Configure the single and multi-criteria review and rating system — including spam protection, GDPR consent, and frontend editing permissions.
Navigation Path
| WordPress Admin → SchemaEngine AI → Settings → Review |
⭐ Single & Multi-Criteria Review Rating System
SchemaEngine AI includes a built-in review and rating system that supports both single-score ratings and multi-criteria ratings — allowing visitors to rate different aspects of a product, service, or post independently (e.g. Quality, Value, Design, Support).
Reviews collected through this system are structured as schema.org Review and AggregateRating markup, which enables star ratings to appear directly in Google search results as rich snippets. This Review Settings page controls spam protection, GDPR compliance, and which fields reviewers can edit after submission.
| ℹ️ Prerequisite — Enable Review must be ON The Review Settings page is only functional when the Enable Review toggle in Settings › General is turned ON. If Enable Review is OFF, this entire settings page has no effect. See Step 1 (General Settings) to confirm the toggle is enabled. |
Sections on This Page #
1. Google reCAPTCHA v3 #
Google reCAPTCHA v3 protects your review submission forms from spam bots and automated fake review submissions. Unlike reCAPTCHA v2 (which shows a visible checkbox), v3 works silently in the background — scoring each visitor’s behaviour without interrupting the user experience.
| 🛡️ Why reCAPTCHA v3 matters for reviews Fake or bot-generated reviews pollute your schema markup and can trigger Google Search Console warnings about review spam. Enabling reCAPTCHA v3 ensures only genuine human-submitted reviews are collected, keeping your AggregateRating schema clean and credible in search results. |
Fields
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Recaptcha site key | The public key provided by Google reCAPTCHA. Used in the frontend review form to initiate the reCAPTCHA verification. The eye icon toggles visibility of the key value. |
| Recaptcha secret key | The private server-side key provided by Google reCAPTCHA. Used to verify the reCAPTCHA token on the server. Keep this confidential. The eye icon toggles visibility. |
| 🔑 How to Get Your reCAPTCHA v3 Keys 1. Go to https://www.google.com/recaptcha/admin/create 2. Sign in with your Google account. 3. Enter a Label (e.g. your site name) and select reCAPTCHA v3 as the type. 4. Add your domain(s) under Domains (e.g. acme.example.com). 5. Click Submit — Google will display your Site Key and Secret Key.Copy both keys and paste them into the fields above. |
| Field | Validation | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Recaptcha site key | ○ Optional | Leave blank to disable reCAPTCHA. reCAPTCHA only activates when both keys are present. Recommended for any public-facing review form. |
| Recaptcha secret key | ○ Optional | Must be paired with the site key. Keep confidential — never share or expose this value publicly. |
2. Multiple Review Submission #
This section controls whether users can submit more than one review for the same post or product, and manages the GDPR consent requirements that determine whether a review is eligible to be included in schema markup.
Multiple Review #
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Multiple review | Toggle — ON allows a single user to submit more than one review for the same post or product. OFF (default) limits each user to one review per post. Preventing multiple reviews helps maintain AggregateRating schema accuracy, since duplicate reviews from the same user can inflate ratings. |
| Field | Validation | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Multiple review | ○ Optional | Default: OFF. Enable only if your use case requires multiple reviews per user (e.g. updated reviews after product changes). Keeping it OFF is recommended for schema integrity. |
Enable GDPR Consent for Reviews #
GDPR Consent settings control whether reviewers must acknowledge how their data is used before their review is included in structured data (schema) output. This is a legal requirement for sites with visitors in the European Union.
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Enable GDPR Consent for Reviews | Toggle — ON (enabled by default) adds a consent mechanism to the review form. When enabled, a reviewer’s submission is only included in schema markup if consent has been given. This ensures GDPR-compliant structured data. OFF disables all consent features. |
| Make GDPR Consent Mandatory | Toggle — When ON, users must actively check the consent checkbox before the review form can be submitted. OFF (default) makes consent optional — the form can still be submitted without ticking the consent box, but the review may not appear in schema output if consent is not given. |
| GDPR Consent Message | The text displayed next to the consent checkbox in the review form. Editable. Default: “I agree that my review and personal data may be displayed publicly in accordance with the Privacy Policy.” Customise to match your site’s privacy policy language. |
⚖️ GDPR Consent and schema eligibility
When Enable GDPR Consent for Reviews is ON, only reviews where the user has provided consent are included in schema.org Review and AggregateRating markup. This means the star ratings visible in Google search results only reflect reviews from consenting users — an important distinction for GDPR-compliant sites operating in the EU.
