How To Approve Pending Testimonials in WordPress with Real Testimonials

Whether you’re a Real Estate Agent or running any business where customer reviews matter, collecting customer feedback using a Testimonials plugin might seem easy. But when you want to publish or approve pending Testimonials in your WordPress site, you might be struggling. Here is the best solution for you!

As a Real Estate Agent or a Fitness Trainer, collecting and showcasing testimonials is crucial to increasing brand value. Before they go live, they wait for your approval. Before publishing, you need to filter out spam and correct minor errors, while making sure every testimonial displays correctly and matches your brand’s voice.

In this guide, I’ll show you exactly how to approve pending testimonials in WordPress. Then, discuss the best practices of filtering, displaying, and collecting Real Estate Agent Client Testimonials using Real Testimonials in a few steps.

Why Approving Testimonials Matters to Your WordPress Business?

In today’s competitive business world, Testimonials act as social proof that builds trust for your potential customers. Showcasing customer Testimonials highlights the quality of your products or services and gives new visitors confidence in your brand. And, the essential thing is that a well-managed testimonial section can increase conversions and enhance your online reputation. Let’s see some problems that many businesses face, and skip the approval process.

5 Reasons Why Approving Testimonials Matters to Your WordPress Business:

1. Maintain Quality and Credibility: Approving the high-quality testimonials ensures that only authentic, accurate, and well-written feedback appears on your website. It helps to build trust with potential customers and strengthen your brand’s credibility. Furthermore, it shows that your business cares about professionalism and customer satisfaction.
2. Prevent Spam and Malicious Content: Without proper attention, your testimonial section might be full of spam, irrelevant links, or inappropriate language. By reviewing submissions first, you can edit and filter out harmful or low-quality content, keeping your website safe, professional, and user-friendly.
3. Enhance User Experience: Customers love real stories from real people, and a clean, organized testimonial section creates a positive impression for website visitors. When you display relevant and visually appealing testimonials, they make your website more engaging and encourage visitors to explore your products or services further.
4. Protect Your Brand Image: Adding perfect Testimonials is an excellent reflection for every business. And, approving them rightly ensures that every piece of feedback aligns with your values and reflects on your brand image while protecting your business reputation.
5. Boost Conversions and Sales: Customers check reviews before making a purchase, and authentic, high-quality testimonials influence potential customers’ decisions. By showcasing trusted feedback, you can increase customer engagement and establish trust in your services, ultimately boosting your business growth.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Approving Testimonials Without Review

Many business owners hit “Publish” reviews too quickly. Skipping a proper review approval system creates typos, unclear wording, or even false claims to slip through. So, it’s important to always check for grammar, clarity, and accuracy before approval.

Let’s see some common mistakes people make before approving Testimonails:

• Ignoring Spam Filters: Failing to filter spam in reviews can flood your testimonial section with irrelevant or harmful content. Without proper review filtering, spambots or malicious users can harm your site’s credibility.
• Overlooking Consistency: Your potential visitors may get bored with Testimonials that vary too much in tone. And, without proper formatting or style, your page looks messy. So, make sure to edit testimonials before approval to improve readability while keeping the customer’s original voice.
• Publishing Fake or Unverified Testimonials: Showcasing real stories and reviews shows professionalism. Avoid posting testimonials without verifying their authenticity, as it can backfire. If potential customers suspect reviews are fake, they will lose trust in your business, and it will drop dramatically.
• Allowing Irrelevant Content: Approving unrelated feedback (like general complaints or off-topic messages) distracts visitors and reduces the impact of genuine reviews. It’s vital to highlight the testimonials that are related to your product or service. 
• Not Filtering Inappropriate Language: Sometimes, happy customers might use slang or rude language. If you leave them unedited and publish without checking, it makes your website look unprofessional. Conducting a quick review can help you maintain polite and business-friendly testimonials.
• Relying Only on Auto-Approval: You might use an auto review approval system, and it saves time, but relying on it entirely can cause problems if low-quality or inappropriate testimonials slip through. Make sure to do a manual check and approve the testimonials that are necessary and effective.
• Neglecting Formatting & Display: Furthermore, the best testimonials might lose impact if poorly displayed. Forgetting to format (headings, quotes, highlighting names) makes your testimonial page look cluttered and less engaging.

