=== Embedder for Google Reviews ===
Contributors: paretodigital, googlereviewsplugin, freemius
Tags: google reviews, google reviews plugin, google reviews widget, google reviews block, google reviews slider
Tested up to: 7.0
Requires PHP: 7.4
License: GPLv2 or later
License URI: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html
Stable tag: 2.1
Tags: google reviews, google, reviews, rating, reviews plugin

This Google Reviews Plugin pulls reviews from Google profiles and displays them on your website.

== Description ==
With a few easy clicks, display your Google Reviews for free, and improve your website user experience and conversions.
Our Google Reviews WordPress plugin displays customer reviews with newly and easily implemented widgets.

⚡ PRO Version (Free Trial) for **advanced filtering** and additional layouts

➡ [See LIVE Demo](https://reviewsembedder.com/?utm_source=wp_dir&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=live_demo)

✨ [Live Demo](https://reviewsembedder.com/?utm_source=wp_dir&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=live_demo) | 📚 [Documentation](https://reviewsembedder.com/docs/how-to-install/?utm_source=wp_dir&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=docs) | 🌟 [PRO Features](https://reviewsembedder.com/?utm_source=wp_dir&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=features#pricing) | 🔥 [Get PRO](https://reviewsembedder.com/?utm_source=wp_dir&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=get_pro)

== 🏆 Top Features of this Google Reviews Plugin ==
The free version of the Google Reviews WordPress plugin has different styles and layouts and offers easy installation and integration. You do NOT need any Google API key or Google Places API key. Just install the business reviews plugin and display the business reviews on your wordpress websites. You also do not need a Google Place ID, like with many other Google Place WordPress plugins.

**➡ Pull your Google Reviews** from Google My Business / Google Business Profile

**➡ Update reviews automatically**

**➡ Displaying Google Reviews** as Slider or Grid

**➡ Choose** from 8 different designs

== 💪 Plus ==
**➕ Free usage** - Our free plugin is free to use with different free options to choose from

**➕ Display Google reviews in different layouts** - Make your website look more attractive to your website visitors by choosing different layouts for Google Place Reviews.

**➕ Use dummy content for testing if you don't have reviews yet** - If you don’t have online reviews yet, no worries, you can use dummy content for testing and still embed the reviews plugin on your business website.

**➕ Use high-quality pre-designed styles** - Choose from a variety of high-quality pre-designed styles to catch the eyes of your customers.

**➕ All designs are fully customizable via CSS** - We know how important is the use of CSS for your design, and that’s why all of our designs are compatible and fully customizable via CSS.

**➕ Display reviews as a slider or as a grid** - Depending on your preferences, you can choose to display reviews as a slider or as a grid.

**➕ Shortcode integration** - Activate the widgets for Google Reviews on your business website with straightforward shortcode integration.

**➕ Use in any page builder** like, Divi, Classic Editor, Gutenberg, Page Origin, Beaver Builder, WPBakery etc. – Our free plugin is available and compatible with a wide variety of page builders, and the process of integration is as simple as pasting a shortcode mentioned in the feature before.

**➕ Save all reviews to WordPress for 100% uptime** - business reviews are kept in the WordPress database for 100% uptime and easy navigation.

**➕ Boost your SEO** - Make your website rank higher in search results and allow more people and potential customers to discover your excellent products and services - even with the free version!

**➕ Ultra-fast loading times** - Not only is the embedding process of our widgets for Google Reviews easy, but its loading time is ultra-fast to ensure the best customer experience. It also cut's off long reviews, in order to maintain a good visual appearance.

➡ [See LIVE Demo](https://reviewsembedder.com/?utm_source=wp_dir&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=live_demo)

✨ [Live Demo](https://reviewsembedder.com/?utm_source=wp_dir&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=live_demo) | 📚 [Documentation](https://reviewsembedder.com/docs/how-to-install/?utm_source=wp_dir&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=docs) | 🌟 [PRO Features](https://reviewsembedder.com/?utm_source=wp_dir&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=features#pricing) | 🔥 [Get PRO](https://reviewsembedder.com/?utm_source=wp_dir&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=get_pro)

== PRO Features of the paid version (Free Trial) ==
With [the pro version](https://reviewsembedder.com?utm_source=wp_dir&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=02), you can pull all Google places reviews of a business instead of only 20.
Showing a more significant number of positive comments will make your business website more attractive to your customers and further build trust.
The premium version also includes additional premium settings with more customization options to increase your sales and conversions.
The Google Review Widget has a special word filter that enables you to search for powerful and positive words amongst all the reviews and filter Google places reviews by rating option, which will only display reviews with 5 or 4-stars.

