Can products with bad reviews still rank in Google Shopping?

The reality of bad reviews in Google Shopping

Products in Google Shopping display review scores prominently, and shoppers often use these ratings to filter their choices. A product with a 1.5-star rating next to a 4.8-star competitor faces an uphill battle for clicks. But can such products even appear in organic results, or does Google filter them out?

Our data shows that products with poor reviews (under 3 stars) do appear in Google Shopping organic results. However, the question is whether they rank as well as higher-rated products. This matters if you're considering whether to include poorly-reviewed products in your feed or remove them entirely.

Should you remove bad products from your feed?

If a product has consistently bad reviews, you might wonder whether including it in your Google Merchant Center feed hurts your overall account health or wastes crawl budget. The answer depends on several factors: Is the product still selling? Are the bad reviews from an old version that's been improved? Does it serve a niche audience that doesn't mind the drawbacks?

Generally, if a product has legitimate ongoing sales and the reviews reflect real customer experiences, keeping it in your feed is fine. Google doesn't penalize accounts for having some low-rated products. However, if the product is discontinued or the reviews are overwhelmingly negative with no path to improvement, removing it can simplify your feed management.

Review count vs. review score

It's worth noting that review count and review score are different signals. A product with 500 reviews averaging 2.5 stars tells a different story than a product with 3 reviews averaging 2 stars. The former has substantial sales volume despite mixed feedback, while the latter might just have a few unhappy early customers. For more on how review counts affect rankings, see our analysis on whether review counts lead to higher rankings.

Similarly, understanding the distribution of review counts across Google Shopping can provide context for your own products. Check out our insights on how many reviews products typically have in organic results.

How we define "bad reviews"

For this analysis, we define products with "bad reviews" as those with a rating value below 3.0 (on a 5-star scale). This includes products rated 1, 1.5, 2, and 2.5 stars. Products with no reviews or null ratings are excluded from this comparison.