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A bug has been identified in Google’s search results, causing incorrect product reviews to be displayed for certain retailers. The search engine is pulling review data from text found on the webpage, which includes reviews from Google Business Profiles, even when the product review markup isn’t present or enabled on the site itself.
This issue was brought to light by Brodie Clark, who posted detailed insights on the SERP Alert channel. He explained that he uncovered a significant flaw with Google’s review snippets, noting that a client of his was exploiting this vulnerability.
In the example he shared, the webpage shows a link to the retailer’s Google Business Profile along with the associated reviews. Interestingly, the product reviews listed in Google Search sometimes reflect the review count and rating from the Google Business Profile rather than genuine product ratings marked up on the site.
Brodie clarified that the retailer’s site does not have product review markup enabled and is not displaying review data on the page itself. Instead, it prominently links to their Google Business Profile, showing the number of reviews and an average rating. Google, surprisingly, appears to be bypassing structured data and feed-based review snippets for product pages, instead using the raw text on the page.
This approach opens up the possibility for any website to artificially inflate or fabricate a product rating directly on their page, which Google then displays in search results. Notably, the review numbers shown in search don’t match the actual number of reviews on the Google Business Profile. For example, the search snippet displayed exactly 3,000 reviews, while the profile itself has over 4,000 reviews.
Brodie noted that this situation currently benefits his client, who is experiencing a boost in search visibility as a result. However, it’s expected that Google will address this flaw soon. The details of this discovery and ongoing discussion about the issue are available on the SERP Alert channel.
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