Why is my score not my average, and where can I see how it adds up?
Updated · Getting started
Your score is a weighted average of your published reviews, not a plain one. A store with only 5-star reviews can score 4.9. Open Score in the dashboard to see exactly how yours adds up.
One number everywhere
The score on Score is the score on your store page, in your widgets, in Google's results for your store, and in the API. Overview shows it too. Nothing shows a plain average, so no two places disagree.
On your own WordPress site, widgets show the score from plugin version 4.5.0. Older versions work out a plain average from the reviews they hold. Update the plugin to match.
How it adds up
Each review carries a weight. The score is the stars times the weights, divided by the weights.
- A verified review counts in full. A review we couldn't match to an order counts 50%.
- A review counts half as much after 12 months, and half again after 24.
- Every store starts with 5 reviews of 3.5 stars that no one wrote. They hold a new store short of 5.0 until real reviews outweigh them.
Under How it adds up, the page shows each of those parts for your store, with your own counts and weights, and the division that gives your score. Your plain average sits beside the score, so you can see why they differ.
What moves it
What moves it tells you how many more verified 5-star reviews lift you to the next tenth, starting today, and lists the published reviews pulling the score down most. Each shows where the score would be without it. Nothing on this page changes a review.
In a year, with no new reviews is where the score drifts if nothing changes. Every review loses half its weight over 12 months, so a quiet year lets the starting reviews count for more.
Score over time
Score over time draws the score and the plain average at the end of each of the last twelve months, counting the reviews published today.
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