Best WordPress Ratings & Review Plugin?

I have been looking for a WordPress ratings and review plugin for my websites, and have tested out 4 on my website hosting section of one of my sites.  Even though that plugin is still one of the better plugins for this type of site, I actually do have a newer favourite since this review was originally written.  Overall now, this review includes 5 Ratings & Review plugins for WordPress.   The 5 WordPress Ratings plugins that I tested are:

• GD Star Rating
• Rating Review System
• WP Review Engine
• WP Review Site
• My Review Plugin

These five seemed to have all the features I needed, namely the ability of visitors to leave ratings and reviews in the comments section of the post, as well as being able to display summary charts showing which host (in this case) got the best average visitor rating.

I installed all 5 plugins on the site, one at a time, and tried to set them up as described above.

Here are my observations on each of the plugins:

1.  GD Star Rating

The GD Star ratings have strikingly good graphics, and this plugin is also free.  The real problem with it is that it is so complicated to use and the tutorials are not very well organised.  Since this is a plugin that is in development, I would think that the author(s) will sort out the help system eventually.  Unfortunately I could not find the information I wanted, so moved onto the next plugin.  If you have a little more free time to explore this plugin, I am sure that it would be a good choice.

2. Rating Review System

I was sent this plugin by the author to review, and after reading the information on the plugin, I was excited about the features.  However, there was a problem.  The plugin is ioncube encoded, and despite installing a local copy of ioncube on my server, the plugin would still not work properly.  The tech guys from the Rating Review system plugin had a look, and they told me the problem was ioncube not being installed correctly, however, the ioncube test script said it was.

Unfortunately, since I could not get this plugin to work on my server, I had to move onto the next plugin.  However, the authors of this plugin do offer a free trial, so you can test it for yourself to see if it works for you.  I did incidentally try it on a second server with a different web host and it worked fine.  However, the sites I wanted to use it on are hosted with the other host.

3. WP Review Site by Dan Grossman

WARNING: Do not buy this plugin without reading this.

This plugin looked perfect, and it is not encoded like the last one.  Because i wanted to use it on multiple sites, I paid $199 for a multi site license.   What a waste of money that turned out to be.

I installed the plugin on my web hosting category over at ezseonews.com, and that’s when the problems began.  My server would return errors when trying to login to the dashboard, or switch to any page within the dashboard if I was lucky enough to get in.  I disabled all plugins, and went in and enabled them one by one.  The Ratings and review plugin was the one that kept causing the crash.  Was it incompatible with other plugins I am using?  It certainly seems that way on my server.  I had to disabled a social bookmarking plugin to get the review plugin to work, and even then, I had problems approving comments.  I’d click the approve button, but the comments would stay pending.

This plugin just didn’t work on my site / server.  I contacted Dan about a refund only to be told:

“There is no refund policy as I have no way to keep you from using the plugin once you have it.

WP Review Site is in use by over 1,200 people right now and I have only ever heard of a conflict with another star ratings plugin. I would be happy to help you fix your site”

I appreciate the offer of help to fix my site, but I just want a plugin that works out of the box and does what it is supposed to do.  I resent having paid $199 for something I cannot use.  The fact there is no trial of the plugin meant I could not try before I  bought it.

So that’s $199 wasted – buyer beware if you are thinking of buying this plugin.  If anyone wants to buy my copy, let me know

4. WP Review Engine

WP Review Engine was the last plugin I tried in the original review (and quickly became my favourite at the time), and I then stopped looking as it was perfect for my needs, and even had a really cool feature that I have not seen in the other plugins.  The plugin is by a guy called Louis who has helped me a couple of times with queries via email.

Best part of all, this plugin actually does come with a refund policy, so if you find it does not work for some reason, Louis promises to refund your money.

Besides the refund policy, this plugin is actually cheaper than Dan Grossman’s plugin.  That’s a double bonus.

I should tell you that not everything went smoothly with the installation.

This plugin is encoded with ioncube (before you grown, read on).  When I installed the plugin, I got the ioncube errors as expected.  In the documentation Louis says that if you have a problem with ioncube, he’ll send you an unencoded version.  True to his word, he sent me the unencoded version which worked perfectly first time.

However, just to test I installed a local version of ioncube, and the encoded plugin worked fine.

