=== WP Google Review Slider ===
Contributors: jgwhite33
Donate link: http://ljapps.com/
Tags: google reviews, business reviews, social proof, testimonial slider, gmb reviews
Requires at least: 3.0.1
Tested up to: 7.0
Stable tag: 18.5
License: GPLv2 or later
License URI: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html

Display Google reviews on your site with a slider or grid. Reviews are saved locally on your server for fast loading. No address? No problem — works with service area businesses, multiple locations, and product reviews.

== Description ==

Display Google Reviews on Your WordPress Site in Under 2 Minutes.

Unlike plugins that load reviews from Google on every page view, this plugin downloads your Google Business Profile (GMB) reviews once and stores them in your WordPress database on your own server. Your site serves reviews locally for fast loading, better performance, and a smoother visitor experience.

Transform your WordPress site by effortlessly showcasing your Google reviews, whether you operate a physical location or a service area business. Many review plugins struggle with businesses that do not have a street address — this one does not. Service area businesses, Google product reviews, and multi-location setups are supported.

Need reviews from more than one location? Add multiple Google locations and download reviews from each one. Many competing plugins make multi-location setup difficult or impossible in the free version — this plugin makes it straightforward to gather reviews from different locations and display them on your site.

Choose from two methods to download reviews: use targeted Google search terms or your Google Place ID. You can use the Google Places API and automatically keep your reviews updated daily, or use the Google Crawl method and download up to 40 reviews.

You’ve worked hard for those valuable 5-star Google reviews, and now it’s time to display them prominently on your website. Our plugin allows you to easily add an eye-catching review slider or a responsive grid of your Google reviews directly to widget areas, posts, or pages. It's compatible with various business types, including those without a physical address, and enables you to aggregate reviews from multiple sources.

What makes our Google Reviews WordPress plugin stand out is its flexibility. You can create and manage unlimited review slider templates, placing them throughout your site for maximum visibility. Customizing the look of your reviews is quick and easy—simply adjust colors to match your site’s design, no coding skills required. Plus, you can add a review summary badge on the left, top, or right of your reviews.


Boost your sales and build customer trust by leveraging our Google Reviews WordPress plugin to showcase your Google reviews today. This strategic move will help you stand out from the competition and attract more potential customers. Optimize your site with our plugin and watch your business thrive!

Unlock the Power of Google Reviews with Our Google Reviews WordPress plugin!

### Why show Google Reviews on your site?

Many successful businesses leverage Google reviews to attract new customers and enhance their online presence. If you’re not using Google reviews on your website, you’re missing out on a powerful and cost-effective marketing strategy. 

Google reviews significantly influence consumer buying decisions. Shoppers often turn to these reviews to assess businesses and make informed choices. Reviews on Google are typically viewed as more credible than those on other platforms, as they originate from verified Google accounts.

To boost your business's visibility and success, focus on gathering 4-star and 5-star Google reviews. The more positive reviews you accumulate, the higher your business will rank in Google search results, leading to increased visibility and more potential customers.
Here are some effective strategies to gather more Google reviews:

* Provide Exceptional Customer Service: Happy customers are more likely to leave positive reviews.
* Encourage Satisfied Customers to Leave Reviews: Don’t hesitate to ask for feedback after a purchase.
* Simplify the Review Process: Share a direct link to your Google Business Profile to make it easy for customers to leave a review.
* Respond to All Reviews: Engage with both positive and negative reviews to show you value customer feedback.

By implementing these tips, you can effectively showcase your Google reviews and attract more customers to your business. Start optimizing your Google review strategy today!

### Google Reviews WordPress Plugin Feature List:

* Download your Google reviews and securely store them in your WordPress database on your server for fast local loading.
* Add multiple business locations and download reviews from each — easier than many competing plugins.
* Works with service area businesses and businesses without a physical street address.
* Gather reviews from various locations for a comprehensive collection.
* Create an engaging slider that showcases your Google reviews, similar to an image slider.
* Prefer not to use sliders? Opt for a responsive grid or list format to display Google reviews instead.
* Customize your slider or grid with a badge, or choose to showcase the badge independently.
* Select the option to display only reviews with high ratings.
* Download user-uploaded images along with their reviews and feature them on your website.
* Develop multiple templates for use across your posts, pages, and widget areas.
* Display Google reviews using a shortcode, template function, or widget.
* Customize display options such as showing or hiding star ratings, dates, border radius, and background/text colors.
* Decide how many Google reviews to display per row, with the option for multiple rows.
* Sort reviews by date or present them randomly for variety.
* Utilize custom CSS for further personalization.
* Hide Google reviews that lack accompanying text.