⭐ **Pull ALL reviews of a business, instead of only 20**

⭐ **Get access to additional premium designs** - The premium package contains different and valuable tools to design further and customize your widgets for Google Reviews more easily.

⭐ **Filter reviews by rating (display reviews with 5 or 4 stars only)** - The premium version of our WordPress google reviews wordpress plugin has special reviews by rating feature only available to premium users. The feature allows only 5 or 4-star reviews to be shown on your wordpress website.

== How does the installation process look like? ==
1. Install the plugin
2. Activate it
3. Search for your local business
4. Click 'Pull reviews'
5. Save
6. Paste shortcode in pages, posts, or even Elementor, Beaver Builder, WP Bakery etc.

== 🌐 Innovative Design ==
Design and create your own review widgets, and choose the reviews to build your customer’s trust and optimize the website.
With our newly designed Google reviews wordpress plugin, you will enjoy to display google reviews and improving your customer experience. Embedding Reviews will boost conversions to your business website and build customer trust.
The Google Reviews WordPress plugin comes with different designs and styles to catch the eye of your customers and develop an online reputation.

== 🌟 Why are Google Review Widgets so important? ==
More than 90% of customers looking for positive feedback often make purchase decisions on the back of reviews. When there is somebody to vouch for your product/service quality, other people looking to purchase your goods and services will be more confident to buy something from you.
Reviews will increase your sales and conversions and ensure customers keep coming back to you by creating a positive feedback loop.
Our Google Reviews WordPress plugins will boost your SEO and rank your website higher in search results because of positive reviews.

== 👥 Easy and Intuitive Implementation ==
The implementation process is simple, and it only takes a couple of clicks to finish everything. You must copy your business website’s link into our Google Reviews widget and follow the steps outlined in the video above.
After that, you are all set and can finally focus on other aspects of your business.

== 🖥️ What are the benefits of Google Reviews WordPress plugins? ==

There are multiple advantages of using Google business reviews, and some of them are:

- **Increasing brand awareness** -  Reviews are a great way to build your brand reputation on the Google Engine Results Page. The likelihood of drawing the clicks increases when you enforce your reputation this way.
- **Collecting customer insights** - Collecting customer insights is an effective way to see how your products and services perform, and they are a great indicator when problems arise. Read your customer reviews and fix the issues they are pointing to.
- **Increased transparency** - People like transparency. It shows them you are being honest and have nothing to hide. Also, potential customers can see reviews from your older customers and decide if they want to buy your services and products or not.
- **Trust is easily established** - When people see many reviews, especially the positive ones, they instantly become more drawn to your business. Continue improving your business constantly, use customer feedback, and you will build trust among people and make them your regular customers.
- **SEO (show higher in Google search results)** - It is no secret that reviews improve SEO(Search Engine Optimization). Regarding Google AI, it is not foolish to say that it trusts your customers more than you. Good reviews will help your website’s Google ranking, and you will appear higher in the Google search engine results. Also, great reviews will bring better ratings and increase your CTR and revenue.
- **Improved Website Traffic** - Positive reviews will make your customers return to repurchase your services and products. Also, regular customers will increase your website traffic and make it more stable. When those customers leave a positive review, new ones will have an easier time deciding if a particular product or service is right for them.
- **Increased Conversions & ROI** - Most people look for positive reviews when deciding to purchase something on the internet. By constantly improving your business, you will increase the chance of customers leaving positive reviews and, in turn, improve your conversion rates and ROI.

== 🚀 Do embedded Google reviews help with SEO? ==
Embedding Google reviews and customer testimonials help with SEO(Search Engine Optimization).
Many other factors are involved in search rankings, but customer reviews can be a solid signal to Google’s search engine since they communicate trustworthiness and authority.
Here are some reasons why reviews help with your search engine optimization:

- **Google trusts your customers more than it trusts you** - Google depends on signals to determine if the site is competent and worth good rankings or not. When somebody reviews your services, it tells Google your Business is of a certain quality and, most importantly, that other people have interacted with it and can help potential customers make decisions.
- **Google likes to read** - Google “reads” your site to understand the world. The more content there is about your website, the more it will know about your business. Sometimes customers will unintentionally describe your products and services to Google and help him add SEO value to your business.
- **Great reviews => More stars => Increased CTR (Click Through Rate)** - People would usually choose to buy products and services from a business that has more star ratings. Still, those depend on the number of wp business reviews, especially the positive ones you get from your customers. If more people review your business, you will have a better rating and, in turn, increase your wordpress websites traffic and CTA.

