by Site Reviews is a powerful and highly rated WordPress plugin that enables your users to leave reviews and star ratings on your website, much like how products are reviewed on platforms like Amazon or TripAdvisor. Designed with flexibility, simplicity, and customization in mind, Site Reviews helps build trust and social proof by showcasing authentic user feedback. Whether you run a local business, an eCommerce store, or a service website, collecting and displaying reviews can significantly influence purchasing decisions and improve credibility.
What Is the Site Reviews Plugin?
Site Reviews allows your website visitors to submit 1–5 star ratings along with a written review. These reviews can be displayed in customizable lists, sliders, widgets, or blocks. The plugin includes features such as review moderation, spam protection, review replies, and integrations with WooCommerce and other plugins.
Unlike other bulky review systems, Site Reviews offers a clean and straightforward UI while remaining powerful under the hood. It’s ideal for businesses that want to gather and manage customer feedback without relying on third-party platforms.
Key Features of Site Reviews
1. Simple Review Submission
Visitors can easily submit reviews using a customizable form. The form supports star ratings, titles, and body content and can be embedded via shortcode, widget, or block.
2. Review Moderation
All submitted reviews can be held for moderation. You can manually approve, reject, edit, or delete reviews through the WordPress admin panel.
3. Shortcodes & Blocks
Site Reviews includes multiple shortcodes and Gutenberg blocks to display reviews, forms, and summaries anywhere on your website. Common shortcodes include:
[site_reviews]: Display reviews.[site_reviews_form]: Display the review submission form.[site_reviews_summary]: Show the average rating and total count.
4. Review Replies
Site owners can respond to reviews to show engagement and resolve concerns publicly, helping increase trust.
5. Schema.org Markup
The plugin supports structured data (JSON-LD) to include star ratings and review snippets in Google search results, improving SEO and click-through rates.
6. Spam Protection
Built-in reCAPTCHA support and optional features like blacklisting, throttling, and approval requirements help reduce spam reviews.
7. Pinned & Featured Reviews
You can pin certain reviews to appear at the top of the list or feature specific reviews to draw attention.
8. User Restrictions
You can limit review submissions by requiring user login, one review per IP or user, or restricting based on email address.
9. Custom Notifications
Send email notifications when a review is submitted, approved, or replied to — great for staying informed and engaging with customers.
10. WooCommerce Integration (Pro)
Site Reviews Pro integrates deeply with WooCommerce, allowing product-specific reviews, automatic syncing, and custom display options.
Use Cases
Site Reviews is highly flexible and can be used in many different types of websites:
1. Business Websites
Collect client feedback, service testimonials, and customer reviews to increase trust.
2. eCommerce Stores
Even without WooCommerce, Site Reviews can be used to collect reviews about your products or store as a whole.
3. Service Providers
Freelancers, agencies, or consultants can showcase client testimonials that boost their credibility and conversion rates.
4. Directories and Listings
Collect and display ratings for items, businesses, properties, or places listed on your site.
5. Educational and Online Courses
Collect student feedback and display course ratings.
Benefits of Using Site Reviews
1. Build Trust and Credibility
Reviews act as social proof, increasing the perceived trustworthiness of your products or services. A 5-star average based on genuine customer feedback encourages visitors to take action.
2. Improve SEO
With structured data support, reviews and ratings can appear in Google search results as rich snippets, increasing visibility and click-through rates.
3. Boost Engagement
Allowing users to share their experiences increases engagement and shows that your site values user input.
4. Moderation Control
You remain in control of what reviews get published, reducing the risk of abusive, spammy, or irrelevant content.
5. Customizable and Extendable
Site Reviews offers a clean base for custom development. You can style it using CSS, extend it with hooks, or use the premium add-ons for more advanced functionality.
Setup and Configuration
- Installation
- From your WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins > Add New, search for Site Reviews, install and activate it.
- Settings
- Go to Site Reviews > Settings. Here you can configure defaults, enable reCAPTCHA, define approval workflows, and customize notifications.
- Adding the Form
- Use the
[site_reviews_form]shortcode or block on any page/post where you want users to submit reviews.
- Use the
- Displaying Reviews
- Use the
[site_reviews]shortcode with options likeassigned_to="post_id"to show context-specific reviews (e.g., product or service-specific).
- Use the
- Managing Reviews
- Navigate to Site Reviews > All Reviews to view, approve, edit, or delete reviews.
- Optional Styling
- Use built-in CSS classes or your custom theme styles to change the look and feel.
Advanced Features (Pro Add-On)
Site Reviews also offers a Pro version and several add-ons for advanced functionality:
- Review Images: Allow users to upload images with their reviews.
- Review Assignments: Assign reviews to posts, products, or users.
- WooCommerce Sync: Sync product reviews between WooCommerce and Site Reviews.
- Avatars and Voting: Let users upvote or downvote reviews.
- Filters and Sorting: Enable advanced filtering and sorting on review lists.
- Import/Export: Backup or migrate reviews easily.
These premium features make Site Reviews an ideal replacement for complex and expensive review platforms.
Comparison with Other Review Plugins
| Feature | Site Reviews | WP Customer Reviews | WP Review | Rich Reviews |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Schema Support | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| WooCommerce Integration | ✅ (Pro) | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Moderation Tools | ✅ | Limited | ✅ | ❌ |
| Shortcode Flexibility | ✅ | ✅ | Limited | Limited |
| Image Uploads | ✅ (Pro) | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Rating Summary | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
Site Reviews stands out for its clean interface, advanced moderation, structured data support, and extensibility.
Final Thoughts
Site Reviews is a top-tier review plugin that brings professional-grade features to any WordPress website. Whether you’re a blogger, freelancer, business owner, or developer, it offers a robust system for collecting, managing, and showcasing user reviews.
Its strengths lie in its flexibility, ease of use, and extensive customization options. While the free version is sufficient for most basic needs, the premium add-ons offer powerful tools for advanced users, especially those running WooCommerce or large-scale sites.
Summary:
- ✅ Fast and lightweight
- ✅ Supports structured data for rich snippets
- ✅ Excellent shortcode and block flexibility
- ✅ Great for SEO and user trust
- ✅ Developer-friendly with hooks and filters
If you’re looking to implement a reliable, customizable review system on your WordPress site, Site Reviews is one of the best solutions available today.
