Google Bars Fake and Undisclosed Incentivised Reviews From Review Snippet Markup

On 24 July 2026, Google added a new guideline to its review snippet structured data documentation: “Don’t include fake or undisclosed incentivized reviews on your page or in your structured data markup.” Google gives two examples of what that covers: reviews that are not based on a genuine product or service experience, and reviews written in exchange for a benefit such as money, discounts, vouchers or free products where that incentive is not clearly and prominently disclosed.

The rule sits inside the guidelines that govern star-rating eligibility, so it carries teeth. Breaching a structured data guideline can bring a manual action, and if one is applied Google may ignore the review markup on the page and remove its rich-result eligibility, though the page itself can still rank. Search Engine Journal noted the update explicitly widens the review guidance and pairs it with the manual-action warning.

The practical takeaway: if your pages show star ratings pulled from Review or AggregateRating markup, treat this as a prompt to audit the reviews behind that markup. Remove anything fabricated or not tied to a real experience, and where reviews were incentivised, make the disclosure clear and prominent on the page itself. A disclosure hidden in terms and conditions, email fine print, or an off-page policy is unlikely to meet the standard, and losing star ratings to a manual action costs a visible click-through advantage in the results.

Sources

• Google says don’t include fake or undisclosed incentivized reviews in review snippet structured data — Search Engine Land
• Google Expands Review Guidelines And Warns Of Manual Actions — Search Engine Journal
• Review Snippet (Review, AggregateRating) Structured Data: Guidelines — Google Search Central