Developing
Observed by one vendor across its customers; Google has not confirmed a policy change.
In 60 seconds
- Review snippets (star ratings) appear to have stopped showing for healthcare web pages even with valid review schema.
- The drop began late May 2026, with another in early August for some organisations, visible in Search Console search appearance charts.
- Schema App tested alternate aggregateRating paths and multi-typing with Product; none restored it.
- Many customers declined to change markup that was semantically accurate just to recover the rich result.
Impact Layer
- What changed
- A rich result that healthcare sites used appears to be gone.
- Why it matters
- Sites may be maintaining markup for a result that no longer shows, and click-through could be affected.
- Who is affected
- Healthcare SEO and web teams.
- Martech stack area
- SEO & Search, CMS
- Stack impact
- Check your Search Console search appearance chart for review snippets. Keep accurate markup for entities, but do not contort it to chase the result.
- Business impact
- Low A report by Barry Schwartz of one vendor's customer data. Schwartz does not see review snippets for doctors or dentists outside local results himself.
- Related vendors
- What to watch
- Any Google documentation change about eligible review rich results.
Barry Schwartz reported on October 7, 2026 that Google appears to have stopped showing review rich results in Search for healthcare web pages, even where review schema is present. He credited Andrea Badder of Schema App.
What was observed
- Schema App saw a drop in Review Snippet visibility across its healthcare customers starting in late May 2026, with another drop in early August for some organisations, in a Search Console performance chart filtered by search appearance.
- Its team tried connecting aggregateRating differently, alternative property paths and multi-typing healthcare entities with Product. None restored the review snippet.
- Many customers declined to change markup that was semantically accurate just to recover the rich result, preferring to represent physicians, locations, services and specialties accurately for search engines and AI systems.
Context
Badder wrote: “Rich results are still valuable when Google awards them.” Google has previously discontinued some rich results, including ones tied to specific industries. Schwartz wondered whether Google had turned them off for the medical space entirely, and noted he does not see them for doctors or dentists outside local results. Google had not commented.
Our read
Treat this as an observation, not a policy. Check your own Search Console data, keep accurate markup and avoid spending effort on workarounds.
Sources
- Search Engine Roundtable: Google drops healthcare review snippets (opens in a new tab)
Source of the observation, test attempts and quotes.