Structured data plays a vital role in helping search engines understand and display your site’s content accurately. If your website includes customer reviews or service ratings, implementing the aggregateRating schema is essential for rich results. This guide walks you through how to properly add the ratingCount property in WordPress—ensuring Google can read your site’s total review count while keeping customer data private.
Issue background
Structured data (also known as schema markup) allows Google to display additional details about your site in search results—like star ratings, average scores, and review counts.
In this case, a WordPress site already had structured data for average rating values but was missing the ratingCount property. Without it, search engines can’t display the total number of reviews contributing to that average, which can reduce click-through rates and trust.
The challenge was to add ratingCount without revealing individual reviews or personal information from the site’s survey or feedback system.
Diagnosis
Upon review, the existing JSON-LD structured data included a valid aggregateRating schema, but it only contained ratingValue. The ratingCount property—required by Google for full review-rich snippets—was missing. This property had to be pulled from the site’s review platform (such as GatherUp, Google Reviews, or another third-party aggregator) while ensuring no identifiable information (like comments or names) was exposed.
Resolution steps
1. Access the review system
Log into the platform that manages your site’s reviews (e.g., GatherUp or Google My Business). Find the dashboard or report showing the total number of ratings your business has received.
2. Retrieve only the rating count
Locate the number of reviews without exporting or referencing any comments or survey text. You only need the total count for structured data—no user-generated content.
3. Update your structured data
In your WordPress dashboard, go to your SEO plugin’s Schema Markup section. This may be in:
- Yoast SEO → Search Appearance → Schema
- All in One SEO → Search Appearance → Schema Markup
Locate or create the section for your aggregateRating markup.
4. Add the ratingCount property
Edit your JSON-LD schema to include both the ratingValue and ratingCount properties. Example:
{
"aggregateRating": {
"@type": "AggregateRating",
"ratingValue": "4.6",
"ratingCount": "100"
}
}
Replace 4.6 and 100 with your actual values. This snippet tells Google your business has an average rating of 4.6 out of 5, based on 100 individual ratings.
5. Validate the structured data
Use Google’s Rich Results Test or the Structured Data Testing Tool to confirm that the new markup is recognized. Look for a green checkmark and ensure that:
ratingCountandratingValueboth appear- No user comments or personal data are exposed
6. Push the change live
Once the test passes, apply the update to your live WordPress site and resubmit your sitemap through Google Search Console to trigger reindexing.
Final outcome
With the ratingCount property added, your site now provides Google with a complete picture of your reviews—showing both average score and total count. This not only boosts your visibility in search results but also builds user trust by displaying accurate, verified ratings. Best of all, it keeps user data private, aligning with Google’s content and privacy standards.
Conclusion
Structured data improvements like these can make a measurable difference in SEO and user engagement. Adding ratingCount to your aggregateRating schema enhances how your brand appears in Google Search and helps you stand out among competitors.
Need help refining your structured data or optimizing your WordPress site for rich results? Contact Freshy today for professional WordPress SEO support.
