Structured data: review -> itemreviewed --> product --> need review again

Question

I have the feeling that I'm in the matrix, an unlimited spiral..

I added review to my structured data. Review needs an item review. The item I review is a product, but a product needs a review again...

So this is the structure:

Review ->ItemReviewed -->product

but then a get an error saying: Product need a review. but then the whole circle starts again.. Am I doing something wrong?

Answer 1

In the Guide for Review, Google tells us that a nested review may be appropriate for a product and shows an example including the example in microdata format:

<div itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Product">
  <img itemprop="image" src="https://example.com/photos/1x1/catcher-in-the-rye-book-cover.jpg" alt="Catcher in the Rye"/>
  <span itemprop="name">The Catcher in the Rye</span>
  <div itemprop="review" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Review"> Review:
    <span itemprop="reviewRating" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Rating">
        <span itemprop="ratingValue">5</span> -
    </span>
    <b>"<span itemprop="name">A masterpiece of literature</span>" </b> by
    <span itemprop="author" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Person">
      <span itemprop="name">John Doe</span></span>, written on
    <meta itemprop="datePublished" content="2006-05-04">May 4, 2006
    <div itemprop="reviewBody">I really enjoyed this book. It captures the essential challenge people face as they try make sense of their lives and grow to adulthood.</div>
    <span itemprop="publisher" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Organization">
        <meta itemprop="name" content="Washington Times">
    </span>
  </div>
</div>

From this example, you can see that the structure for a product review is Product -> Review. Try to set a top-level type such as Product and put your reviews into it.

Answer 2

Is this for a single review of a product (Review.itemReviewed->Product), or a product with reviews (Product.review->Review)?

In the guidelines:

"However, if the review is nested into another schema.org type using the review property, you can omit the itemReviewed property."

That gets you out of the matrix.