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Understanding the Product Ratings feed for Google Shopping

Updated this week

Available on the Awesome plan

The Product Ratings feed lets you share your product reviews with platforms like Google in a structured, machine-readable format. It includes key attributes—such as ratings, review content, reviewer information, and verification signals—that help third-party platforms understand where your reviews come from and how they’re collected.

In this article, we’ll explain how the Product Ratings feed works, what each attribute means, and which settings affect the data included in the feed—so you can ensure your reviews meet platform requirements and are approved without issues.

Product Ratings feed version

We provide two versions of the Product Ratings feed for Google Shopping: a new version and an older (deprecated) version.

  • New Product Ratings feed (recommended)
    This is the current version provided by Judge.me. It includes the latest attributes and settings supported by our system and is designed to meet current Google Shopping Product Ratings requirements.

  • Old Product Ratings feed (deprecated)
    This version is no longer recommended and may not include newer attributes or improvements. It is kept for backward compatibility but may be phased out in the future.

If you’re currently using the old Product Ratings feed, you can upgrade to the new version at any time.

  1. From your Judge.me admin, go to Settings > Google and SEO > Google Shopping.

  2. At the top of the page, you’ll see a banner prompting you to update your feed.

  3. Click Update Google Shopping feed to upgrade to the new Product Ratings feed.

All explanations, attributes, and settings described in this article apply to the new Product Ratings feed, unless stated otherwise.

Which reviews are included in the Product Ratings feed

Reviews included in the feed

The following product reviews are included in the Product Ratings feed, regardless of their status (published, hidden, or archived) and whether they are verified:

Reviews excluded from the feed

To ensure compliance for the Google Product Ratings program requirements, the following product reviews are not included in the Product Ratings feed, even if they are verified:

Include or exclude specific review types

These settings let you further control which eligible reviews are included or excluded in the Product Ratings feed.

1. Reviews containing personal information

To control whether reviews that contain personal information are included in the Product Ratings feed:

  1. From your Judge.me admin, go to Settings > Google and SEO > Google Shopping.

  2. Scroll down to the Review content section.

  3. For Include reviews containing personal information:

    • Click the checkbox next to it to include reviews containing personal information in the feed. The personal information will be replaced with ****.

    • Unclick the checkbox to exclude them from the feed.

  4. Click Save.

2. Reviews containing specific keywords

To exclude reviews that contain specific words from the Product Ratings feed:

  1. From your Judge.me admin, go to Settings > Google and SEO > Google Shopping.

  2. Scroll down to the Review content section.

  3. Click the checkbox next to Exclude store reviews containing specific keywords.

  4. Click Save.

Once enabled, reviews with these specific keywords will be excluded from the feed:

  • "shipped"

  • "arrived"

  • "support"

  • "shipping"

  • "company"

  • "email"

  • "shipment"

  • "store"

  • "package"

  • "service"

  • "business"

  • deliver

  • "order"

3. Reviews for out-of-store products

When Google reviews your Product Ratings feed, they may check the review URLs and product URLs included in the feed.

If a review is linked to a product that has been removed from your store, these links may no longer work. Including reviews for out-of-store products can lead to questions or issues during Google’s review of your feed.

To avoid this, you can exclude reviews for out-of-store products from the Product Ratings feed:

  1. From your Judge.me admin, go to Settings > Google and SEO > Google Shopping.

  2. Scroll down to the Advanced settings section at the bottom.

  3. Click the checkbox next to Exclude reviews for out-of-store products.

  4. Click Save.

Review-level attributes in the Product Ratings feed

1. <review_id>

This attribute is the unique ID for the review. It uses Judge.me review UUID so it’s stable and unique.

2. <reviewer> / <name>

This attribute provides the reviewer’s name in the Product Ratings feed.

To change how the name appears in the feed:

  1. From your Judge.me admin, go to Settings > Google and SEO > Google Shopping.

  2. Scroll down to the Review content section.

  3. Open the Reviewer name format dropdown.

  4. Select one of the following options:

    • using initials after the first name, e.g. – displays the reviewer’s first name followed by the initial of their last name (for example, "John D.").

      <reviewer>
          <name>John D.</name>
      </reviewer>

    • using initials for the entire reviewer name, e.g. – displays only the initials of the reviewer’s first and last name (for example, "J.D.").