== Language ==
Since many companies conduct business globally, the WordPress reviews widget must support various languages.
Our WordPress plugin supports Afrikaans, Albanian, Arabic, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Bengali, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, Galician, Georgian, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Kazakh, Korean, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Malay, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Scottish Gaelic, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, and Welsh.

== Support ==
Here are the most common questions associated with WordPress Google Reviews Plugins and reviews widgets.
If you have any problem whatsoever or didn’t find the answer you were looking for, make sure to contact our customer support team through our website or the WordPress dashboard.

== ⚡ PRO Version to pull ALL reviews ⚡ ==

✨ [Live Demo](https://reviewsembedder.com/?utm_source=wp_dir&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=live_demo) | 📚 [Documentation](https://reviewsembedder.com/docs/how-to-install/?utm_source=wp_dir&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=docs) | 🌟 [PRO Features](https://reviewsembedder.com/?utm_source=wp_dir&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=features#pricing) | 🔥 [Get PRO](https://reviewsembedder.com/?utm_source=wp_dir&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=get_pro)

Also check out our other plugins:
- YASR - [Star Rating Plugin for WordPress](https://wordpress.org/plugins/yet-another-stars-rating/)
- Send Users Email – [Email Subscribers, Email Marketing Newsletter](https://wordpress.org/plugins/send-users-email/)

== Resources ==
* [Follow development on GitHub](https://github.com/maucherOnline/wordpress-google-reviews-plugin)
* Source files for Swiper JS library: [https://swiperjs.com](https://swiperjs.com)

== Use of external services ==
To provide your Google reviews, the plugin uses an external service provided by the developer of this plugin.
The plugin does not send any data to the external service, except for the Google Place ID, the admin email and the freemius installation ID, which is necessary to retrieve the reviews.
The admin email is used to inform the admin of any potential outages on our service (very rarely the case). The email is only used for this purpose and is not stored or used for any other purpose.

== Frequently Asked Questions ==

= What is the Google reviews WordPress Plugin? =

A Google reviews WordPress Plugin is a plugin for adding Google testimonials to a WordPress website.
This review plugin automatically trims long reviews and stores the reviews being used in the WordPress database.
Our Google Review plugins, in particular, can show more than 5 different reviews for any number of businesses you want.

= How do I integrate Google reviews into WordPress? =

To integrate Google reviews into WordPress, you must log in to your WordPress account and visit the editor section of any webpage where you wish to embed Google reviews widget.
The next step is to paste the copied embed code into the editor section, where you want to display customer reviews on the WordPress site.
Click the Publish button, and you just finished embedding the content on your WordPress website!

= What is review plugin used for? =

A review plugin is used to place customer reviews on your website and enable collecting feedback on how you can enhance your website or product.
Collecting and placing reviews on your WordPress website will increase your sales and conversion, improve your customer experience and build a reputable brand that can be trusted.
Use the WordPress Google Reviews Plugin to place only positive reviews, and avoid posting negative ones since they will negatively affect your conversion rates.

= How do I put Google reviews on Elementor? =

To put Google business reviews on Elementor, you should first connect your website with the plugin for Google Reviews itself.
The next step is to choose the design and layout, and after that, you should click the button where it says save/get code.
With that code, you should go to your Elementor page and choose the shortcode review widgets. After putting the widget in the desired place, paste the code in the shortcode widget to embed Google Reviews.

= What is an embedded review? =

An embedded review is an excellent alternative to posting a screenshot of a review or pasting review text into your website. You do not need any advanced review management tool to achieve this.
It’s easier to click over for more information, and your customers have more information about other customers’ experiences with your product/services. With an embedded review, the business’s rating and review count stay current. Sidenote: this plugin does not embed yelp reviews.

= How do I add reviews to my website? =

Follow these steps to add google reviews to website:
1. Search for your local business within our plugin for Google Reviews interface
2. Click ‘Pull reviews’
3. Save.
4. Copy the shortcode.
5. Paste it on the page/post where you want your customer reviews to be seen.

= Should you put reviews on your website? =

In short, yes. Customer reviews will add social proof to your WordPress site, and potential clients will have an easier time buying your products or services. Placing the best reviews on your website is a great way to build your brand and online reputation.
Moreover, feedback from your customers will give you insights to develop new strategies and marketing tactics to increase the quality of your products/services.

