Google reviews

The Google reviews plugin shows your business’s Google rating and up to five reviews on any page. It fetches them from Google with your own Google API key, and credits each review the way Google requires.

Before you start: get an API key

1. Sign in to the Google Cloud console and create a project (or pick one).
2. Turn on billing for the project. Google charges for each request that includes reviews (see Google’s pricing for “Place Details Enterprise + Atmosphere”); new accounts get a monthly free allowance.
3. Go to APIs & Services → Library, find Places API (New), and click Enable.
4. Go to APIs & Services → Credentials → Create credentials → API key.
5. Click the new key, and under API restrictions choose Restrict key and tick only Places API (New). Save.

Keep the key private: anyone with it can run up charges on your account.

Find your Place ID

Open Google’s Place ID Finder, type your business’s name, and pick it from the list. The Place ID looks like ChIJl9Ukl-GVuokR57U_Jwy-g1c.

Set up the plugin

1. Go to Extensions, install Google reviews, and approve its permissions.
2. Open its settings and fill in:
   • Google API key: the key from above. It’s never shown again; leave the field blank later to keep it.
   • Default Place ID: your Place ID.
   • Show reviews rated at least, Only reviews with text, Most reviews to show, Order, and Language as you like.
   • Keep reviews for: leave it on Don’t keep them. Google’s terms don’t allow storing reviews, so they’re fetched fresh when a page is built. Only choose a time if Google has agreed to it for your account.
3. Open Extensions → Google reviews → Google reviews and click Test connection. You should see your business’s name.

Add reviews to a page

In the editor, add a Google reviews block. You can change its heading, choose List or Cards, and turn the overall rating or the “See all reviews on Google” link on or off. Leave Place ID empty to use the default, or enter another place’s ID.

What visitors see

Each review shows the author’s photo (or initials), their name linked to their Google profile, the stars, when it was posted, the text exactly as written, and links to view or report it on Google Maps. A short note says which reviews are shown and in what order, and the block ends with “Reviews from Google Maps”. Google requires all of these, so they can’t be turned off.

Google only ever shares five reviews per place, chosen by relevance. “Newest first” puts those five in date order; it can’t fetch your latest reviews.

When something’s wrong

• If the block doesn’t appear, check that the API key and a Place ID are set. The plugin’s status in Extensions says “Needs attention” with the reason.
• If Google can’t be reached, the block shows only the link to your reviews on Google Maps until Google answers again.
• The Google reviews admin screen lists each place with when it was last fetched and any error. Refresh now fetches them again.

See also Extensions.