      <reviewer>
          <name>J. D.</name>
      </reviewer>

    • as Anonymous – displays the reviewer name as "Anonymous".

      <reviewer>
          <name>Anonymous</name>
      </reviewer>

  5. Click Save.

3. <title>, <content>, <ratings>, and <review_timestamp>

Attribute

What it is

<title>

Title of the review

<content>

Main body of the review

<ratings>

The star rating of the review (1 to 5)

<review_timestamp>

The date and time when the review was created, formatted according to ISO 8601 (including timezone).

For example: (e.g. 2025-06-04T10:35:14+00:00).

4. <review_url>

This attribute specifies the URL where the review can be accessed.

The <review_url> is made up of:

  • The product URL

  • The judgeme_review_uuid parameter

For example: https://www.example.com/products/example-product?judgeme_review_uuid=12345678-abcd-1234-efgh-1234567890ab

To control whether the product and review URLs in the feed use HTTP or HTTPS:

  1. From your Judge.me admin, go to Settings > Google and SEO > Google Shopping.

  2. Scroll down to the Advanced settings section at the bottom.

  3. Select one of the following options:

    • Use http for product and reviews URLs – All product and review URLs in the feed will start with http://.

    • Use https for product and reviews URLs – All product and review URLs in the feed will start with https://.

  4. Click Save.

5. <reviewer_images>

This attribute contains the URLs of the images attached to the review.

To control whether to include this attribute in your Product Ratings feed:

  1. From your Judge.me admin, go to Settings > Google and SEO > Google Shopping.

  2. Scroll down to the Review content section.

  3. Click the checkbox next to Include review photos.

  4. Click Save.

6. <products>

This attribute contains all products associated with a review.

  • When a review applies to a single product, the <products> attribute includes one <product> node.

  • When a review applies to multiple products (for example, through product groups), the <products> container can include multiple <product> nodes—one for each product.

To control whether reviews that are part of product groups are included in the Product Ratings feed:

  1. From your Judge.me admin, go to Settings > Google and SEO > Google Shopping.

  2. Scroll down to the Review content section.

  3. Select one of the following options:

    1. Include reviews part of product groups – The feed may contain multiple <product> nodes for a single review.

    2. Don't include product groups reviews – The feed only contains one <product> node for each review.

  4. Click Save.

Including reviews from product groups can significantly increase the size of your Product Ratings feed, especially if your product groups contain many products.

7. <is_spam>

This attribute indicates whether a review is considered spam in the Product Ratings feed.

If <is_spam>true</is_spam>, the review will appear in Google Merchant Center as Spam (marked by the publisher) and will not be shown on Google Shopping.

How this value is determined depends on the Product Ratings feed version you’re using:

  • New Product Ratings feed:

    • In the new feed, all reviews are automatically checked for profanity before being sent to Google.

    • If profanity is detected, the affected words in the review’s title or content are replaced with **** in the feed. When this happens, the review is also marked as <is_spam>true</is_spam>.

    • This means a review can be marked as spam in the Product Ratings feed even if it appears normal in the Judge.me dashboard.

    • At this time, this behavior cannot be changed or edited.

  • Old Product Ratings feed (deprecated):

    • In the old feed, a review is marked as spam if it is not published in Judge.me.

    • That means, all hidden, archived, and pending reviews are marked as <is_spam>true</is_spam>.

8. <collection_method>

This attribute indicates how the review was collected. The value is either one of the following:

  • post_fulfillment – for example, via a review request email

  • unsolicited – for example, submitted directly on the product page

9. <is_incentivized_review>

This attribute indicates whether the customer received a reward such as a discount, gift card, points, or any other benefit when submitting their review.

  • <is_incentivized_review>false</is_incentivized_review>
    The reviewer did not receive any incentive for leaving the review.

  • <is_incentivized_review>true</is_incentivized_review>
    The reviewer did receive an incentive for submitting the review.

When a review is incentivized, we automatically tag it with the is_incentivized_review attribute in the Product Ratings feed. This is regardless of whether the incentive is disclosed or mentioned beforehand (for example, in the review request).

This attribute cannot be edited or removed, helping ensure transparency and compliance with Google's requirements.

10. <is_verified_purchase>

This attribute indicates whether the review is linked to a verified order from your store.

