Store Reviews

Store reviews are a separate page where customers rate how the store works as a whole: delivery, range, prices, service. Unlike product reviews, they show whether you can be trusted. The page displays the store's average rating, the distribution of ratings by stars, the score for each criterion and the list of reviews itself with an "Add review" form.

Management is gathered in the Octemplates → Store reviews menu. It has three sections:

• Reviews settings — enabling, moderation, notifications and the page SEO;
• Rating criteria — what exactly the customer rates;
• Reviews list — moderation and replies.

Reviews settings

At the top of the page there are quick links to the reviews list, the rating criteria and the page itself on the site.

Module

• Enable reviews — when off, the reviews page answers "Page not found" and the review form doesn't work on the site.

New reviews

• Moderation — on: a new review is saved hidden and appears on the site only after you publish it in the reviews list. Off: the review is published immediately.
• Email about new review — for every new review an email arrives with the author's name, the average rating and the text.
• Send emails to — one address. If empty, the email goes to the store email from the main settings.

Reviews page and SEO

The "Reviews page" tab. Fields are filled in separately for each language. If Title or H1 are empty, the standard name "Reviews about the store" is used.

Field	Description
Title	The browser tab name and the page title in search.
H1 heading	The heading above the reviews on the page itself.
Meta Description	A short page description for the search snippet, 140–160 characters.
Meta Keywords	Comma-separated. Most search engines ignore this field.
Text on the page	An SEO text at the bottom of the page, under the reviews. An empty field means the block isn't shown.

The "SEO URL" tab sets a short address of the reviews page for each store and language, for example reviews. Latin letters, digits and hyphens, no spaces. It works when SEO URLs are enabled in the store settings; an empty field means the standard address.

Rating criteria

Open Octemplates → Store reviews → Rating criteria. Criteria are what the customer rates with stars in the review form: for example "Product quality", "Delivery", "Prices", "Range". Each enabled criterion is a separate row with stars.

• Criterion name — separate for each language, 3 to 255 characters. Shown above the stars in the review form, in the ratings under a review and in the rating by criteria.
• Status — a disabled criterion disappears from the review form, from the ratings under reviews and from the rating by criteria.
• Sort order — the order of rows in the review form: a lower number is higher.
• Stores — the criterion is shown only in the selected stores.

Reviews list

Open Octemplates → Store reviews → Reviews list. New reviews from the site appear here. The table shows the author with the start of the text, the rating, the status ("Published" or "Hidden") and the date; there is a filter.

Open a review with the pencil to change it:

• Author — 3 to 64 characters. On the site it is shown next to an avatar made of initials.
• Review text — shown as is, line breaks are kept. HTML tags are removed when saving.
• Customer ratings — ratings by criteria are set by the customer and can't be changed here. Overall is their average: it determines the review's stars and counts toward the store rating. A review without ratings (for example, added manually) is shown with empty stars and doesn't affect the rating.
• Publish — a hidden review isn't visible on the site and its ratings are not counted in the store rating.
• Store reply — shown under the review labelled "Administrator response". Text only: HTML tags are removed. An empty field means no reply.
• Review date — the date visible on the site. Reviews go from newest to oldest, so the date also affects the review's position.

How it works

1. Criteria

   Define what the customer rates: delivery, quality, service and so on.

2. Customer review

   The customer leaves a review on the reviews page (or in the popup from the "Latest reviews" module): a name, ratings by criteria and a text.

3. Moderation and reply

   With moderation on, the review waits in the list hidden. Open it to publish, fix the text or reply on behalf of the store.

4. Store rating

   The reviews page shows the average rating, the distribution by stars and the average score for each criterion. Only published reviews count.

Latest reviews can also be shown in other parts of the site through a separate module, see "Latest reviews".