The Social Reviews widget can show the reviews on a Google business listing. It needs two things from Google: a Places API key and the Place ID of the location.
Both come from Google, not from The Plus Addons. The first half of this page gets them; the second half puts them into the widget.
For the full settings tour of the Social Reviews widget, see Social Reviews Widget Settings Overview.
Requirement – This widget is a part of The Plus Addons for Elementor Pro, make sure it’s installed & activated to enjoy all its powers.
Before You Start
- Edition: Pro — Social Reviews ships only in The Plus Addons for Elementor Pro. The widget does not exist in the free plugin at all: no widget file, no CSS and no JavaScript, so there is nothing to fall back to.
- Prerequisite: Elementor (free) installed and active.
- Widget to enable: go to The Plus Addons > Widgets, search for Social Reviews and turn its toggle on.
- Prerequisite: a Google Places API key (the Google Cloud project needs billing enabled) and the location’s Place ID.
- Prerequisite: your server must be able to make outbound HTTPS requests. Facebook and Google are called server-side while the page renders, not by the visitor’s browser.
Create a Google Places API key
These are Google’s own screens and Google changes them from time to time. The sequence below is the one this page has carried; if a screen looks different, the names of the things you are looking for are still the same.
- Open the Google Cloud console and create a project if you do not have one.
- From the dashboard, open the menu and go to APIs and services > Credentials. If you already have a project you can go straight to the Credentials page.
- Go to Library.
- Search for Places API, open it and click Enable.
- Add your billing details if you have not already. Google requires billing on the project even for the free tier.
- Back on the project dashboard, also enable the Maps JavaScript API. You can search for it in the Library as well.
- Open Credentials in the sidebar and click + CREATE CREDENTIALS > API Key.
- Copy the key from the popup and keep it somewhere safe.
Find the Place ID
- Open Google’s Place ID finder.
- Search for the location whose reviews you want.
- The Place ID appears in a tooltip on the map. Copy it.
Put them into the widget
- Edit the page with Elementor and drag the Social Reviews widget onto it.
- In Content > Content, leave Type on Reviews and pick a Style and Layout.
- Open the first item under Social Reviews and set Source to Google.
- Paste the API key into Access Token and the Place ID into Page/Place ID.
- Optionally set Language, Max Results (default 6), Rating Icon and Category (For Filter).
The five-review limit
Google’s Place Details response carries at most five reviews, whatever number you put in Max Results. The widget’s Performance section is meant to work around that by keeping what it has already fetched, so the set can grow over time as new reviews arrive.
This cap, and whether the stored set really does grow past five, come from the plugin’s code and Google’s own documentation. Neither was measured for this revision — no API key was used at any point while checking this page.
How It Behaves
- Google is called by your server while the page renders, and the answer is cached for the Refresh Time set under Content > Extra Options. The default is 1 day.
- Google’s own error text is shown to the visitor. With a key Google rejects, the card reads The provided API key is invalid. and REQUEST_DENIED — that wording comes from Google, not from the plugin.
- Review text is shortened by default. Text Limit is on at 100 characters, so longer reviews end in a Show More link.
Limitations
- Google’s error is passed straight through, with a misleading prefix. A wrong key renders Error No : 200, The provided API key is invalid. and REQUEST_DENIED. The 200 is the HTTP status of a request that succeeded and came back carrying an error — it is not an error code, so do not go looking one up.
- Review text is truncated out of the box. Text Limit is on by default with Limit Count at 100 characters, so longer reviews end in …Show More before you change anything. Turn Text Limit off under Content > Extra Options to show reviews in full.
- Reviews are fetched on your server, and cached. Nothing is requested from the visitor’s browser, so a source that works on one host can fail on another that blocks outbound requests. Refresh Time (default 1 day) decides how often the request is repeated.
- Load More and Lazy Load do not currently load anything. On a published page with six manual reviews, Maximum Posts Display at 3 and More Post Loading set to Load More, clicking the button left the count at three, changed the button to Loading… permanently and raised a JavaScript error. Lazy Load likewise never went past the initial count. No credential was involved, so this is not an API problem. Until it is fixed, show every review you want visible.
- Google needs billing enabled on the project, even to stay inside the free tier. A key created without it will be rejected.
- At most five reviews come back per request. See the section above.
Not verified
So you know exactly what has and has not been checked:
- A wall of real Google reviews. This page was checked without ever entering a real access token, API key or place id, so what the finished Google feed looks like once connected was not observed for this revision. Everything below that does not need a credential was checked on a published page.
- The five-review cap on the free Google Places API, and whether Performance plus Save Data accumulates more than five over time. Read from the code and from Google’s own documentation, not measured.
- Language (Google rows). The control exists; its effect on the returned reviews was not observed.
- Performance, Save Data and Delete All Transient. The cached path was never exercised — what is written here comes from the panel’s own notes and defaults.
- The Style tab. Only the three content Style presets were rendered; no colour, typography or per-source styling control was exercised.
- The Google Cloud console steps themselves. Google’s screens change often and were not walked through for this revision; the sequence and screenshots above are the ones this page already carried.
Troubleshooting
The card says The provided API key is invalid
That message is Google’s. The key is wrong, has not had the Places API enabled, has no billing on its project, or is restricted so that your server cannot use it.
It says Error No : 200
Ignore the number. 200 is the HTTP status of a request that reached Google successfully and came back carrying an error, so it is not an error code to look up. The useful part is the text next to it.
Only five reviews show
That is Google’s limit per request, not a widget setting. Raising Max Results will not change it.
The reviews never update
They are cached. Lower Refresh Time under Content > Extra Options; the shortest option is 1 hour.