Product-level attributes in the Product Ratings feed

Google states that ratings and reviews are matched to products based on a number of factors, the most important being globally unique product identifiers that appear in both:

  • the Product Ratings feed, and

  • the Products feed (in Google Merchant Center).

We automatically include the following product identifiers for each product in the Product Ratings feed to support this matching process:

  • Product URL (<product_url>)

  • Product name (<product_name>)

  • Shopify product IDs (<skus>)

You can enhance the matching by adding the following product identifiers in the Product Ratings feed as well:

  • Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs) (<gtins>)

  • Manufacturer Part Numbers (MPNs) (<mpns>) and Brand name (<brands>)

Note:

  • Even if reviews are correctly matched to products, Google will only display star ratings when it determines that the information is accurate and relevant to customers.

1. <gtins>

This attribute includes a list of Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs), such as UPC or EAN codes. GTINs help Google match the reviews in your Product Ratings feed with the correct products in your Products feed.

To use GTIN, you'll first need to register your GTINs with GS1.

Once registered, to ensure proper product matching, the same GTIN values must exist in both feeds.

  • To add GTINs to the Products feed, you can add a barcode value to your products in Shopify:

    1. From your Shopify admin, go to Products.

    2. Open the product you want.

    3. Scroll down to the Inventory section.

    4. In the Barcode (ISBN, UPC, GTIN, etc.) field, enter the registered GTIN for your product.

    5. Click Save.

  • Then, you can include them in the Product Ratings feed, using the GTIN values already saved on your products:

    1. From your Judge.me admin, go to Settings > Google and SEO > Google Shopping.

    2. Scroll down to the Advanced settings section at the bottom.

    3. Click the checkbox next to Add GTIN in the feed (Default).

    4. Click Save.

2. <mpns>

This attribute includes a list of Manufacturer Part Numbers (MPNs) associated with the product. MPNs help Google match reviews in the Product Ratings feed with the correct products in your Products feed.

To ensure proper product matching, the same MPN values must exist in both feeds.

  • To add MPNs to the Products feed, you can add SKUs to your products in Shopify:

    1. From your Shopify admin, go to Products.

    2. Open the product you want.

    3. Scroll down to the Inventory section.

    4. In the SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) field, enter your MPN for the product.

    5. Click Save.

  • Then, you can include them in the Product Ratings feed, using the SKUs values already saved on your products:

    1. From your Judge.me admin, go to Settings > Google and SEO > Google Shopping.

    2. Scroll down to the Advanced settings section at the bottom.

    3. Click the checkbox next to Add MPN in the feed.

    4. Click Save.

3. <skus>

This attribute contains a single Shopify product ID (not the merchant-defined product’s SKU). We include it the Product Ratings feed automatically following a fixed format: shopify_{country}_{shopify_product_id}.

This format matches the Product ID format used by Google for Shopify-based Products feeds, allowing Google to reliably match reviews in the Product Ratings feed with the corresponding products in your Products feed.

4. <brands>

This attribute contains the product’s brand name. Brand information helps Google match reviews in the Product Ratings feed with the correct products in your Products feed.

To ensure proper product matching, the same brand values should exist in both feeds.

  • To add brand names to your Products feed by adding Vendor to your products in Shopify:

    1. From your Shopify admin, go to Products.

    2. Open the product you want.

    3. On the right menu, scroll down to the Product organization section.

    4. In the Vendor field, enter the brand name for the product.

    5. Click Save.

  • When brand values are available on your products, we automatically include them in the Product Ratings feed. No additional setup is required.

5. <product_name>

This attribute contains the title of the product. We automatically include the product names in the Product Ratings feed. No additional setup is required.

6. <product_url>

This attribute contains the URL of the product page associated with the review. We automatically include the product URLs in the Product Ratings feed.

To control whether the product and review URLs in the feed use HTTP or HTTPS:

  1. From your Judge.me admin, go to Settings > Google and SEO > Google Shopping.

  2. Scroll down to the Advanced settings section at the bottom.

  3. Select one of the following options:

    • Use http for product and reviews URLs – All product and review URLs in the feed will start with http://.

    • Use https for product and reviews URLs – All product and review URLs in the feed will start with https://.

  4. Click Save.

Related Articles
Displaying product reviews on Google Shopping
Understanding the review issues in Google Merchant Center
Syncing reviews with Shop app
Displaying product ratings in Google Search Results
Syncing reviews from Judge.me to TikTok Shop
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