Why did Google stop showing our reviews rich snippets data?

Question

We have been using rich snippets on our site for a few years now but they stopped working a while ago. The rich snippets do appear if we add site directive to the search.

We have been trying several different way of tagging our data but so far none of them seem to work on SERP without site directive. Below is what we are currently trying. They all validate in the tool, but none of them show up unless we add the site directive to the search...

Product w Aggregate Rating w Rating Count

Structured Data Testing Tool: http://bit.ly/1H4UM9r Google Search: https://www.google.com/search?q=Essence+Silky+Touch+Blush+%28All+Shades%29+reviews&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8 Google Search with site directive: https://www.google.com/search?q=Essence+Silky+Touch+Blush+%28All+Shades%29+reviews&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#q=Essence+Silky+Touch+Blush+%28All+Shades%29+reviews+site:makeupalley.com

Aggregate Rating with RatingCount

Structured Data Testing Tool: http://bit.ly/1Nwvhmg Google Search: https://www.google.com/search?q=BeneFit+Cosmetics+Rockateur+reviews&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8 Google Search with site directive: https://www.google.com/search?q=BeneFit+Cosmetics+Rockateur+reviews&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#q=BeneFit+Cosmetics+Rockateur+reviews+site:makeupalley.com

Aggregate Rating with ReviewCount

Structured Data Testing Tool: http://bit.ly/1S6H0tt Google Search: https://www.google.com/search?q=NARS+Contour+Blush+reviews%2C+photo&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#q=NARS+Contour+Blush+reviews Google Search with site directive: https://www.google.com/search?q=NARS+Contour+Blush+reviews%2C+photo&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#q=NARS+Contour+Blush+reviews+site:makeupalley.com

Aggregate Rating with ReviewCuunt and RatingCount

(Tried this thanks to a suggestion from Grace on this group.. :) ) Structured Data Testing Tool: http://bit.ly/1RxKtAk Google Search: https://www.google.com/search?q=Lancome+Blush+Subtil+Palette+323+Rose+Flush+reviews&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8 Google Search with site directive: https://www.google.com/search?q=Lancome+Blush+Subtil+Palette+323+Rose+Flush+reviews%2C+photos&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#q=Lancome+Blush+Subtil+Palette+323+Rose+Flush+reviews%2C+photos+site:makeupalley.com

RDF aggreagate rating

Structured Data Testing Tool: http://bit.ly/1R9x9SR Google Search: https://www.google.com/search?q=TheBalm+Frat+Boy+reviews%2C+photos&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8 Google Search with site directive: https://www.google.com/search?q=TheBalm+Frat+Boy+reviews%2C+photos&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#q=TheBalm+Frat+Boy+reviews+site:makeupalley.com

Rating with author

Structured Data Testing Tool: http://bit.ly/1NwwaLv Google Search: https://www.google.com/search?btnG=1&pws=0&q=Manic+Panic+High+Voltage+Semi-Permanent+Hair+Colour+Cream+reviews+&gws_rd=ssl

If anyone can shed a light on how to resolve this issue, we would be very appreciate.

Answer 1

Looking at the results that do show ratings, they tend to use third party reviews (the ones I checked were using Bazaarvoice and Power Reviews).

However, as far as I can tell, your site appears to run its own reviews, which Google would then have to trust on you word that they are accurate.

I know the shopping listings require you to use their "Approved third party product review aggregators". I guess these are seen as more authoritative in general. Annoyingly, you also have to pay to use most (probably all) of these.

According to this article, Google have cut back on rich snippets in the past. They seem so easy to spam, that I'm surprised they ever let them be so open in the first place.

If they appear when you add your site directive to the search term, that to me proves you are still marked up correctly and you have no on-site coding issues.

It seems another case of "only Google will really know why", but it would certainly seem sensible to me that untrusted reviews only appear on a site-specific search, where people already know and trust the site, rather than in the main listings.