Chykalophia Docs

How to enable, moderate, and manage customer reviews and star ratings on your WooCommerce products.

Product reviews and star ratings help customers make purchase decisions and build trust in your store. WooCommerce includes a built-in review system. This guide explains how to turn it on, manage reviews, and keep things clean.

Quick summary

Reviews are switched on in the Reviews section of WooCommerce → Settings → Products. Customers can leave a star rating and text review on any product page. New reviews follow your normal comment moderation settings. You manage all reviews under Products → Reviews.

Enabling (or disabling) reviews

Go to WooCommerce → Settings → Products.

Scroll to the "Reviews" section.

Tick or untick "Enable product reviews" to turn the feature on or off.

Choose your review and rating settings:

"Show 'verified owner' label on customer reviews" — labels reviews from customers who bought the product from your store.
"Reviews can only be left by 'verified owners'" — only customers who actually purchased the product can leave a review. Recommended to prevent fake reviews.
"Enable star rating on reviews" — lets customers include a star rating with their review.
"Star ratings should be required, not optional" — requires a rating when a customer submits a review.

Click Save changes.

You can also turn reviews on or off for a single product. Edit the product, open Product data → Advanced, and use the Enable reviews setting.

Approving and moderating reviews

WooCommerce product reviews use the same underlying system as WordPress comments, but they have their own screen.

Go to Products → Reviews in the WordPress dashboard. This lists all product reviews and your replies.

Narrow the list. You can filter reviews by type, rating, or product, and use Screen Options to choose which columns appear.

Hover over a review to see action options:

Approve — approves a review that is awaiting moderation, making it visible on the product page.
Unapprove — sends an approved review back to moderation.
Reply — lets you respond publicly to the review.
Quick Edit — edit the review text, name, email address and URL in place.
Edit — opens the full editor, including the star rating (use sparingly).
Spam — moves the review to the Spam view.
Trash — moves the review to the Trash view.

Bulk actions let you approve, unapprove, mark as spam, or trash several reviews at once.

Don't edit customer reviews to change meaning

Editing a customer's words to change their meaning is unethical and can damage trust. Only edit to remove spam links, abusive language, or personal data. If you disagree with a review, use the Reply function to add your response publicly.

Comment moderation settings

You can control whether reviews need approval before appearing. These settings are under Before a comment appears in Settings → Discussion in WordPress:

"Comment must be manually approved" — every review waits for your approval. Best for keeping full control.
"Comment author must have a previously approved comment" — first review requires approval; later ones from the same person are auto-approved.

Responding to reviews publicly

Responding to reviews — especially negative ones — shows you care about customer experience. Respond with:

Acknowledgment of the feedback
A brief explanation or resolution
An invitation to contact you directly if they want to discuss further

This is visible to all future shoppers and can turn a negative impression into a positive one. Your replies stay grouped with the original review, so each conversation is easy to follow.

Enabling star ratings

Star ratings are part of the reviews feature. Tick "Enable star rating on reviews" and the review form on the product page lets customers add a rating alongside their written review.

To make a rating compulsory rather than optional, tick "Star ratings should be required, not optional". Both settings sit in the same Reviews section of WooCommerce → Settings → Products.

Common questions

Can I import reviews from another platform?

There are third-party plugins that import reviews from other marketplaces and review services. Which one fits depends on where your existing reviews live, so ask us and we'll look at your situation.

How do I deal with a fake or unfair review?

If a review is clearly fake (e.g., from a competitor) or contains false information, you can trash it. If it's a genuine unhappy customer, respond professionally and try to resolve the issue. Never fabricate or incentivize fake positive reviews.

Can customers edit their own reviews?

Not from the product page. Once submitted, a customer cannot go back and edit a review there. They need to contact you, and you can update it on their behalf from Products → Reviews. (WooCommerce also has an optional review-request email, off by default. While products from that order are still unreviewed, a customer who returns to the email's link can update a review they already left; once they have reviewed everything, the link only shows a thank-you message.)

Do product reviews affect SEO?

Reviews create fresh, user-generated content on product pages. Google says valid structured data can make pages eligible for rich results such as review stars in search listings, though it does not guarantee them. Make sure your WooCommerce setup includes structured data markup — we can verify this for you.

Need a hand?

If you're stuck, email support@chykalophia.com and we'll help. Include your website address and a screenshot if you can.

Learn more

WooCommerce Product Reviews

Managing product reviews