Universal Google Reviews Widget (Free & Open Source)

A zero-cost, high-performance, and privacy-friendly alternative to paid Google Reviews widgets (like Elfsight).
Built for developers who want full control, no monthly fees, and zero impact on their site's initial load time.

Brought to you by AnouarLab.fr | SEO and CRO consulting.

🚀 Features

• 💸 100% Free: Uses your own Google API Key (within the free tier) + GitHub Actions for caching.
• ⚡ Universal: Works with React, Vue, Astro, WordPress, Shopify, or plain HTML.
• 🎨 Customizable: Native "Grid" and "Carousel" layouts. Supports Dark Mode.
• 🔍 S.E.O. Ready: Automatically injects LocalBusiness Schema.org JSON-LD for rich snippets.
• 📱 Responsive: Mobile-first design with masonry grid layout.
• 🌍 Multi-Language: Built-in support for 12+ languages (EN, FR, ES, DE, IT, JP, etc.).
• ✨ Premium Feel: Staggered fade-in animations and "Read More" truncation for long reviews.

📚 Documentation

Detailed documentation is available in the docs/ directory:

• 📦 Installation Guide: Step-by-step setup (Fork, Secrets, Embed).
• ⚙️ Configuration: API reference for attributes (src, theme, layout).
• 🧠 Advanced Usage: Custom CSS styling, manual JSON hosting, and troubleshooting.

🛠 How It Works

Unlike other widgets that hit the Google API on every page load (costing money and slowing down your site), this solution uses a Static Data Strategy:

1. The Backend (GitHub Actions): A scheduled workflow runs daily, fetches top reviews from Google, and saves them to a static reviews.json file in your repository.
2. The Frontend (Web Component): A lightweight custom element <google-reviews-widget> fetches that static JSON file and renders it. Zero API calls from your visitors' browsers.

🏗 Development

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Start local dev server & playground
npm run dev

# Build for production
npm run build

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

📄 License

MIT © AnouarLab.fr