So basically, if you have to install ioncube (some hosts have it installed already) you can choose to ask Louis for unencoded versions of the plugin instead.

OK, now let’s look at the plugin features.

The plugin comes with a couple of ready made WordPress templates.  However, since I wanted to install it into an existing site, I wanted to manually integrate it.  This was fairly easy, with options in the Dashboard for installing the plugin into any template.  I did make a few template changes to customise the look, but overall the process was painless.

You can see the plugin working on the website hosting section of my ezseonews.com site.  Feel free to try it out by reviewing your host

Here is a short video showing you around that section of my site.  It shows how the section on my site looks after integration, and I have to say, I love it.

WP Review Engine Integrated in a site

Here are some of the features of the WP Review Engine plugin:

• You can integrate the plugin into any theme very easily by checking a few boxes in the Dashboard.  You can also tweak things if you prefer by including API calls within your templates.
• When a visitor leaves a review, they can rate the various aspects of the product (that you have defined for that product) and their ratings are embedded in the comment.  Here is a screenshot of a comment.

• You have Editor ratings included in the plugin (this is an optional extra in some other plugins) so that you can just review a product and have your verdict shown and not those of your visitors.
• When you create a post, you simple select which (if any) rating categories to show with the post.  You can also specify an affiliate URL and a graphic that can be displayed in the ratings tables.
• The Comparison tables can order the product reviews however you want.  You can also customise the look and feel of this table if you know a little PHP.  The ratings tables can be embedded in the homepage and/or category pages.  If its embedded in the homepage, it displays the ratings from the entire site.  If its embedded in the category page, it shows the ratings from within that category.  Watch the video above if that’s confused you.

• A really cool feature is the ability to integrate Google Maps into the review.  For example, if you had a local website with reviews of restaurants in your area, you could include a Google map pinpointing the location of the restaurant.  This could be a very good way to get local businesses to advertise on your site

• On feature I didn’t use, and recommend you don’t either, is to auto-generate comments.  With the recent FTC clampdown, this would not be a good feature to use.
• A very good feature however is the ability to import databases into your site.  Imagine getting a product feed for your niche and being able to import that feed into your site.  You’d have an instant website with hundreds or even thousands of products.
• Widgets for top rated posts and most recent comments.  This means you can easily integrate this information into your WordPress sidebars.
• hReview is a system that Google can use to display the ratings within the search results.  Here is an example of how my page might look in the search results:

See the stars and the number of reviews.  This type of inclusion in the search results can really make your listing pop out.  I love the feature, and think that the whole plugin is just very very cool and worth every cent.

When I needed help, Louis replied via email within 48 hours, and he even supplied me with some code to help me with one part of the integration.

If you are looking for a WordPress ratings and review plugin, this is the one I recommend.  Not only is it reasonably priced, but support is good and there is a refund policy if you find it doesn’t work (though if it works on my host, it should work on any).

You can currently buy WP Review Engine with a 15% discount if you use the following coupon: ypincluded

5. My Review Plugin

My Review Plugin includes just about everything that the other plugins have.   I’ll list the ones I have used below:

* Setup rating categories, and have rating boxes automatically added to the comments form of your WordPress site so that those who leave a comment can also rate the product.

* Commentors ratings are added into their comments.  There is also the option of showing a “Was this review helpful” voting system.

* Editor ratings – you can review the product and show your ratings for the product, or add your ranking into the average generated by your visitors.  This is a very flexible system.

* When you have ratings on multiple products, you can insert “league tables” showing those with the higher rankings.  These tables can be auto-inserted into the homepage or category pages.  If you have a category e.g. on Zanussi dishwashers, then all Zanussi dishwashers in that category will be competing for the league table on the Zanussi category page.  On the homepage, the league table will comprise the products from all categories.  This is really useful for your visitors.  These tables are customisable and look really cool.

A Horizontal Ratings Table:

.. and a Vertical Ratings Table:

* Include thumbnail images with your reviews that can be inserted into the comparison tables.

* Flexible rating systems – 5 stars, 10 stars, letter grades, percentages, pass/fail, etc.

* Bayseian weighting – takes into account the number of ratings as well as the score to decide which are the best products for your comparison tables.

* Disable ratings on certain posts and pages, easily.  This way you can have ratings only in certain categories of your site (and even then, not all posts in the category).

