In this tutorial we will make a niche product review and comparison site using WordPress and a review plugin. The website will list several competing products in the niche, review them, give them star rating, allow users to rate products, and compare them side by side in a table.
Some HTML and CSS knowledge is required.
In the end we’ll arrive at a website whose homepage looks like this:
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And the product review page looks like this:
View this screenshot in a full window
This is a fully functional, search engine optimized, money-making, product review site.
In this tutorial we will use the best WordPress review plugin, MyReviewPlugin, to build a product comparison site. To follow along with this step-by-step tutorial, download MyReviewPlugin risk free with a 45-day money back guarantee.
I also assume you already have a good WordPress host and a fresh installation of WordPress.
The website we’ll build for this tutorial is SolidWoodworkingPlans.com. It’s for the woodworking enthusiasts niche. Let’s get started…
This is great! I wasn’t looking at building an entire site devoted to reviews and rankings but just a section. Thanks for the homework.
Looks great – does it have the feature to build a search page front end, so users can search for product/reviews that meet certain attributes ( such as widcard for some categories, within xxkm of postcode, selection of a few choices from a list of many validated field entries? ( Like picking red and blue from a list of 10 valid colors? )
Cheers!
ije
The plugin itself doesn’t have this. WordPress has categories, which your users can utilize to narrow down product searches, but even that doesn’t work exactly as you’re describing. I mean, WordPress by default can display one category at a time—not products in overlapping categories.
Great quick reply. I have the need for comparison tables on two sites. One has about 50 items, another about 500. Searching, or filtering, would be key. Perhaps another plugin has this feature, but this one looks so damn cool and ticks so many of my other requirements!
hey, could you tell me which css settings you used to alter the look of the editor’s rating and custom blocks?
Normally you do not have any borders between rating categories. You also have advanced padding settings and the texts “Editor’s Rating” and “Information” are usually in the same font as the rating categories.
Thanks for this review. Hope you can help me out
Hi Peter, The details on how I added these things is at the page titled “Adding Thumbnail & Star Ratings to Posts” of this tutorial. Check it out and please let me know if you’ve got more questions. Thanks!
I’m looking for a plugin that’s more of a “comparison search” than a review, although this looks close. My niche site could:
- compare products on “defineable” web sites, google, Amazon
based on keyword search, like fly rods, handlebars, etc
Any recommendations?
Thanks,
Brian
There is no plugin for WordPress currently that could do this for different niches. With MyReviewPlugin, you’ll have to add products manually to from Amazon, eBay, Commission Junction, etc. The plugin doesn’t connect with these services live to pull products and comparison metrics.
For Amazon and eBay specifically, you can try plugins such as phpBay, ReviewAZON, or WP Zon Builder. These can connect with Amazon and eBay live to search and pull products into your WordPress site.