Moderate reviews

Last updated 25 October 2026

You decide what goes public. Pick a publishing mode once, then approve, hide or delete reviews on your site's Reviews tab.

Choose how reviews go public

Open Reviews, pick your site and open the Widget tab.
Go to step Publishing (“Before reviews appear on the site”).
Pick one of the four modes below and press Continue.

I check each review first. Nothing is public until you approve it. The default on Reviews Free.
Publish star ratings without text right away; I check written reviews first.
Publish every review right away; I'll hide abuse later.
Automatic (AI): publish each review that passes a content check. On Pro, and the default there. The check reads the text without the star rating, so a fair 1-star review passes like a 5-star one. It holds spam and advertising, abuse, someone's personal details and unrelated text, and checks each photo for nudity, violence and ID documents. A held review waits for you with the reason. Videos always wait for you, and so does a review the check could not answer.

There is no “publish only 4 stars and up” option, on purpose: hiding bad reviews breaks the US FTC rule on fake reviews. In every mode that publishes on its own, only 3 reviews a day from one visitor go out at once; the rest wait for you. Reviews with photos or a video wait for you in every mode except AI, which checks the photos itself.

What goes public, mode by mode

	Stars only	With text	With photos	With video
I check each review first	Waits	Waits	Waits	Waits
Stars right away, I check text	Public	Waits	Waits	Waits
Every review right away	Public	Public	Waits	Waits
Automatic (AI), on Pro	AI check	AI check	AI check	Waits

Public: goes public at once. Waits: waits for you to approve it. AI check: goes public if it passes the content check, otherwise waits with the reason. In every mode that publishes on its own, only 3 reviews a day from one visitor go out at once; the rest wait for you.

Step Publishing of the Widget tab with the four publishing modes, I check each review first selected — Step Publishing: the four modes, numbered in the order of the table above.

Approve, hide or delete

The Reviews tab sorts reviews into Waiting, Approved, Hidden and All. Press Approve on a review to publish it.

Hiding needs a reason, the same list for good and bad reviews: Spam or fake, Duplicate, Not about your business, Personal data, Threats, hate or harassment, Test. You can delete only reviews hidden as Test, Spam or fake, or Duplicate. To act on several reviews, tick them, choose Publish, Hide or Delete under With the selected reviews, pick a reason when you hide or delete, and press Apply.

The Reviews tab with two reviews under Waiting, each with Approve, a reason list, Hide and Delete — The Reviews tab: 1 reviews waiting for you, 2 Approve, 3 Hide with a reason, 4 Apply to the reviews you ticked.

Rude-word masking

Rude-word masking is on by default for each site. The review is still published, and rude words show as their first letter and stars (f******). You see the original in the dashboard, with the masked version under it. The switch is in step Publishing.

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