How To Use Aggregator to Display WordPress.org Reviews

If you sell a WordPress plugin, you know the routine. Someone lands on your site, reads the feature list, checks the pricing page, and then does the thing every buyer does: they go looking for reviews. 

BrightLocal’s 2026 Local Consumer Review Survey found that 85% of consumers say positive reviews make them more likely to buy, and 41% say they “always” read reviews when searching. Those are your potential users, reading reviews before they make a decision.

If your reviews live on WordPress.org, you have a problem, though. How do you display those on your website in a way that looks authoritative and builds trust? We decided to solve that problem using WP RSS Aggregator.

This guide walks you through the exact process, step by step, including the PHP snippets you’ll need to clean up the imported reviews. Whether you’re showcasing reviews for your own plugin or building a reviews section for a client, you’ll have everything you need by the end. Let’s get to it!

Why Display WordPress.org Reviews?

Here’s the thing: your WordPress.org reviews are already doing work for you on the plugin directory. But most potential users never visit that page. They land on your site first, and that’s where the decision happens. Showing real, unfiltered user reviews right there closes the gap.

This is content curation at its most practical. You’re taking existing user-generated content and placing it where it actually influences decisions. We realized we had hundreds of 5-star reviews on WordPress.org that could be working much harder for us.

The numbers back this up. Research from the Spiegel Research Center at Northwestern University found that displaying just five reviews increases purchase likelihood by 270%. Five. The first handful of reviews drives the bulk of that lift, which means even a modest feed of approved WordPress.org reviews can move the needle for your conversions.

And the best part: instead of manually copying reviews (and forgetting to update them), this approach syncs automatically from WordPress.org’s review feed. Fresh positive feedback goes live on your site within hours of being posted. No copy-pasting required.

If you have amazing plugin reviews in WordPress.org (not to brag, but that screenshot is from the WP RSS Aggregator page), you should be displaying them on your website, and this is a quick way to mostly automate it.

Step 1: Get the WordPress.org Reviews Feed URL

Every WordPress.org plugin page includes a reviews feed. You’ll construct it using your plugin’s slug:

1. Find your plugin on WordPress.org (example: https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-rss-aggregator/)
2. Your plugin’s slug appears after /plugins/
3. Build the reviews feed URL by replacing {plugin-slug} in this pattern:

https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/{plugin-slug}/reviews/feed

For WP RSS Aggregator, that’s:

https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wp-rss-aggregator/reviews/feed

You can test the URL directly in your browser. You’ll see XML with all the review data, including titles with star counts like “(5 stars)” which we’ll use later for filtering. The XML will look something like this:

Don’t worry. WP RSS Aggregator can turn all of that data into a professional-looking review feed. You won’t need to touch a line of that code.

Rather than reading raw XML, paste your constructed reviews feed URL below to confirm it’s live and pulling review items before you add it as a source in Step 2.

Step 2: Add the Feed as a Source in Aggregator

With your feed URL ready, set up a Source in Aggregator:

1. Navigate to Aggregator → Sources in WordPress admin
2. Click Add a new source
3. Paste the WordPress.org reviews feed URL in the Source Link field
4. Configure these settings:
   • Limit stored items: 20 (adjust based on how many reviews you want to showcase)
   • Curate posts: Check this box so you approve reviews before they go live
   • Import as: Feed Item (keeps them in the Hub for easy management)
   • Update every: 12 hours (frequent enough to catch new reviews quickly)
5. Name the source "WordPress.org" for clarity in your Hub
6. Click Save

You'll see a live preview of available reviews appear on the right side of the screen. That's your first sign the connection is working.

So the reviews are in. Now let's filter for 5-star reviews only, if you need to.

Step 3: Automate for 5-Star Reviews Only

WordPress.org reviews are mixed. We appreciate all feedback (honestly, we do), but for our homepage showcase, you might want to show only the top-tier reviews. The good news: WordPress.org includes star ratings in the review title, like "(5 stars)" or "(4 stars)". We can use Automations to filter on this automatically.

1. Go to Aggregator → Automations
2. Create a new Automation rule
3. Set the condition: If Title contains all "5 stars"
4. Set the action: Then Show items
5. Save the rule

This is what the rule should look like:

Now only 5-star reviews get automatically imported. Lower-rated reviews can still be manually curated in the Hub to address feedback, but they won't clutter the review display.

Step 4: Curate in the Hub

Even with automation, you'll want a human eye on things before reviews go live. That's what the Hub is for. Think of it as your review inbox:

1. Go to Aggregator → Hub
2. Find the Pending Approval section
3. Filter by source "WordPress.org" to isolate reviews
4. Preview each review by clicking the eye icon
5. Approve reviews that represent your plugin well, or reject ones that don't fit your brand

Here's what the Hub will look like when you have pending WordPress.org reviews to approve:

In our experience, this step takes about 30 seconds per batch. You keep full control over what appears on your site while the system handles the importing and organizing behind the scenes.

