Over the past couple of days, Google stopped showing review snippets, the stars under the search result snippets, for all queries. I did ask Google about this yesterday morning, as it really seems like a bug, but I have not heard back yet.
Google later today confirmed this bug and is working on a fix, see more details below.
Here is one example of a before and after for search results that had review snippets in Google Search:
With Reviews:
Past Couple of Days without Reviews:
Here are charts from the tools showing the massive drop off in reviews showing in Google Search.
Here is my tweet to Googlers about this:
@dannysullivan @JohnMu seems like a bug causing review stars not to show in Google. Started yesterday but now seems very widespread? Feature or bug? https://t.co/2zS89DAnsN
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) July 22, 2021
There are tons and tons of complaints in the SEO community about this and zero response from Google as of yet.
Although some people for some queries can see some stars, but most seem gone in general:
Nice catch! That’s funny, the only example I could find that I shared on LinkedIn earlier was in a similar space. And very interesting with the Core Update changes - seems to be a pretty fragile part of Search. pic.twitter.com/WUrUMxgdn9
— Brodie Clark (@brodieseo) July 23, 2021
I assume again this is a bug and it will return soon but so far, after a couple days, no word from Google on this.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
Update: Google confirmed the reviews missing are a bug and will correct it soon:
Yes, it looks like there is a bug. We’re looking at it further and hope to correct soon.
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) July 23, 2021
Update 2: Sunday, still not fixed, I keep checking, as do others:
No changes with the reviews snippet bug (confirmed by Google) as of yet. Has been ~4 days of most sites not having reviews showing in search results. Reminder to use the 'Search appearance' report in GSC to see the impact – can filter by 'Product results' or 'Review snippet'. pic.twitter.com/YhBqbQeypP
— Brodie Clark (@brodieseo) July 25, 2021
Update 3: On Monday, July 26th at about 5pm ET I am now seeing the review snippets show up again in New York.
I am now also seeing the review snippets return in Google Search https://t.co/QOJZwuajbr pic.twitter.com/fmQW8hTlgJ
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) July 26, 2021
Update 4: Google posted in the data anomalies page that between July 19 and 23rd in the Performance reports for Search, "Due to an internal issue, you may see a drop in your Review snippet and Product rich results performance during this period. We regret any problems this may have caused on your site."