* Auto insert “Buy Now” (or create your own button) buttons into the post that link to your affiliate URL (that you enter into the Dashboard).

* Rating tables can be inserted into each post, showing the average ratings for that particular product.

* Google maps integration which is great if you are running a local services site.

* Supports microformats like hReview, hProduct and RDFa Review Integration.

* One click upgrade from other review plugins like WP Review Engine, WP REview Site etc.  I haven’t tried this or seen where in the plugin this feature is, I am quoting the sales page here.

* Support has been excellent and timely.  Mark (the developer) quickly answered my questions.

This plugin has so many cool features that I haven’t done it justice in this very quick overview.  This plugin has become my favourite because, after several upgrades to my previous favourite (WP Review Engine) that one seemed to be causing me more and more problems with some of my WordPress templates (namely Thesis).   I am happy to announce that new sites I am building with Thesis 1.7 and My Review Plugin are working out of the box and looking great.

The Best WordPress Ratings & Review Plugin in my opinion?

That’s easy….

My Review Plugin!

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Let’s build a plan for each of the two types of pages would look. 11.3.1. Model 1 Opening Headline on the page (H1 header tag). This header outlines the problem, and tells the reader that there are solutions. e.g. "Why put up with a mouse in your house, when there are quick, easy and humane [...]

11.1. Pre-Sales Page – Model 1

Create three distinct sections, where each section ends in your merchant recommendations. or 11.2. Pre-Sales Page – Model 2 Create three distinct sections that pre-sell alternatives, and then include a single section at the end of the page where you mention the merchants that the three types of products. Usually, a merchant that sells mousetraps [...]

11. Two Models for Creating Sales Pages

In the last section, we looked at how easy it is to create a compelling article that the search engines will love, and your visitors will enjoy. As Internet marketers, we often we need to create web pages that sell a range of products, from a choice of several merchants, and things can really start [...]

10. How to write an article – An Example

Your article must be of value to your website or it is not worth writing. To be of value the article must: be on a topic related to your website. be found in the search engines for a variety of terms that people are actually looking for. be interesting and informative to your visitor. increase [...]

9.2. How to Pre-Sell

OK, now you know what pre-selling is, let’s look at how to do it. What I am about to describe to you are the exact steps I go through when writing pre-sell for my own sites. 9.2.1. Summary of the Pre-selling The following questions are designed to help you build a pre-selling blueprint that you [...]

9. The Art of Pre-Selling

This Chapter is very important. We are going to look at pre-selling. Pre-selling is an art, and often commands extortionate fees if you hire a professional to do it for you. 9.1. Pre-Selling v Selling Firstly, what is pre-selling, and how is it different from selling? Well, you can think of “pre-selling” as "selling foreplay". [...]

8.1 The Purpose of Main Pages and Article Pages

The main pages are there for the sole purpose of making the sale. OK, so how do article pages differ from the main pages? Article pages provide useful information to your visitors. They help get the trust of your visitors by providing quality information on the topic they are interested in. Though the articles usually [...]

8. Main Pages v Article Pages

In this section we are going to look at the differences between main pages and article pages, and how those differences dictate how we should write those pages. Once we have that covered this, we can then actually create some pages. The differences have been mentioned before, but let’s look at them in a little [...]

7. Themeing Pages

With the phrases chosen for your main pages, and now the article pages, you are ready for a look at themeing. This is where we look at the main phrase for a page, and construct a list of related phrases that we want to write into our page. The related phrases should be other words [...]

6.1.2. What About High Competition Phrases. Can I use these for Articles?

The phrases you find using this technique occasionally throw up phrases with considerable competition. e.g. "how to bbq" currently has over 10,000 competing pages in Google. Can you still use this phrase? Sure you can, because you will be targeting other lower competition phrases in the same article, however, I would recommend a different use [...]

6.1.1. How can you find in-demand phrases that are EASY to write articles on?

That is quite easy too, as long as you did your keyword research properly (as described in the Wordtracker Tutorial). Filter out phrases according to certain words they contain. e.g. In KRA-WT, remove any filtering criteria already entered, and instead, just use the "root word" box to filter your phrases. This feature of KRA-WT allows [...]

