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Rachelle Sanders
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If your business website is built on Wordpress, you can install our Review Stream Wordpress plugin for easy integration. Your reviews are displayed with SEO-friendly markup.

FYI:

The default embeddable "Review Stream" widget is a Javascript widget loaded asynchronously. It is not indexed and has no SEO impact. If you use our Wordpress plugin the content is presented in structured data markup and is indexed by Google. Our Wordpress plugin complies with Google's August 2016 schema markup guideline updates.

In this Article:

Set up Wordpress Review Stream Plugin

Once you've received your API token, you can install the Review Stream plugin directly within the Wordpress dashboard by clicking Plugins > Add New.

wp add new plugin hlt

You can either search the plugin directory for "Review Stream" or download the plugin directly, save the .zip file to your computer, and choose the Upload Plugin option.

wp add plugin hlt

If you're uploading the plugin, select the .zip file you've just downloaded, then click Install Now.

wp install now

On the Installed Plugins page, find your Review Stream plugin and click Settings.

wp installed plugins settings hlt

Select your entity and the schema you'd like to use for rich-snippet markup, or No Schema to turn off schema markup entirely.

screen-shot-2016-10-03-at-11-45-50-am

If you want to exercise extra caution in regards to Google's August 2016 schema markup guidelines, check the Use schema only on reviews collected directly? box. This will only display the aggregated rating for reviews collected directly through the platform in your search results and remove any third-party ratings from your search results.

Add your API token, URL shortname, desired default review count, and what you'd like to show.

Be sure to save your changes. Now you can add your review stream into your desired location on your website using the shortcode

[reviewstream]

Use the

[path]

attribute if you want to place the review stream from another landing page on the same website as your default stream.

Available attributes for Wordpress Review Stream Plugin

Use any of the below attributes alone or in combination to override your default plugin settings. To add the review stream to your WordPress page or post with your default settings, simply type

[reviewstream]

where you would like the stream to appear.

count

Use this attribute to change the number of reviews displayed. The default count is 5. Here's an example shortcode to display 3 reviews:

[reviewstream count=3]

display

This attribute will display your review stream in "carousel" format (i.e. one review displayed at a time, changing every few seconds). The shortcode would look like this:

[reviewstream display=carousel]

path

Use this attribute to display a review stream from a different profile in your account than the one you have set as the default. For example, if your default path is "profile-a" but you want to show the stream for "profile-b", your shortcode would be:

[reviewstream path=profile-b]

randomize

Setting this attribute to "true" will display a random selection of reviews that will be different every time the hosting page is loaded. Setting it to "false" will revert to the standard 'newest review first' format. Here's an example shortcode to display randomized reviews:

[reviewstream randomize=true]

show_aggregate_rating

Setting this attribute to "true" will display your business' aggregate rating (the average rating across all monitored reviews). Setting it to "false" will remove it. Here's an example shortcode to display the aggregate rating

[reviewstream show_aggregate_rating=true]

show_reviews

Setting this attribute to "true" will display your reviews. Setting it to "false" will remove the reviews. This attribute is intended for use when you only want to show the aggregate rating - you will typically have the aggregate rating toggled on in your default plugin settings. Here's an example shortcode for exactly that scenario:

[reviewstream show_reviews=false]

Fully White-labeling the Wordpress Review Stream Plugin

The Wordpress Review Stream plugin can be completely white-labeled, but it requires one or two steps, depending on your use.

Standard: White-labeled Configuration

If you manage your client's website or plugins, this level of white-labeling is all you need: It affects the "Powered by" links and the settings UI inside Wordpress, but it does not remove our brand from the plugin publisher info (see below).

Simply install (or update to) the latest version of the "Review Stream" WordPress plugin inside WordPress, as you would any other plugin, and you'll find that it places a config-sample.php file in /wp-content/uploads/reviewstream-settings.

Modify this file with your own brand and domain, rename it config.php, and you're done! You will continue to get alerts inside Wordpress when we release new versions of the plugin, and updating will not overwrite your white-label settings.

Advanced: White-labeled Publisher Info

If you want to change the publisher info on the plugin itself (typically exposed in the "Plugins" panel of the Wordpress admin), you'll need to create your own version of the plugin where you replace this info in the main plugin file (It's in the comments at the top of the reviewstream.php file).

Once you do so, however, the plugin code is yours to maintain--it will not automatically receive updates from us, and if you do update it from our latest, this reviewstream.php file will be overwritten.

It is infeasible for us to maintain an unbranded distribution of the Review Stream WP plugin on Wordpress.org, which requires publisher info. If you need the advanced level of white-labeling described above, you should be comfortable maintaining your own distribution or manually updating the plugin as needed.

To facilitate, we've made available for direct download here the latest version of the Wordpress plugin files with our publisher info already removed: reviewstream-v1.5.3

End of Article:

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