Check out our other free versions!
[Facebook](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-facebook-reviews/)
[Yelp](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-yelp-review-slider/)
[TripAdvisor](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-tripadvisor-review-slider/)
[Thumbtack](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-thumbtack-review-slider/)
[WooCommerce](https://wordpress.org/plugins/review-slider-for-woocommerce/)
[Airbnb](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-airbnb-review-slider/)


[Upgrade to Pro for More Features:](https://wpreviewslider.com/)

* Multiple locations, languages, and social pages support.
* Download all your Google reviews from multiple locations and create an overall review slider or filter by location.
* Super cool graphs and charts of your reviews.
* Outstanding customer support via email and a forum.
* Create a really cool summary badge of your reviews!
* Front end submission form.
* Get email notifications when new low reviews are found.
* More Review Template styles! Currently 8 style to choose from. Even have complete control using child themes!
* Download your reviews from 90+ review sites! Yelp, TripAdvisor, Facebook, Airbnb, WooCommerce, etc... 
* Create a summary review slider from your WooCommerce product reviews!
* Even add reviews manually.
* Hide certain reviews from displaying. Sometimes even 5 star reviews should be hidden.
* Create floating Summary Badges and Review Badges, that can display a slide-out of reviews when clicked.
* Built in pagination support so you can load more reviews with a button click.
* Trim long reviews and add a read more link.
* Add the google icon and link to your Google Places page.
* Download all your reviews in CSV format to your computer.
* Advanced slider controls like: Autoplay, slide animation direction, hide navigation arrows and dots, adjust slider height for each slide.
* Change the minimum rating of the reviews to display. Allows you to hide low rating reviews.
* Hide short or long reviews based on word count.
* Display reviews by a certain type or mix them all together on one slider (Facebook, Yelp, Google, TripAdvisor, manually input).
* Pick and choose only certain reviews to display in a template.
* Display a summary of your review ratings in a Google Search Result. You can automatically create the correct review snippet markup!
* More date display options (MM/DD/YYYY, DD/MM/YY, DD/MM/YYYY, YYYY-MM-DD, DD Mmm YYYY, Time Since)
* Access to all new features we add in the future!

== Installation ==

1. Upload `wp-google-reviews` folder to the `/wp-content/plugins/` directory
2. Activate the plugin through the 'Plugins' menu in WordPress
3. Look for the WP Google Reviews menu item in your admin.

== Frequently Asked Questions ==

= Are reviews stored on my server? =

Yes. After you download reviews from Google, they are saved in your WordPress database on your own server. Your site displays those stored reviews locally instead of calling Google every time someone visits a page, which helps pages load faster.

= Does this work for service area businesses without a physical address? =

Yes. Many review plugins only work well for businesses with a street address. This plugin also supports service area businesses, so you can download and display Google reviews even if your business does not have a public storefront address.

= Can I use reviews from multiple locations? =

Yes. You can add multiple Google locations and download reviews from each one. This makes it much easier to manage multi-location businesses than many other Google review plugins.

= How do I find my Google Place ID? =

You can find your Place ID using the official Google Place ID Finder tool, or search for your business directly on the plugin's Get Google Reviews page.

= Can I filter out low-star reviews? =

Yes. In your template settings you can set a minimum rating so only the reviews you want to show are displayed.

= How do I request a new feature? =

We are always looking for features to add. Just post on the support forum or contact us on the bottom of this [page.](http://ljapps.com/wp-review-slider-pro/)

= Where do I report security bugs found in this plugin? =

Please report security bugs found in the source code of the wp-google-places-review-slider plugin through the [Patchstack Vulnerability Disclosure Program](https://patchstack.com/database/vdp/d433bf96-0e60-49ba-8012-4f93dc9bcd07). The Patchstack team will assist you with verification, CVE assignment, and notify the developers of this plugin.


== Screenshots ==

1. Create a beautiful review slider on your posts or pages! More styles available in Pro version.
2. Even download and display customer images!
3. Images open in lightbox.
4. Lots of customizable options. Even input CSS if you want.
5. Easily add a badge to the left, above, or right side of the reviews. Or hide the reviews completely!
6. Badge above the reviews.
7. Completely customize the badge look.
8. Add multiple download locations.
9. All your reviews show up in a list.
10. Create as many templates as you like.

== Changelog ==
= 18.5 =
* General security hardening.

= 18.4 =
* Security: use $wpdb->prepare() for the badge location average/total lookup query.

= 18.2 =
* Security: fix reflected XSS via the place parameter on the Google Crawl admin page.
* Updated Freemius SDK to latest.