| Field | Validation | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Enable GDPR Consent | ○ Optional | Default: ON. Strongly recommended for EU-facing sites. Disabling removes all consent tracking — which may create GDPR compliance issues. |
| Make GDPR Consent Mandatory | ○ Optional | Default: OFF. Enable if your legal requirements demand explicit opt-in before data processing. Adds friction to the review form. |
| GDPR Consent Message | ○ Optional | Pre-filled with a suitable default. Customise to reference your specific Privacy Policy URL or legal language if needed. |
3. Edit Review Frontend #
This section controls the post-submission review editing experience. It determines whether users can edit their submitted reviews and which fields are editable, as well as which WordPress user roles are permitted to reply to reviews.
Edit Review #
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Edit Review | Toggle — ON (enabled by default) allows users to edit their own reviews after submission. OFF prevents any post-submission editing. When ON, the Review edit field checklist becomes active and determines which specific fields are editable. |
| Field | Validation | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Edit Review | ○ Optional | Default: ON. Enabling post-submission editing improves user experience and reduces duplicate reviews submitted by users who want to correct a mistake. |
Review Edit Field — Editable Fields Checklist #
When Edit Review is ON, this checklist determines which individual fields a user can modify in their submitted review. Tick only the fields you want users to be able to change after submission.
| Option |
| ☑ Rating (checked by default) |
| ☑ Description (checked by default) |
| ☐ Title |
| ☐ Pros & Cons |
| ☐ Image |
| ☐ Video |
| ☐ Anonymous Review |
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Rating | The star rating score. Checked by default — users can update their rating after submission. |
| Description | The written review body text. Checked by default — users can edit the text of their review. |
| Title | The review headline or title. Unchecked by default — enable if your review form includes a title field. |
| Pros & Cons | The positive and negative points field. Unchecked by default — relevant for multi-criteria or product reviews. |
| Image | Attached review images. Unchecked by default — enable to allow users to swap or remove images they uploaded. |
| Video | Attached review video. Unchecked by default — enable to allow users to update their video submission. |
| Anonymous Review | Whether the review is displayed anonymously. Unchecked by default — enable to let users toggle their display name visibility. |
| Field | Validation | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Rating | ○ Optional | Checked by default. Most use cases should keep this editable. |
| Description | ○ Optional | Checked by default. Allows reviewers to fix typos or update their written review. |
| Title | ○ Optional | Unchecked by default. Enable only if your review form shows a title field. |
| Pros & Cons | ○ Optional | Unchecked by default. Enable for product or service review forms with pros/cons sections. |
| Image | ○ Optional | Unchecked by default. Enable to let users manage attached media. |
| Video | ○ Optional | Unchecked by default. |
| Anonymous Review | ○ Optional | Unchecked by default. Enable to allow users to change their display preference. |
Comment Reply Permission #
This checklist defines which WordPress user roles are allowed to comment on and reply to reviews without restriction. Roles that are not checked follow the standard WordPress comment moderation rules.
| Option |
| ☑ Administrator (checked by default) |
| ☐ Editor |
| ☐ Author |
| ☐ Contributor |
| ☐ Subscriber |
| Role | Description |
|---|---|
| Administrator | Full WordPress admin. Checked by default — can comment and reply to any review without restriction. |
| Editor | Can edit and publish any content. Unchecked by default — check to allow unrestricted review replies. |
| Author | Can publish and manage their own posts. Unchecked by default. |
| Contributor | Can write but not publish. Unchecked by default. |
| Subscriber | Basic registered user. Unchecked by default — standard comment moderation applies. |
| Field | Validation | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Administrator | ○ Optional | Checked by default. Recommended to keep this checked. |
| Editor | ○ Optional | Unchecked by default. Enable if your editors manage review responses. |
| Author | ○ Optional | Unchecked by default. Useful if post authors should be able to reply to their own post reviews. |
| Contributor | ○ Optional | Unchecked by default. |
| Subscriber | ○ Optional | Unchecked by default. Enabling this allows all registered users to reply freely — use with caution. |
| 💾 Save Changes After updating any setting on this page, click the Save Change button in the bottom-right corner. All three sections are saved together in a single action. |
