Seventh Sky

Mishal Fatima

Smart Reviews Display lets you showcase reviews from multiple sources including WordPress.org, Yelp, and Google Reviews. Choose from responsive grid (masonry), list, or carousel displays with full reviewer details and smart caching.
<iframe loading="lazy" class="youtube-player" width="750" height="422" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VaflIiIj_pE?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-US&autohide=2&wmode=transparent" allowfullscreen="true" style="border:0;" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox"></iframe>
<h4>Key Features</h4>
<ul>
<li>Multiple Review Sources: WordPress.org plugins/themes, Yelp business reviews, Google Places reviews, and custom reviews</li>
<li>Custom Reviews System: Create up to 10 custom reviews with full control over content, ratings, and clickable links</li>
<li>Review Grouping: Organize custom reviews into categories (testimonials, product-reviews, etc.)</li>
<li>Responsive Layouts: Masonry grid, list, and carousel (3 reviews on desktop, 2 on tablet, 1 on mobile)</li>
<li>Smart Management: Dashboard with add/edit/delete review displays, custom reviews management, internal vs display titles</li>
<li>Rich Content: Avatars, star ratings, descriptions, aggregate ratings, contextual fields, and review links</li>
<li>ID-Based Shortcodes: Simple <code>[smart_reviews id="123"]</code> format that auto-updates</li>
<li>Gutenberg Blocks: Full block editor support with live preview</li>
<li>Smart Caching: Configurable cache management and TTL controls</li>
<li>Upgrade Integration: Clear upgrade path to Pro version for unlimited custom reviews</li>
<li>Security First: WordPress coding standards compliance with proper sanitization</li>
<li>Lightweight Frontend: Optimized CSS/JS with no bundled frontend libraries</li>
</ul>
<h3>Usage</h3>
<h4>Dashboard Management</h4>
<ol>
<li>Go to Smart Reviews Display → Dashboard</li>
<li>Click “Add New Review Display” to create a new configuration</li>
<li>Fill in the form:
<ul>
<li>Internal Title: For backend management (e.g., “WooCommerce Reviews”)</li>
<li>Display Title: Shown on frontend (e.g., “What our customers say”)</li>
<li>Description: Optional description text</li>
<li>Review Source: WordPress.org, Yelp, Google Reviews, or Custom</li>
<li>Slug/ID: Plugin slug, Yelp business ID, Google Place ID, or leave empty for Custom</li>
<li>Review Group: Select specific group for Custom reviews (optional)</li>
<li>Type: Plugin/Theme (WordPress.org only), Business (Yelp), Place (Google), or Custom</li>
<li>Layout: Grid (masonry), List, or Carousel</li>
<li>Display Options: Show title, show aggregate rating</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Save and use the generated shortcode or block</li>
</ol>
<h4>Custom Reviews Management</h4>
<ol>
<li>Go to Smart Reviews Display → Custom Reviews</li>
<li>Click “Add Review” to create a new custom review</li>
<li>Fill in the custom review form:
<ul>
<li>Source: WordPress, Google, or Yelp (for styling consistency)</li>
<li>Username: Reviewer’s name</li>
<li>Profile Photo URL: Optional profile photo (default avatar used if empty)</li>
<li>Review Date: When the review was written</li>
<li>Review Text: The actual review content</li>
<li>Review Link: Optional clickable link to original review</li>
<li>Star Rating: 1-5 star rating</li>
<li>Review Group: Group name for organization (e.g., “testimonials”, “product-reviews”)</li>
<li>Business ID/Place ID: Required for Google and Yelp sources</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Save the review and use it in your review displays</li>
<li>Note: Free version supports up to 10 custom reviews. Upgrade to Pro for unlimited reviews.</li>
</ol>
<h4>Gutenberg Block</h4>
Search for “Smart Reviews” in the block editor. You can either: 
* Use ID: Select a saved review display by ID 
* Configure Manually: Set all options directly in the block
<h4>Shortcode Usage</h4>
New ID-based format (recommended): 
 [smart_reviews id=”123″]
Custom reviews examples: 
 [smart_reviews source=”custom” layout=”grid” title=”Customer Testimonials”]
<pre><code>[smart_reviews source="custom" group="testimonials" layout="grid" title="Customer Testimonials"]
</code></pre>
Yelp example: 
 [smart_reviews source=”yelp” business_id=”your-business-id” type=”business” layout=”grid”]
Google Reviews example: 
 [smart_reviews source=”google” place_id=”your-place-id” type=”place” layout=”carousel”]
<h3>External services</h3>
This plugin can connect to external services depending on which review source you choose. No external requests are made for Custom reviews created and stored inside your own WordPress site.
<h4>WordPress.org</h4>
If you use WordPress.org as the review source, the plugin fetches review feeds/pages and plugin rating data from WordPress.org so it can display reviews and aggregate ratings.
It sends the selected plugin or theme slug in the request URL and includes your site’s home URL in the standard WordPress user-agent header when reviews are fetched, refreshed, or re-cached.
Terms and policies: https://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Policies 
Privacy policy: https://wordpress.org/about/privacy/
<h4>Google Maps Platform (Places API)</h4>
If you use Google Reviews as the source and enter a Google API key, the plugin sends the configured Google Place ID to the Google Places API so it can fetch reviews, rating totals, place name, and related place URLs.
Requests are made when the reviews are first fetched and again whenever the cache expires or you manually clear the plugin cache. Google also receives your site’s home URL in the standard WordPress user-agent header.
Terms of service: https://developers.google.com/maps/terms 
Privacy policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy
<h4>Yelp Fusion API</h4>
If you use Yelp as the review source and enter a Yelp API key, the plugin sends the configured Yelp business ID to the Yelp Fusion API so it can fetch business reviews, rating totals, business name, and related Yelp URLs.
Requests are made when the reviews are first fetched and again whenever the cache expires or you manually clear the plugin cache. Yelp also receives your site’s home URL in the standard WordPress user-agent header.
Terms of service: https://www.yelp.com/developers/api_terms 
Privacy policy: https://terms.yelp.com/privacy/en_us/20260101_en_us/