6.1 What is an Article?

The basic idea with articles is to create informative content that ranks well for a range of keywords, and provides your visitors with useful information. These articles can then guide your visitor to any of your main pages, to try to get a sale. If the article was useful and informative, your visitor will have [...]

6. Articles = Traffic

In the last Chapter we finished off by mentioning "themeing". We will be moving on to that soon, but before we do, let’s look at article pages, and discuss how these can increase our website traffic, and increase the chances of affiliate sales. Articles have a very special role in the overall functioning and ranking [...]

5.3. How to Group Your Keywords

The strategy highlighted above talks about two types of pages, articles and main pages. There is actually a third type of page – the homepage. These three types of page have very different functions: a) articles – get traffic b) main pages – sell affiliate products c) homepage – helps direct your visitors to what [...]

5.2 Our Keyword Strategy

Bearing in mind that high demand phrases are going to be very difficult to rank well for in the search engines, we need a strategy that allows us to get traffic to our "high demand" pages without having to rank well for those phrases. The strategy I like to use is this: Write articles, each [...]

5. Working with Keywords

So far you have: a) identified your niche and checked for profitability b) carried out your keyword research at Wordtracker. c) sent yourself your keyword research from Wordtracker. Now, we are ready to start work on your keyword list. How many keywords do you have in your list? For any new site I build, I [...]

4.1.1. Advice on Choosing a Keyword Research Tool

If you find a keyword tool that looks promising, ask yourself: 1. Does this tool also provide supply and demand figures for each phrase? Without supply and demand, the phrases are useless, because there is no way of choosing the highest demand, lowest competition phrases from the list. Many of the phrases may have hundreds [...]

4.1 Keyword Research Tools

There are a lot of keyword research tools available, so which one should you choose? I use 2 research keyword tools myself, but for different purposes. My basic keyword research is always done with Wordtracker. I have 100% faith in the data returned from Wordtracker based on the results I have seen from various keywords [...]

4. Keyword Research

In the last section we discussed how you could identify profitable niches. This is often one of the most difficult aspect of creating a website, but hopefully chapter 3 has made it easier. BEFORE going any further you should have already identified the niche you intend to build your site around. The next step is [...]

Manual Upgrade of WordPress

It has happened a few times to me.  The automatic upgrade plugin for WordPress hasn’t worked.  The last time this happened was with WordPress release 2.6.1. and it happened on all of my blogs.  Is it a hosting issue, or a plugin issue?  I am not sure, but what I am sure about is that [...]

Stomping the Search Engines 2

Mini-Review: Stomping the Search Engines 2 is being released on 4th September 2008. The package comes with 2 DVDs, one the original Stomping course, the second the new and improved Stomping the Search engines 2 course. As art of the deal, you’ll be getting their new magazine – the “Net Effect” with the course. The [...]

Why use Tags in WordPress

WordPress Tags?  What are they and why should you be using them? Since WordPress 2.3, tags have become an integral part of blogging with WordPress. Have a look at sidebar on this page.  Do you see that large box full of words?  That’s a tag cloud. Each of the words in this box are words [...]

Perry Marshall’s Definitive Guide To Google Adwords (2008)

Perry Marshall has been a leading authority on Google Adwords for as long as I can remember.  A few years back I learnt just about everything I know about Adwords by reading Perry’s excellent Definitive Guide To Google Adwords eBook.  That was a while ago, and things have changed a lot in the Adwords world.  [...]

Things you need to know about Permalinks

Permalinks are a great way to optimize your blog post URLs.  If you read my article on WordPress Permalinks,  you may be using the same permalink structure that I use, namely this one: /%category%/%postname%/ With this type of permalink structure, your post URLs will look like this: http://affiliate-minder.com/wordpresstutorials/install-wordpress-theme/ This is an actual URL from this [...]

Installing a WordPress Theme

If you followed the tutorial for installing WordPress plugins, you will already have the skills needed. When you download a theme, you’ll find that it unzips into its own folder.  The following template I downloaded and unzipped is called Andreas01.  You’ll see that the theme includes two folders, wp-andreas01 which contains template files, and the [...]

Choosing a WordPress Theme

Changing your WordPress theme is very easy, so you can have some fun downloading and changing the look and feel of your site.  There are a few things you should look out for when choosing a theme. Ideally you should have some posts already on your blog, as well as a static page, some comments [...]