I Shipped a Fake AggregateRating to My Own Site. Then I Caught Myself.
Remove fabricated AggregateRating schema to avoid manual action.
Patch the schema to match real data or remove it immediately.
Summary
In the early launch of Vantage, the author added a fabricated AggregateRating schema to the Organization markup with a ratingValue of 4.7 and reviewCount of 23 to boost search snippets. Google’s structured‑data guidelines flag fabricated reviews as manual‑action offenses, and a six‑day‑old site could be de‑indexed instantly. Realizing the lie after rereading the diff, the author removed the schema the same hour, committing the change with the message "fix(seo): remove fabricated AggregateRating + Review schemas." To replace the social proof, a live transparency counter was built that pulls real numbers from Supabase: 4 signups, 0 analyses, 1 waitlist, cached at the edge every 10 minutes. The counter shows real growth and avoids future manual actions, demonstrating that verifiable data beats fabricated stars.
Key changes
- Added fake ratingValue 4.7 and reviewCount 23 to Organization markup
- Google flags fabricated reviews as manual‑action offenses
- Commit message "fix(seo): remove fabricated AggregateRating + Review schemas"
- Built live transparency counter from Supabase with 4 signups, 0 analyses, 1 waitlist
- Cached counter at edge every 10 minutes
- Removed schema to comply with structured‑data guidelines
- Avoided de‑indexing risk
- Demonstrated importance of verifiable social proof