Smart Reviews Display

Display WordPress.org, Yelp, and Google reviews via shortcode or block with responsive layouts, avatars, ratings, and smart caching.

WP Dreamers

Listing Reviews for Directorist with Yelp turns your <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/directorist/" rel="ugc">Directorist</a> business directory into a context-rich destination by pulling live data from the Yelp Fusion API onto every single listing. Visitors instantly see real Yelp businesses nearby — restaurants, cafés, hotels, shops — with star ratings, review counts, distance, photos, and prices, without ever leaving your directory.
If you run a WordPress directory powered by Directorist — a classifieds site, a real-estate directory, a restaurant or hotel directory, a city guide, or a niche business directory — this add-on adds the “what’s around this place?” answer that visitors are already looking for. Pair Directorist’s listing data with Yelp’s review database and you turn a thin listing page into a stayable, shareable, bookmark-able page.
<h4>Why this plugin</h4>
Most directory sites have a discovery problem: a listing page tells you about one business, but visitors want to know “what else is nearby?” before they decide whether to visit. Linking out to Google or Yelp loses them. This Directorist add-on solves that by embedding the nearby context directly in your listing, so:
<ul>
<li>Visitors stay on your directory longer. Time-on-page goes up; bounce-rate goes down.</li>
<li>Each listing becomes a mini neighborhood guide. Better content for SEO, better experience for users.</li>
<li>No manual data entry. Yelp’s API supplies fresh reviews automatically — you never touch the data.</li>
<li>Works with every Directorist directory type. Restaurants, hotels, retail, real estate, events, services — Yelp’s category set covers them all.</li>
</ul>
<h4>Key features</h4>
<ul>
<li>Nearby businesses, on every Directorist listing. Renders a “Nearby places” section under (or beside) every single-listing page automatically.</li>
<li>Live Yelp Fusion API integration. Star rating, review count, photo, distance, price tier, category — all pulled fresh on render.</li>
<li>Grid view. Clean, responsive card grid with 1–4 columns. Mobile-friendly out of the box.</li>
<li>6 built-in Yelp categories. Restaurants, Food, Cafés, Bars, Shopping, Hotels — covering most common Directorist directory types.</li>
<li>Per-listing overrides. Each Directorist listing can override the Yelp category and search radius from both the admin meta box and the Directorist frontend submission form.</li>
<li>Listing-submission form integration. Yelp category + radius fields appear inside Directorist’s frontend listing form, right next to the map / address fields, so submitters set their own context.</li>
<li>Modern React-based settings UI. Tabbed admin page (General, Display, Placement, Submission Form, Cache, Operations) with a Directorist-style look and feel.</li>
<li>Placement control. Choose sidebar (Directorist’s right sidebar) or bottom-of-content placement, per-site.</li>
<li>Themeable templates. Drop a <code>nearby-grid.php</code> (or <code>single-wrapper.php</code>) into your theme’s <code>listing-reviews-for-directorist-with-yelp/</code> folder to fully customize the markup.</li>
<li>Performance-conscious. Per-request memoization, configurable result limit (1–20), and clean Yelp HTTP wrapper with status-code instrumentation.</li>