= 18.1 = 
* More security hardening.

= 18.0 = 
* Template Style 6 added. 
* Badge border option and font size option for templates.
* More security hardening.

= 17.9 =
* Security: escape review content on output to prevent stored XSS.

= 17.8 =
* Updated styling for WPv7.

= 17.7 =
* missing image fix for review media

= 17.6 =
* small bug fix

= 17.4 =
* Fix for badge totals not updating. 

= 17.3 =
* faster download speed for crawl

= 17.2 =
* bug fix with some sites being blocked

= 17.0 =
* Google download method update/fix.

= 16.7 =
* missing image fix

= 16.6 =
* another crawl fix for hotels

= 16.5 =
* another crawl fix

= 16.4 =
* another fix with Crawl being blocked on certain sites.

= 16.3 =
* fix with Crawl being blocked on certain sites.

= 16.2 =
* small bug fix
* added abilty to customize the Review us on text and the Based on text for the badge.

= 16.1 =
* small bug fix

= 16.0 =
* Fix for Above Wide badge on mobile view.

= 15.9 =
* Fix for Above Wide badge too many divs.

= 15.8 =
* Slider will now auto-close read more when going to next slide.
* Updated Freemius SDK

= 15.7 =
* fix bug with last name when reviewer as more than two names

= 15.6 =
* small bug fix

= 15.5 =
* fix for certain sites being blocked from Google Crawl.

= 15.4 =
* small bug fix from last update

= 15.3 =
* Added Read More Color option. Other small bug fixes. 

= 15.2 =
* bug fix with CSS not applying to one review on mobile setting.

= 15.1 =
* added ability to hide or initial Last Name of reviewer.
* added feature to hide certain reviews

= 15.0 =
* small bug fix from last update

= 14.9 =
* Added feature where you can now advance through images.
* badge feature is now mobile friendly
= 14.8 =
* small bug fix from last update
= 14.7 =
* changed arrows to span to help with Google pagespeed.
* added additional slider options
* added badge option
* added reviews same height option
* added ability to download from multiple different locations.
* replaced background image url with a data uri
= 14.6 =
* template save issue
= 14.5 =
* small bug fix
= 14.2 =
* Added ability to show only one review per a slide on mobile.
* updated Freemius SDK
= 14.1 =
* small bug fix
= 13.9 =
* updated Freemius sdk.
= 13.6 =
* More sanitization on Template page.
= 13.5 =
* Small bug fixed with text sanitization.
= 13.4 =
* Updated Freemius SDK.
= 13.3 =
* PHP 8.2 warning notice fixed.
= 13.1 =
* Small css bug fix.
= 13.0 =
* Can now download product reviews.
= 12.9 =
* updated database table. better read more transition
= 12.8 =
* small css fix. 
= 12.7 =
* Updated color picker js for review template settings.
= 12.6 =
* Update Freemius SDK.
= 12.5 =
* Small deprecated notice fix, no longer passing NULL to submenu page creation.
= 12.4 =
* Updated Freemius SDK to latest version 2.5.8.
= 12.3 =
* More descriptive alt text for thumbnails. Fixed bug with saving template when using transparent background color.
= 12.1 =
* Small bug fix when non-admin can see menu.
= 12.0 =
* Added ability to display user images added to reviews. Fixed bug in Google review rating download.
= 11.9 =
* Fix "read more" feature for non-english language.
= 11.8 =
* Small bug fixes.
= 11.7 =
* Small bug fix for when business isn't found.
= 11.6 =
* Small bug fixes.
= 11.5 =
* Updated welcome page. 
= 11.4 =
* Freemius sdk settings change. 
= 11.3 =
* Fixed bug with searching for Google reviews with terms with ' in name. Fix for hotel search by placeid.
= 11.2 =
* Can now download 50 reviews. Added Freemius sdk for analytic. 
= 11.1 =
* Changed stars to SVG. Added verified star option. Added avatar hide, show, initial image options.
= 11.0 =
* small bug fixes
= 10.9 =
* Updated margins for slider.
= 10.8 =
* Updated CSS width for icon.
= 10.7 =
* small bug fixes with non-slider grid google reviews
= 10.6 =
* small bug fixes
= 10.5 =
* small bug fixes
= 10.4 =
* another fix to review download crawl method
= 10.3 =
* small change to catch errors
= 10.2 =
* another fix to review download crawl method
= 10.1 =
* small bug fix to review download crawl method
= 10.0 =
* changed way crawl method works
= 9.9 =
* fix crawl method for hotels
= 9.7 =
* another small bug fix with Crawl method for Google Reviews
= 9.5 =
* small bug fix for service business reviews meta text
= 9.4 =
* no longer downloads "Positive:..." text in Google reviews.
= 9.3 =
* review slider updates to make it more reliable. Added swipe feature to google slider.
= 9.2 =
* Updated database table to handle long page names.
= 9.1 =
* another small bug fix with Crawl method when getting Google hotel reviews.
= 9.0 =
* added ability to filter by rating.
= 8.9 =
* fix conflict with FB version
= 8.8 =
* small bug fix with Crawl method when getting Google hotel reviews.
= 8.7 =
* small bug fix with Crawl method
= 8.6 =
* fix conflict with FB version
= 8.5 =
* small bug fix with Crawl method