Best Practices To Collect, Display, and Approve Client Testimonials in WordPress

1. Verify Authenticity: Make sure that the testimonial comes from a real customer to build a strong brand image. Don’t forget to cross-check reviewer Names, Emails, or Order details to avoid publishing fake or misleading reviews.
2. Check for Clarity & Grammar: Best Testimonials should be easy to read and catch. So, before approval, lightly edit spelling or grammar issues while keeping the customer’s original tone and emotions.
3. Filter Out Sensitive or Inappropriate Language: Words speak directly to the customers. So, remove filth, offensive terms, or customer personal details that could hurt your brand image. Always use professional language and keep your content respectful for future customers.
4. Ensure Relevance & Consistency: Approve only testimonials that reflect genuine experiences with your product/service, and avoid unrelated feedback or vague comments. Display your reviews in a consistent format, making sure your reviews look professional and trustworthy.
5. Maintain Consistent Formatting: Visuals are stronger than words. Keep all testimonials visually alive, showcasing reviewer  (Name, Photo, Star Rating, etc.). Consistency improves readability and strengthens trust in your brand.
6. Use a Testimonial Plugin: A plugin like Real Testimonials by ShapedPlugin can streamline the entire testimonials process. Using it, it’s super easy to collect, moderate, and display testimonials professionally while saving your time.

Step-by-Step Guide: How to Approve Pending Testimonials in WordPress

1: Get Real Testimonials

A good review plugin can help you create a beautiful review form and approve pending testimonials in WordPress effortlessly. Among the WordPress review plugins, the Real Testimonial is one of the best customer review plugins for WordPress. It allows you to show off your Customers’ or users’ Testimonials in Slider, Thumbnails Slider, Carousel, Multi-row, Grid, Masonry, List, Isotope, and Layouts with 10+ Professionally Designed Themes. Each layout and theme is fully customizable on your way.

If you’re a newcomer ( Future Master) to this plugin, please read the Step-by-Step Guide and take your real estate business to the next level.

If you want to explore the free version, click here and install the #1 WordPress Review plugin.

2: Create a Review Form

• From your WordPress Dashboard, go to the Real Testimonials.
• Scroll down, and find Testimonial Forms.
• Click Testimonial Form, and add a title to the review form.
• From the Form Editor tab, edit the form fields to match your needs and preferences.
• Then, move to the Label & Messages, and edit it as you wish. Next, jump to the Status & Notifications tab

3: Publish the Testimonial Form

• Once you have already designed the form, it’s time to publish it. 
• Copy the Form Shortcode and paste it into the page or post. The form is already published. 
• From now on, you will automatically receive reviews from many of your happy customers.

4: Approve the Pending Testimonials in WordPress

Real Testimonials collects and showcases reviews automatically. It enables you to automate showcasing reviews generally or based on ratings. 

When you started to receive testimonials, it’s mandatory to keep in mind how to filter and approve them professionally and effortlessly. Since you’ve chosen the Real Testimonials, it’s super easy to approve pending testimonials in WordPress more smartly than ever.

• Go to the Testimonial Forms Tab
• Scroll down, and find the Status & Notifications Tab.

• Choose your desired Testimonails Status: Draft, Pending, Private, or Auto Publish. Select Pending Review.
• However, if you don’t have any spamming issues, and prefer, you can also select Auto Publish. Our plugin allows you to choose how you want to manage your customer reviews and publish them.

• Now, enable other Admin & Notifications Settings, and Testimonials Submissions Texts.

• With this form, when a customer puts reviews, it will come to your All Testimonials tab as a Notification with a Pending Status.
• Click on it, edit as you prefer, making it a professional Testimonials.
• Once, done. Hit the “Publish” button.

Congratulations!

Now, your pending reviews are live and displaying with other existing reviews. Let’s see a live demo below.

Final Words

Approving pending testimonials with Real Testimonials is quick and simple, making it easier to maintain professional and trustworthy reviews. Whether you choose to approve each entry or enable auto-approval manually, Real Testimonials gives you complete control over exactly what you want.

So, why wait? Download Real Testimonials today, and start displaying reviews from real customers, and approve the pending testimonials more smartly and effortlessly than before.