Imported and fake reviews: what Merchant Center expects
Show reviews from your own customers, on the page, with real names and dates. Imported, copied and invented reviews are what Google’s guidelines rule out. They feel like a shortcut and they leave fingerprints: dates older than the domain, the same text under different products, markup nobody can see. The free scan looks for all three.
Why this matters
Merchant Center's Misrepresentation policy does not list reviews by name. It rules out offers that represent you or your products in a way that is “not accurate, realistic, and truthful”, and a review is a claim about both. Google's “Building trust with your customers” page sits on the other side of the same line: it asks you to “Show reviews and testimonials about your products and business”, and to opt into Google Customer Reviews or a third-party review service to become eligible for store ratings.
Google Search's review snippet guidelines are more specific, and a page has to follow them to be eligible for review stars in Search. “Don't aggregate reviews or ratings from other websites.” “Don't include fake or undisclosed incentivized reviews on your page or in your structured data markup.” And the reviews you mark up must be “readily available to users from the marked-up page”. These are Search rules, not Merchant Center policy, but they describe exactly what makes a review claim untrue.
Product Experts on Google's Merchant Center Community draw the same line for stores trying to get reinstated: genuine customer reviews help, reviews from other websites should come only through a verified review aggregator, and reviews from an old website domain should not be imported at all.
The free scan compares each page's review markup with what the page shows. It flags reviews that appear nowhere in the page text, reviews with no author, the same review under different products, review dates before the domain was first registered, reviews pulled in from another site or a marketplace-import app, templated review text, and review or customer counts of 1,000 or more with nothing behind them. A brand-new store with a wall of old reviews should read does domain age matter? next. See every trust check on the misrepresentation checker.
Typical evidence
A review pattern worth checking
StoreVerifier can compare visible review dates, repeated wording and profile details. A batch that appears at once, sounds the same and uses stock faces needs evidence before it is presented as genuine trust.
The public signals this check looks for:
Reviews were imported from a marketplace listing, the supplier's product page or another s…
Reviews were imported from a marketplace listing, the supplier's product page or another store, and are shown as your own.
The same handful of reviews appears under every product, word for word
The same handful of reviews appears under every product, word for word.
Review dates go back further than the store's domain
Review dates go back further than the store's domain.
The product page's structured data claims a 4…
The product page's structured data claims a 4.9 rating from 312 reviews that no shopper can see on the page.
The profile photos beside the reviews are stock images, or every review reads as if one pe…
The profile photos beside the reviews are stock images, or every review reads as if one person wrote them all.
Some reviews came from free products or discounts, and nothing next to them says so
Some reviews came from free products or discounts, and nothing next to them says so.
What it looks like once it is right
Each product shows its own reviews from verified buyers, with names, dates since launch and ratings from three to five stars. Two products have no reviews yet and say so. The markup lists only the reviews on the page.
Common mistakes
Common mistake
Fix checklist
Real reviews have a messy shape
Genuine feedback usually varies across dates and ratings. A batch that spikes at once with identical five-star language is a pattern worth investigating before you present it as customer evidence.
Questions merchants ask
Can I import reviews from Amazon or AliExpress to my product pages?
Not as your own reviews. Google Search's review snippet guidelines say “Don't aggregate reviews or ratings from other websites”, and Product Experts on the Merchant Center Community advise bringing in reviews from other websites only through a verified review aggregator. Reviews on a supplier's marketplace listing describe someone else's sale, not yours.
Do the reviews in my structured data have to be visible on the page?
Yes, to be eligible for review stars in Google Search. The review snippet guidelines say the reviews you mark up must be readily available to users from the marked-up page, so shoppers can see the review text and the rating. Markup that claims reviews the page never shows is also one of the things the free scan reports.
Are incentivized reviews allowed?
Google Search's review snippet guidelines rule out undisclosed ones: reviews written in exchange for money, discounts, vouchers or free products that don't clearly and prominently say so. If you send a free product in return for a review, disclose it next to the review, or leave the review off the page.
Remediation
Risk signal
Similar cases
Sources
Community guidance
Written by Product Experts, the users Google recognises for their answers on its Merchant Center Community forum. Often stricter than Google’s help pages, and not Google policy.
Last reviewed 25 Sep 2026.
That is one issue. The library documents 134.
The free scan lists what it finds on your store. The paid report adds the affected pages, captured evidence and step-by-step fixes. Start free, with no account needed.