those regions.
The implications. For U.S.-based businesses that sell primarily within the U.S., the change actually makes it easier to qualify for Seller Ratings. However, businesses that sell internationally may find themselves ineligible for Seller Ratings in some markets. This is likely to be a bigger challenge for smaller businesses or businesses that ship internationally, but don’t have a physical presence other regions.
How do I see my ratings? Lo noted that Google is still updating its documentation on Seller Ratings, but that the new URL to see your ratings (replace “example” with your own domain name) is: https://www.google.com/shopping/ratings/account/metrics?q=EXAMPLE.com&v=2&c=US
