Can employer ratings be compiled from other websites for Google?

Definition: No. For Google's employer rating feature, ratings must come from users who can post them on your site, and your site must host them. Google also says not to aggregate reviews or ratings from other websites.

Key facts

• Google's employer rating documentation defines EmployerAggregateRating as an evaluation of a hiring organization compiled from many users.
• Google's Review snippet documentation says ratings must be sourced directly from users and says not to aggregate reviews or ratings from other websites.
• Schema.org's EmployerAggregateRating type inherits ratingCount and reviewCount, which describe the total number of ratings and reviews.

Can a site copy ratings from another website?

Google's review snippet rules answer this directly: “Don't aggregate reviews or ratings from other websites.” The same rules say ratings for an organization must be sourced directly from users and that human editors must not create, curate or compile ratings information for local businesses. These requirements rule out copying a score, importing a review site's total, or manually combining ratings collected elsewhere for an employer rating markup item.

The employer rating page describes the permitted collection model. Users must be able to post their own ratings on your site, and your site must host those ratings. The number of ratings must reflect actual ratings users provide, while the aggregate score must be accurately derived from those ratings. The documentation was updated 8 September 2026.

What must the collecting page show?

The ratings must be available to users from the page that contains the EmployerAggregateRating markup. Google says it must be immediately obvious that the page has rating content. The rating also has to describe a specific hiring organization, rather than a category or a list of items. A page that presents a copied external score without a user rating collection on the page therefore does not match the documented content model.

Google's review snippet guidance gives the same visibility test for AggregateRating: users should be able to see the aggregate rating on the marked-up page. Schema.org describes itemReviewed as “The item that is being reviewed/rated,” so the markup needs to identify the organization whose employer rating the page presents.

Which properties record the collected rating?

Google's employer rating example uses JSON-LD. It identifies an Organization, gives a ratingValue, states the scale with bestRating and worstRating, and supplies ratingCount.

{
  "@context" : "https://schema.org/",
  "@type": "EmployerAggregateRating",
  "itemReviewed": {
    "@type": "Organization",
    "name" : "World's Best Coffee Shop",
    "sameAs" : "https://example.com"
  },
  "ratingValue": 91,
  "bestRating": 100,
  "worstRating": 1,
  "ratingCount" : "10561"
}

In Google's property definitions, ratingCount is the total number of ratings for the organization on your site. At least one of ratingCount or reviewCount is required. Schema.org defines ratingValue as the rating for the content, and bestRating as the highest value allowed in the rating system. The example values above are Google's documentation example, not figures to reuse for another organization.

How should the implementation be checked?

Check that the page visibly presents the rating, names one hiring organization, lets users post ratings on the site, and derives the aggregate from the ratings it hosts. Google's employer rating implementation instructions recommend validating the structured data with the Rich Results Test, then using the URL Inspection tool to test how Google sees deployed pages. The same documentation notes that some issues are not syntax issues and therefore cannot be identified by the Rich Results Test, so the collection source, visible rating and calculation still need to match the content rules.

Related terms

• AggregateRating structured data
• Which count fields are required for EmployerAggregateRating?
• Review structured data

FAQ

Can a site combine ratings that its own users submitted?

Yes. Google documents EmployerAggregateRating for a rating compiled from many users when those users can post ratings on the site and the site hosts them. The aggregate must reflect actual ratings and be accurately derived from them.

Can an editor manually combine ratings from several websites?

No. Google's review snippet guidelines prohibit aggregating ratings from other websites and prohibit relying on human editors to create, curate or compile ratings information for local businesses.

Is structured data enough if the ratings are stored elsewhere?

No. Google requires the ratings to be available on the page where the structured data is added and says the page must make its rating content immediately obvious to users.

Sources

1. Google Search Central, "Employer Rating (EmployerAggregateRating) Structured Data", 8 September 2026
2. Google Search Central, "Review snippet (Review, AggregateRating) structured data", 8 September 2026
3. Schema.org, "EmployerAggregateRating", August 2026

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