Structured data - reviews & aggregateRating

[Eric_S]

Hi all,

We recently implemented structured data for reviews, specifically aggregateRating, on a few of our pages as a test. An example page is: https://www.vouchedfor.co.uk/financial-advisor-ifa/cambridge/01740-duncan-hannay-robertson

Initially, this seemed to work well and we could see the star ratings and review number showing in Google search results. However, now it seems to have disappeared. Search console and the testing tool seem to suggest the structured data looks fine - when I posted this in the webmasters forum, the response I got was that it was because we're trying to mark what google deems a 'person' as a 'local business', which triggers their spam warning. And you can't have reviews for a person, apparently.

I guess we're unique in that we're a review platform for professional advisers (for example, financial advisers). So whilst the profile is for a person, it's also a business - the reviews are for the professional services clients receive.

Feels unfair to be penalised just because Google hasn't thought of our use case! We'd love to be able to showcase our review content, but feels like we're running out of ideas here.

If anyone has any ideas for how we can make this work, it would be hugely appreciated!!