= How many Google reviews do I need? =

An optimal amount of reviews is somewhere between 20-50 but aim to have as many Google Business reviews as possible. Google recently changed its policy, requiring a minimum of five reviews even to give you a star rating.
Having more positive or negative reviews will help you diagnose good things or problems with your services and products that need to be solved to increase your conversion rate and sales.

= Can you get too many Google reviews? =

There is not a thing as too many Google reviews. It would be best if you aimed to have as many as possible.
As long as you’re not paying for the best reviews, pushing customers to leave reviews on one of your devices, or forcing customers to leave reviews while still connected to your WiFi, you’ll be okay.

= What is the easiest way to collect Google reviews? =

There are a few easy ways to collect Google reviews, and those are:
– Ask for a review after you complete a job.
– Ask the latest customer you have interacted with to leave you a review.
– Ask for a review through an email.
– Ask customers to leave a review when you send a bill.
– Ask for a review when you conclude a conversation on the phone.

= Is it legal to put Google reviews on my website? =

Google owns the rights to the Google Business Listing customer reviews, so posting them without proper citation is illegal.
You want to ensure you use the name of the customer who left you the review. Additionally, be sure you have the user’s permission to post the review on your WordPress site.

= Should I pay for Google reviews? =

To answer it shortly, no. Fake reviews are declared illegal by the FTC(Federal Trade Commission) and are against Google’s guidelines.
You can damage your business in various ways, so make sure to use genuine reviews with permission from the customer.

= Do Google reviews hurt business? =

It depends on if the reviews are positive or negative.
Negative reviews can seriously impact your business by decreasing your conversion rate, customer experience, and sales.
Statistically, 86% of customers hesitate to purchase from companies with negative reviews.

= How can I report security bugs? =

You can report security bugs through the Patchstack Vulnerability Disclosure Program. The Patchstack team helps validate, triage and handle any security vulnerabilities. [Report a security vulnerability.]( https://patchstack.com/database/vdp/9e5fbc2e-facd-423f-b519-e537c29c5cd5 )

== Screenshots ==
1. Sample design of WP Google Review Slider #1
2. Sample design of WP Google Review Slider #2
3. Sample design of WP Google Review Slider #3
4. Sample design of Google Reviews Widget #4
5. Google Reviews Plugin backend view #1
6. Google Reviews Plugin backend #2

== Changelog ==
= 2.1.1 =
* Bugfixing
= 2.1 =
* Added new design
* Added new options
* Added translation options
= 2.0.2 =
* Added new design variations
* Added 'Write a review' button
= 2.0 =
* Added new designs and layouts
* Added new options tabs
* Added preview tabs
= 1.7.7 =
* Bugfix: only load admin styles on plugin pages
* Upgraded Freemius SDK
* Dashboard redesign
= 1.7.6 =
* Upgraded Freemius SDK
* Bugfix: license activation
= 1.7.5 =
* Fixed issue with reviews not being pulled
* Upgraded Freemius SDK
= 1.7.4 =
* Added validation
= 1.7.3 =
* Added patchstack security disclaimer
= 1.7.2 =
* Changed error handling for empty search results
= 1.7.1 =
* Checked WP 6.8 compatibility
* Fixed freemius/tastewp issue
= 1.7 =
* Added swiper options
* Swiper performance improvements
* Fixed reviews duplication bug
= 1.6.7 =
* Upgraded Freemius SDK
= 1.6.5 =
* Bugfix regarding wp auto p
= 1.6.5 =
* Updated translation files
= 1.6.4 =
* Chrome scrollbar CSS bugfix
* Added 'verified' badge
* Upgraded Freemius SDK
= 1.6.3 =
* Upgraded Freemius SDK
* Upgraded Swiper JS library
* Added resources like GitHub repository to source files and Swiper JS library
* Added disclaimer for the use of external services
* Changed text domain for translation strings to match plugin slug
* Added security measures to prevent public access to certain plugin files
* Added translators comments
= 1.6.2 =
* Upgraded Freemius SDK
* WP 6.7 compatibility
= 1.0 =
* Published first version
= 1.1.3 =
* Added screenshots
= 1.3.2 =
* Added free API
= 1.4.9 =
* Added translation files
* Added custom build, compression, etc.
* Performance improvements
= 1.5.6 =
* New admin interface
* Updated translations for DE, CH, ES, FR