<li>Privacy-respecting. Only the listing’s coordinates and your API key are sent — no visitor IPs, cookies, or personal data.</li>
<li>Translation-ready. Full POT file shipped, all strings i18n-wrapped.</li>
<li>GDPR-friendly. Yelp is called server-side, so no visitor-tracked third-party request fires from the browser.</li>
</ul>
<h4>Pro upgrades available</h4>
<ul>
<li>Slider, map, and list+map view modes (with Swiper carousel and Leaflet/OpenStreetMap maps).</li>
<li>Phone column, multi-category submissions, admin-only form fields.</li>
<li>Live frontend filter bar — visitors filter by category, rating, price, and sort order without reloading.</li>
<li>Use the visitor’s own location (with browser permission) instead of the listing’s coordinates.</li>
<li>Smart caching with daily / weekly cron warming.</li>
<li>Result-quality filters: min rating, min review count, open-now, price tiers, allowlist / blocklist Yelp IDs.</li>
<li>UTM tagging + outbound click tracking per listing.</li>
<li>Card themes (Yelp / Minimal / Magazine / Dark) and Custom CSS.</li>
<li>Gutenberg block, Elementor widget, shortcode, public REST endpoint.</li>
</ul>
<h4>Built for Directorist</h4>
This is a <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/directorist/" rel="ugc">Directorist</a> add-on. It detects Directorist’s single listing template, sidebar, frontend submission form, and post type (<code>at_biz_dir</code>) automatically — no theme hacks, no shortcode placement needed. Activate, paste your Yelp API key, and every Directorist listing gets the nearby section.
If you don’t yet have Directorist installed, the plugin will prompt you to install it during activation.
<h3>External services</h3>
This plugin connects to the Yelp Fusion API to fetch nearby business data (name, address, photo, rating, review count, distance, price tier, category) for display on Directorist listing pages.
<ul>
<li>When data is sent: each time a Directorist single listing page is rendered (front-end view), the plugin sends a request to the Yelp Fusion API with the listing’s latitude / longitude, the configured search radius, and the configured category filter. No personally identifiable information about the site visitor is sent.</li>
<li>What is sent: the listing’s geographic coordinates, the radius (meters), the Yelp category slug, the result limit, and your Yelp API key in the Authorization header.</li>
<li>Where: <code>https://api.yelp.com/v3/businesses/search</code></li>
<li>The plugin will only call this service after the site administrator has entered a Yelp Fusion API key in the plugin settings.</li>
</ul>
Yelp is a third-party service operated by Yelp Inc. By using this plugin, the site operator agrees to the Yelp API Terms of Use and Yelp’s Privacy Policy:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://terms.yelp.com/developers/api_terms" rel="nofollow ugc">Yelp Fusion API Terms of Use</a></li>
<li><a href="https://terms.yelp.com/privacy/en_us/" rel="nofollow ugc">Yelp Privacy Policy</a></li>
</ul>
“Yelp” is a trademark of Yelp Inc. This plugin is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Yelp Inc.

Listing Reviews for Directorist with Yelp

Add Yelp nearby reviews to Directorist listings. Live ratings, photos, distance & price on every directory page via Yelp Fusion API.

Smart Reviews Display vs Listing Reviews for Directorist with Yelp