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Google did not remove review snippets from healthcare webpages as a category. Its policy restricts organic Search review rich results for self-serving reviews about a LocalBusiness or Organization—including a clinic or hospital—when that business or organization controls the reviews. The rule applies to both Review and AggregateRating markup, and remains in Google’s current guidance.
What Google changed—and when
Google announced the change in September 2019, updating its post on September 18. Before the change, a business or organization could mark up reviews about itself on its own site, including reviews displayed through an embedded third-party widget, and sometimes receive a review snippet in Search. Google said it would stop showing these self-serving review rich results for LocalBusiness and Organization types and their subtypes when the reviewed entity controls the reviews. The rollout was gradual. Google’s announcement states: “Self-serving reviews are no longer displayed for businesses and organizations (the LocalBusiness and Organization schema types).”
The policy concerns whether an organic Search result can display a review snippet; it does not prohibit publishing testimonials. Google said the change does not affect Business Profiles, and that the restriction covers both Review and AggregateRating markup.
Does the rule apply to doctors, clinics, and hospitals?
It can apply when a healthcare organization marks up reviews of itself on its own website and controls the reviews being shown or selected. The deciding factors are the entity type in the markup and who controls the reviews—not whether the page contains medical or healthcare content. An embedded review widget does not avoid the policy if the business controls the review selection or linking process.
#1 Best Overall
So if Google review stars disappeared from a clinic website, first distinguish a self-serving review snippet from other issues. A missing organic snippet may be consistent with this policy; it does not by itself show that the clinic’s Business Profile, rankings, or visible testimonials have been affected.
Which review snippets may still be eligible?
Google’s current review-snippet documentation lists supported types that include books, courses, events, movies, products, recipes, and software applications. Local businesses are supported only for sites that capture reviews about other local businesses. Google also lists types such as CreativeWorkSeason, CreativeWorkSeries, Episode, Game, MediaObject, MusicPlaylist, and MusicRecording; Organization can be eligible when the site captures reviews about other organizations.
Accordingly, a review site collecting ratings about clinics or other organizations is not categorically excluded by the self-serving-review restriction. Eligibility is not a guarantee that stars or another rich result will appear: Google says actual appearance can vary and structured data does not guarantee a Search feature.
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- Identify the marked-up entity and review subject. Check whether the page describes the clinic or organization itself as
LocalBusinessorOrganization, and whether the reviews are about that same entity. - Determine who controls the reviews. If the organization selects, manages, or controls the reviews about itself, the self-serving restriction applies even when a third-party widget displays them.
- Check the markup against visible content. Look for
RevieworAggregateRatingmarkup and confirm that the review text and ratings it describes are readily available to visitors on the page. Google’s general requirements are in its review-snippet guidance. - Validate and inspect the deployed page. Use Google’s Rich Results Test to check the markup. In Search Console, use URL Inspection to see how Google accesses the live URL. Confirm that the page is not blocked by
robots.txt, markednoindex, or restricted behind a login. After changes, Google may need several days to find and crawl the page again. - Separate a snippet issue from rankings or Business Profile visibility. Google’s 2019 announcement says Business Profiles are unaffected. Its separate reviews system is described as primarily evaluating first-party review content, and Google says that system is one of multiple ranking factors. A rich-result test can uncover technical problems, but cannot make Google display a snippet.
What site owners should do with testimonials
Do not remove legitimate testimonials solely because of the rich-result policy. Google’s restriction is on displaying review snippets for the covered self-serving markup, not on keeping reviews visible on the site. Keep any structured data accurate and consistent with what visitors can actually see, and avoid treating validation as a promise of stars in Search.
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