= 8.4 =
* small bug fix with crawling translated reviews

= 8.3 =
* small bug fix with date and icon

= 8.2 =
* small bug fix

= 8.1 =
* small bug fix for certain place id values.

= 8.0 =
* Added google icon option. 

= 7.9 =
* Can now download reviews from service area businesses.

= 7.8 =
* Added delay variable for slider.

= 7.7 =
* go pro link update.

= 7.6 =
* added lazy loading to images. small changes to menu

= 7.5 =
* small CSS changes to slider and dashboard widget

= 7.4 =
* removed deprecated jquery function .load

= 7.3 =
* added dashboard widget showing recent reviews.

= 7.2 =
* Small bug fix when testing api key.

= 7.1 =
* Small bug fix when using with Facebook version. Added primary keys to db tables.

= 7.0 =
* bug fix when updating to Pro version

= 6.9 =
* Small bug fix when checking api key.

= 6.8 =
* added read more option.

= 6.7 =
* Small bug fix when user does not have php mbstring extension.

= 6.6 =
* Google Places API Warning.

= 6.5 =
* Small bug fix when uninstalling it will now check for de-activated pro version.

= 6.4 =
* Checks for mbstring now. Also removed template selection from Edit Post page.

= 6.3 =
* Small bug fix with CSS style on review slider.
= 6.2 =
* Small bug fix.
= 6.1 =
* added way to delete a review.
= 6.0 =
* Added welcome page.
= 5.9 =
* Added admin notice.
= 5.8 =
* Added button to test API key.
= 5.7 =
* Added language code setting.
= 5.6 =
* Notes added.
= 5.5 =
* Small conflict fix with other free versions.
= 5.4 = 
* minified and combined js and css files to increase load time. changed js to work with deffered javascript. 
= 5.2 =
* Small bug fix.
= 5.1 =
* Small bug fix.
= 5.0 =
* added ability to update Avatar image location.
= 4.9 =
* hidden date no longer gets added to page.
= 4.8 =
* Updated instructions link.
= 4.7 =
* Small bug fix.
= 4.6 =
* Small bug fix with error message.
= 4.5 =
* Small bug fix.
= 4.4 =
* Option to use your own api key.
= 4.3 =
* Small bug fix.
= 4.2 =
* Small bug fix.
= 4.1 =
* now uses default api key
= 4.0 =
* place id look up url change.
= 3.9 =
* Small bug fix.
= 3.8 =
* Small bug fix.
= 3.7 =
* Small bug fix.
= 3.6 =
* Small bug fix.

= 3.5 =
* Small bug fix with Widget.

= 3.4 =
* Fixed so it can be used along side facebook version.

= 3.3 =
* Small bug fix.

= 3.2 =
* Small text change.

= 3.1 =
* Small bug fix.

= 3.0 =
* Small bug fix.

= 2.9 =
* Alt text added to stars.

= 2.7 =
* Small bug fix.

= 2.6 =
* Small bug fix.

= 2.5 =
* Small bug fix.

= 2.4 =
* WordPress V4.9 compatible fix of color picker.

= 2.3 =
* Small bug fix.

= 2.2 =
* Small bug fix.

= 2.1 =
* Small bug fix.

= 2.0 =
* Now will animate the height of the slider automatically.

= 1.9 =
* Small bug fixes. CSS conflict with multiple slides on one page.

= 1.8 =
* Small bug fixes. Another conflict with Fb version.

= 1.7 =
* Small bug fixes. Conflict with Fb version.

= 1.6 =
* Small bug fixes. Widget not displaying/

= 1.5 =
* Small bug fixes.

= 1.4 =
* Small bug fixes.

= 1.3 =
* Added manual location entry option.

= 1.2 =
* Small bug fixes.

= 1.1 =
* Small bug fixes.

= 1.0 =
* First Version

== Upgrade Notice ==
