How to Fix 'itemReviewed' Warnings in Review Schema

By Ryan York•

Resolve common 'itemReviewed' warnings in your Review schema to ensure your structured data is valid and eligible for rich results.

How Do You Resolve 'itemReviewed' Warnings in Schema.org Review Markup?

The itemReviewed property is required in Review schema to specify what is being reviewed. Missing or incorrect itemReviewed values can cause warnings in Google's Rich Results Test and prevent your reviews from appearing in search enhancements.

What is itemReviewed?

itemReviewed links your review to the entity being reviewed (e.g., a product, service, or business). It should be a nested object describing the item.

Common Warning Scenarios

  • itemReviewed is missing entirely
  • itemReviewed is a string instead of an object
  • The nested object is incomplete (missing @type or name)

Example of a Warning

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Review",
  "reviewBody": "Great product!",
  "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": 5 }
}

Warning: itemReviewed is missing.

How to Fix

Add a properly structured itemReviewed object:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Review",
  "reviewBody": "Great product!",
  "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": 5 },
  "itemReviewed": {
    "@type": "Product",
    "name": "Widget A"
  }
}

Best Practices

  • Always include itemReviewed as an object, not a string
  • Specify both @type and name for the reviewed item
  • Validate your schema with Google's Rich Results Test

Conclusion

Properly using itemReviewed ensures your reviews are eligible for search enhancements and provides clear context to search engines.