Helpful Voting

Let your visitors tell you (and each other) which reviews are the most useful.

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What It Does

Helpful voting adds a simple “Was this review helpful?” prompt below each review, with Yes and No buttons. When visitors vote, the count updates in real time — “12 people found this helpful” — giving future shoppers a quick signal about which reviews are worth reading.

It’s a small feature that makes a big difference. On a product with dozens of reviews, helpful votes help the best ones rise to the top — so visitors don’t have to wade through everything to find the feedback that matters.

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Enabling Helpful Voting

Helpful voting is on by default. To check or toggle it:

1. Go to Trustie > Settings > Reviews
2. Find Helpful Votes
3. Toggle it on or off
4. Save

Once enabled, the voting buttons appear automatically on all review cards — both product reviews and site reviews.

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How It Looks to Visitors

Below each review, visitors see:

> Was this review helpful?
> [ Yes ] [ No ]

After voting, the button they clicked is highlighted and the count updates:

> 12 people found this helpful

The interaction is quick, lightweight, and doesn’t require the visitor to be logged in.

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How Voting Is Tracked

Trustie uses a combination of cookies and IP address to prevent duplicate voting:

• When a visitor votes, a cookie is set in their browser recording which reviews they’ve voted on
• The visitor’s IP address is also recorded alongside the vote
• If someone tries to vote on the same review twice, the button is already highlighted and no duplicate vote is registered

This isn’t bulletproof (clearing cookies or switching networks would allow a repeat vote), but it’s a practical balance between preventing casual abuse and not requiring visitors to create an account just to click “helpful.”

What Gets Stored

Each review tracks two counts:

These counts are stored directly on the review record. No personal data from voters is stored long-term — the IP check is used only at the moment of voting to detect duplicates.

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How It Affects Review Ordering

Helpful vote counts can influence how reviews are sorted. When visitors use the sort controls on your review display, the most-helpful reviews can be surfaced first.

This means reviews that your customers find genuinely useful get more visibility over time, while less helpful reviews naturally sink lower. It’s a self-improving system — the more people vote, the better the review ordering gets.

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Where Voting Appears

Helpful voting buttons show on review cards everywhere reviews are displayed:

• Product pages — below each product review
• Reviews page — on the dedicated reviews page ([trustie_reviews_page])
• Site reviews — on store-level review displays
• Shortcode displays — anywhere you use [trustie_reviews] or [trustie_store_reviews]

The buttons do not appear in the floating widget (the widget shows a compact view of reviews without interactive elements).

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Common Questions

Can I see vote counts in the admin?
Yes — when viewing individual reviews in the admin panel, you can see the helpful and unhelpful vote counts for each review.

Does voting work on mobile?
Yes. The buttons are touch-friendly and work on all devices.

Can I disable voting for specific reviews?
Voting is a global setting — it’s either on for all reviews or off for all reviews. You can’t toggle it per-review.

Do Google Reviews show helpful voting?
No — Google Reviews displayed via the Google Places integration are read-only. Helpful voting only applies to reviews submitted through Trustie.

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If Something’s Not Working

Voting buttons not appearing:

• Check that Helpful Votes is enabled in Trustie > Settings > Reviews
• Clear any page cache — cached pages may not reflect the setting change immediately
• Check for JavaScript errors in your browser console

Vote count not updating:

• The count updates via AJAX — check your browser console for errors
• Disable caching plugins temporarily to rule out stale page content
• Verify the AJAX endpoint is accessible (some security plugins block certain AJAX requests)

Still stuck? Drop us a line at support@tracksies.com and we’ll help you sort it out.