Step 5: Create a Display with Grid Layout

Now let's showcase these reviews. Aggregator's Display feature handles presentation:

1. Go to Aggregator → Displays
2. Create a new display
3. Give it a name like "5-Star Reviews"
4. Select the WordPress.org source (the one we created earlier)
5. Choose a layout that you like. We're using the Grid layout for that visual card appearance in the example below

Now let's go to the Customization tab, to make a few tweaks:

• Changed the Author prefix from "By" to just "Author"
• Stacked author information below the title for cleaner spacing
• Set the grid to 2-3 columns on desktop for a balanced look

Here's the key thing to know: WordPress.org feeds include metadata like "Replies: N Rating: N stars", which you can see in the example below:

That clutters the review cards. We'll clean it up with code in the next step.

Step 6: Clean the Output with PHP

The raw Aggregator output needs a bit of polish. WordPress.org's feed includes metadata we don't want visitors to see, so we used the Code Snippets plugin to add two filters that clean things up for our specific display:

First filter: Remove "Replies" and "Rating" text

// Remove "Replies: N" and "Rating: N stars" from review excerpts.
// Covers both blocks (the_content) and shortcodes (do_shortcode_tag).
add_filter('the_content', function ($content) {
    if (strpos($content, 'wpra-display') === false) return $content;

    $content = preg_replace('/Replies:\s*\d+\s*/i', '', $content);
    $content = preg_replace('/Rating:\s*\d+\s*stars?\s*/i', '', $content);

    return $content;
}, 20);

This snippet uses two WordPress hooks to cover all bases. The the_content filter catches WP RSS Aggregator displays added via the Block or as a shortcode within page content.

Second filter: Convert "(5 stars)" to star symbols

// Replace "(5 stars)" in review titles with ★★★★★ visual stars.
// Covers both blocks (the_content) and shortcodes (do_shortcode_tag).
add_filter('the_content', function ($content) {
    if (strpos($content, 'wpra-display') === false) return $content;

    $content = preg_replace_callback('/\(\s*(\d+)\s+stars?\s*\)/i', function ($matches) {
        $count = max(1, min(5, (int)$matches[1]));
        $stars = str_repeat('★', $count) . str_repeat('☆', 5 - $count);
        return '<span class="star-rating">' . $stars . '</span>';
    }, $content);

    return $content;
}, 20);

// For shortcodes used in widgets or templates
add_filter('do_shortcode_tag', function ($output, $tag, $attrs) {
    if ($tag !== 'wp-rss-aggregator') return $output;

    $output = preg_replace_callback('/\(\s*(\d+)\s+stars?\s*\)/i', function ($matches) {
        $count = max(1, min(5, (int)$matches[1]));
        $stars = str_repeat('&#9733;', $count) . str_repeat('&#9734;', 5 - $count);
        return '<span class="star-rating">' . $stars . '</span>';
    }, $output);

    return $output;
}, 10, 3);

This snippet converts the plain-text "(5 stars)" that appears in WordPress.org review titles into visual star symbols (★★★★★). Don't worry, it only targets the star count in titles like "Love V5, 2nd to none support (5 stars)" and won't accidentally match stray numbers elsewhere.

For extra points, you can also add this as a global custom CSS style on your website:

.star-rating {
color: #EFBF04;
font-size: 0.8em;
line-height: 1;
letter-spacing: 1px;
font-family: Arial, sans-serif;
}

This gives the stars a warm gold color and tight spacing so they read as a cohesive unit. The font is set to Arial to ensure Unicode stars render consistently across browsers.

If you want to go further, you can add hover effects or adjust the sizing based on your design system. Just make sure to keep the stars prominent enough to stand out in the grid.

Here's what the WP RSS Aggregator review feed will look like now in the front end:

Keep in mind that every aspect of your WP RSS Aggregator feeds is customizable. With a bit of custom code and CSS, you can make reviews look exactly how you want on your website. WP RSS Aggregator will handle keepìng the reviews coming for you to approve.

Step 7: Embed on Your Website

With the display created, embedding is straightforward. You've got options:

• Shortcode: Your feed shortcodes will look like this . You can find specific display IDs in Aggregator → Displays.
• Block: Use the RSS Aggregator Display block in the WordPress editor for visual configuration

We used Elementor, so we added a Shortcode widget and pasted the shortcode there. If you're also using Elementor, our guide on adding RSS feeds to Elementor covers the details. This gives us a clear container to target with CSS and ensures the reviews section displays consistently.

What You Get

With the tutorial out of the way, here's what you end up with: a self-updating reviews section that does the heavy lifting for you.

• Syncs automatically. New 5-star reviews appear (after your approval) within hours.
• Stays clean. All of the clutter is removed by the custom PHP filters you set up.
• Looks professional. The WP RSS Aggregator Grid layout looks great with star ratings matches modern web design.
• Builds trust. Real WordPress.org reviews on your site are genuine social proof. No more showing testimonials you wrote yourself at 2 AM.
• Scales without effort. No manual copying. When your plugin gets more reviews, they're imported automatically. You just have to approve them.

Wrapping Up

What you built here is a loop: a user writes a review on WordPress.org, it automatically surfaces on our homepage, and the next visitor sees authentic social proof before deciding to install. It's a small workflow, but it compounds. Every positive review that shows up on your site is doing double duty.

The technical setup takes about 15 minutes. After that, you've got a constantly-refreshing testimonial section that requires zero manual effort. If you're sitting on a pile of positive WordPress.org reviews and not showing them on your site, this is the fix.

Got questions about setting this up? Let's talk about them in the comments section below!