Each Review post has saved display defaults and its own moderation list. The Display tab controls the heading, the Google link, structured data, and which supplied reviews are eligible to appear; the Moderation tab permanently hides individual reviews. A block or shortcode can override selected display defaults for one placement without changing the Review post.
Create and test the Google connection first by following Displaying Google Reviews.
Set the connection defaults #
Go to Steuard → Reviews, open the Review post, and select its Display tab.
- Section heading appears above this connection's reviews. It defaults to "What the neighborhood says"; clear the field to show no heading.
- Maximum reviews caps the number of cards. Google Places supplies at most five Google-selected reviews, so its value is capped at five.
- Minimum star rating removes cards below the selected rating.
- Google links shows a Write a review button in the header. It opens Google's review form for the business chosen on the Connection tab.
- Structured data adds machine-readable review data (JSON-LD) to pages that show these reviews, for search engines and AI assistants. It is off for new connections. It does not produce star ratings in Google results and cannot: Google excludes reviews a business publishes about itself. Leave it off unless you specifically want the structured data.
- Display delay (hours) holds a newly posted review back for that many hours, giving you time to respond on Google first. The default is 72 hours; set it to 0 to disable the hold.
Google Places reviews always display in the order Google returns them, and Places does not supply owner replies, so there is no sort or reply setting for a Places connection. Steuard also omits reviews without written text. These controls filter the set Google supplies; they cannot make Google Places return more reviews or force it to return a particular new review.
Click Update, then reload the public review page.
Override defaults on one page #
The Steuard Reviews block can choose a connection and override maximum reviews, minimum rating, and the Write-a-review link for that block. The [steuard_reviews] shortcode offers the same placement-specific overrides.
The section heading, display delay, structured data, and the moderation list remain connection-wide. They cannot be bypassed by a block or shortcode.
For example, this shortcode shows at most three cards rated four stars or higher, without the Write-a-review button:
[steuard_reviews connection="123" max="3" min_rating="4" show_write_review="false"]
See the Steuard Reviews Shortcode Reference for every attribute.
Hide an individual review #
Open the Review post and select its Moderation tab.
- Find the review.
- Check Hide.
- Click Update.
- Reload the public page and clear any page/CDN cache if the card remains visible.
For Google Places, opening the Moderation tab makes a live Places request because Steuard does not store the Places review response. A review inside the display-delay window is marked as pending until it becomes eligible.
What filters change—and what they do not #
Maximum reviews, minimum rating, display delay, and moderation affect the visible review cards and, when Structured data is on, the individual Review entries in Steuard's structured data. Hiding or delaying a card does not recalculate Google's overall star rating or total review count — the rating lockup always shows the figures Google reports.
When structured data is on, Steuard emits it once per page, on the first review placement rendered: a list of the displayed reviews, each naming your business as the item reviewed. It carries no aggregate rating and cannot earn star ratings in Google results. The business name, type, and ID it uses come from Steuard → Menu Options → Display → Business. See Do my reviews show star ratings in Google search results?, How do I set the business used in structured data?, and How does review moderation affect cards, ratings, and structured data?.
If Google keeps returning the same small set, see Why do only five Google reviews appear?. If the connection or Moderation tab cannot retrieve reviews, see My POS or reviews connection won't connect.
