The Google Reviews widget by Atomic Addons shows the reviews your business has on Google. Each review is a card with the reviewer's photo, name, how long ago they wrote it, their stars and the text, and the cards slide with arrows, dots or autoplay. Beside them you can add a summary with your average rating, the number of reviews and a Write a review link. This guide covers connecting Google, adding the widget and setting up the reviews.
Enable the Google Reviews Widget
Google Reviews is a Free widget and works with the free Atomic Addons plugin. Switch it on from the plugin dashboard:
- 1
Go to WordPress Dashboard → Atomic Addons.
- 2
Click the Widgets tab.
- 3
Search for Google Reviews. You can also open the Marketing category.
- 4
Turn the Google Reviews widget on.
- 5
Click Save Settings.
Add Your Google API Key
The reviews load from the Google Places API, so the widget needs a Google API key with the Places API enabled. Create one in the Google Maps Platform console (Google asks for a billing account), then save it once for the whole site:
- 1
Go to WordPress Dashboard → Atomic Addons → Settings.
- 2
In API Settings, paste it into Google Map API Key.
- 3
Click Save Settings.
The same key serves the Advanced Google Map and Social Proof widgets. The widget calls Google from your server, so the key never appears in the page source.
Add the Google Reviews Widget
- 1
Open the page in Elementor (Edit with Elementor).
- 2
In the widget panel, search for Google Reviews. The widget sits in the Atomic Addons category.
- 3
Drag it into the page and set it up with the controls below.
- 4
Click Publish (or Update).
Until a Place ID is entered, or when Google refuses the request, the editor shows a notice explaining what is missing. Visitors see nothing until reviews load.
Layout
Content → Layout chooses the business and what each review shows:
- 1
Place ID: Your business's Google Place ID, a code such as
ChIJ…. The HERE link under the field opens Google's Place ID Finder: search for your business and copy the ID it shows. - 2
Max Reviews: How many reviews to show, 5 by default. Google shares at most five reviews of a place, the ones it considers most relevant, so a higher number shows no more.
- 3
Show ID and Excluded Reviews: Shows each review's ID with a Copy button in the editor, and adds the Excluded Reviews field. Paste the IDs of the reviews you want to hide there, separated by commas. The IDs show only in the editor, never to visitors.
- 4
Cache Reviews: Keeps a copy of the reviews on your server, so the page doesn't ask Google (a paid request) on every visit. Off by default; turn it on for a live site.
- 5
Reload Reviews after a: With the cache: how long the copy is kept, an Hour, a Day (the default), a Week, a Month or a Year. Turning Cache Reviews off and on clears the copy.
- 6
Show Thumb: The reviewer's photo. On by default.
- 7
Show Time: When the review was written, as Google words it, such as “2 months ago”. On by default.
- 8
Show Name: The reviewer's name, linked to their Google profile. On by default.
- 9
Show Rating: The reviewer's stars. On by default.
- 10
Show Google Icon: A small Google logo in the corner of each card. Off by default.
- 11
Show Excerpt: The review text. On by default.
- 12
Excerpt Limit: Cuts the text to this many characters, 200 by default, ending on a whole word with “…”.
Additional Options
Content → Additional Options sets the language and the layout:
- 1
Filter Reviews language: Asks Google for the reviews in a language: Arabic, Bulgarian, Bengali, Catalan, Czech, Danish, German, Greek or English, or Custom to type a language code such as
frin Custom Language. Language disable, the default, leaves the choice to Google. - 2
Columns: How many reviews show at once, 1 to 6: 1 by default on every device. Use the device icon to change the tablet and phone numbers.
- 3
Column Gap: The space between reviews side by side.
- 4
Match Height: Makes every card as tall as the tallest one. On by default.
- 5
Show Place Info: Adds the summary: your business's photo and name (linked to Google Maps), its average rating with stars, “Based on 120 reviews”, a “Powered by Google” mark and a Write a review link that opens Google's review form.
- 6
Place Info Position: With the summary: Top (the default), Left, Right or Bottom of the reviews. Beside the reviews, the slider drops below the summary when they no longer fit side by side.
- 7
Place Info Align: With the summary on the left or right: lines it up with the center (the default), start or end of the reviews, or stretches it to their height.
- 8
Reviewer Position: Top, the default, puts the photo, name, date and stars above the text. Bottom puts them under it.
- 9
Direction: How the photo sits next to the name: Left (the default), Right, or Top or Bottom, which stack them and center the card's text.
- 10
Self Align: How the parts of a card are spread over its height: center, start, end, or space between, around or evenly. It shows when the cards are taller than their content, such as with Match Height.
- 11
Content Width: Narrows the review text to a width and centers it.
- 12
Thumb/info Width: Sets the width of the photo, name and stars block.
Navigation
Content → Navigation sets the controls visitors use to move between reviews:
- 1
Navigation: Arrows (the default), Arrows and Dots, Dots or None. Visitors can also swipe or drag the reviews.
- 2
Arrows and Dots Position: Where the controls sit. Its name follows your choice above: Arrows Position and Arrows and Dots Position offer nine places around the slider, Center by default, which puts the arrows at the sides; Dots Position offers eight, Bottom Center by default.
- 3
Hide Arrows and Dots on Mobile: Hides the arrows and dots on screens narrower than 960px, where visitors swipe. On by default.
Slider Settings
Content → Slider Settings controls how the reviews move:
- 1
Auto Play: Moves on to the next review by itself. On by default.
- 2
Autoplay Interval: How long each review stays, in milliseconds: 7000, or 7 seconds, by default.
- 3
Pause on Hover: Stops autoplay while the pointer is over the reviews. On by default.
- 4
Loop: Starts again from the first review after the last. Off by default, so the slider stops at the end.
Style the Google Reviews
Everything below is on the Style tab. Sections that belong to a feature you turned off are hidden.
- Google Reviews — the review card in Normal and Hover states: background, border, radius, padding and shadow, and the Gap between its parts.
- Image — the reviewer's photo: size, spacing and radius.
- Name, Time and Excerpt — colors, spacing and typography, with a hover color for the name and Alignment for the excerpt.
- Rating — the empty Color and filled Active Color of the stars, their size, margin and spacing.
- Google Icon — the logo's Position (left or right corner), size and margin.
- Place Info — the summary's image, name, stars, Rating Number, review count text and the Write a review link in Normal and Hover states.
- Navigation — the arrows and dots: colors, background, border, size and position.
Can't find what you need?
Our support team can help with setup questions and anything the docs don't cover yet.