How to add a new review

The Review workflow is the core of ToolPlaybook. Publishing a review takes ~10-15 minutes once you know the fields. Every field the design uses is exposed in the Review metabox — no plugin required.

Quick version (for someone who's done it before)

1. Reviews → Add New
2. Enter the tool's name as the title (e.g. GoHighLevel)
3. Assign at least one Review Category (right sidebar)
4. Fill the Review data metabox — every field is optional but the more you fill in, the more the single-review page has to show
5. Set a Featured Image — becomes the tool logo (square works best)
6. Publish

The review immediately appears at /reviews/<slug>/, the reviews archive /reviews/, and — if it's the highest-scored — the homepage hero.

---

Field-by-field walkthrough

Open Reviews → Add New. The main editor works like a normal WordPress post. Below the editor you'll see the Review data metabox.

An existing review with data filled in looks like this — this is what the Review data metabox looks like once you've completed it:

Basic identity

• Title — the tool's name. Used everywhere (hero, cards, breadcrumb).
• Excerpt (Screen Options → Excerpt checkbox to enable) — the "Overview" paragraphs on the single-review page.
• Post content (main editor) — the "Full review" deep-dive paragraphs (use bold headings like Setup & first impressions. at the start of each paragraph).

Scores & headline text

• Overall score — number 0-10, one decimal (e.g. 9.2). Drives the big score everywhere.
• Star rating — integer 1-5.
• Short verdict — one-liner shown on cards + sidebar (e.g. "Best all-in-one for agencies that want one bill and white-label resale").
• Hero verdict (optional) — punchier version for the homepage hero if the short verdict is too long (e.g. "Best all-in-one for agencies that want one bill.").
• Verdict paragraph — full paragraph shown in the dark verdict box at the bottom of the review.
• Verdict tagline — small text next to the big score in the dark box. HTML <br> allowed for line breaks.

Meta on the review header

• "Best for" tagline — neutral pill next to the tool name (e.g. Best for agencies).
• Extra tags — one per line. Free-form tags shown alongside the taxonomy category (e.g. CRM & automation).
• Hours tested — right-column meta (e.g. Hands-on: 40+ hours).
• Last tested — right-column meta (e.g. Jun 2026).
• Reviewer name — right-column meta (defaults to the post author's name if blank).

Sub-ratings (drive the animated bars)

Six values, each 0-10:

• Ease of use
• Features
• Value
• Support
• Integrations
• Onboarding

These render as horizontal bars that animate on scroll — the bar width is value / 10 * 100%.

Best / worst short takes

• Best thing about it — one-sentence green card
• Worst thing about it — one-sentence red card

Pros / cons

• Pros — one bullet per line. Displays in the "What we liked" column (all lines shown).
• Cons — same, "What held it back" column.
• Pros — short form for cards (optional) — 2 lines. Used on the review cards on the homepage/archive if provided. If empty, the first two full-form pros are used.
• Cons — short form for cards (optional) — same.

Pricing table

Pricing rows is a repeater. Click + Add row to add each plan:

• Plan name — e.g. Agency Unlimited
• Price — plain text. To render $97 big with /mo in smaller text, use format $97/mo.
• Who it's for — one-line description
• Highlight this row — check to give the row the indigo background (the "featured" pricing tier)

Pricing footnote (optional)

Small grey paragraph shown under the pricing table (e.g. "Prices are illustrative. A 14-day trial is typically available; annual billing usually discounts ~2 months.").

"Best for / skip it if" rows

Repeater. Each row:

• Who — audience label (e.g. Marketing agencies, Skip it if…)
• Why — explanation

Alternatives

Repeater. Each entry:

• Alternative name
• Score — e.g. 8.7
• One-liner — short description
• Link URL (optional) — if set, the card becomes clickable

Screenshots

Repeater. Each entry:

• Image attachment ID — the ID of an uploaded image in Media Library. Leave empty for a placeholder glyph.
  • To find an image's ID: Media Library → click the image → the URL contains item=<ID>.
• Caption — short label under the screenshot

FAQ

Repeater rendered as the accordion at the bottom of the review. Each entry:

• Question
• Answer

Affiliate CTA

• Affiliate URL — where the CTA buttons link to. The theme auto-adds rel="nofollow sponsored noopener" and target="_blank".
• CTA button label — e.g. Start a GoHighLevel trial.

Homepage ordering

The homepage's hero scorecard and "Top-scored tools right now" grid both sort by Overall score (descending) automatically. Raise the Overall score on a review to bump it up. No manual ordering field to set.

---

Publishing checklist

Before hitting Publish:

• [ ] Overall score set (otherwise the hero/card looks broken)
• [ ] At least one review category assigned
• [ ] At least 2 pros + 2 cons (they show on cards)
• [ ] Verdict long paragraph set (shows in the dark box)
• [ ] Affiliate URL set (otherwise the CTA links to the homepage)
• [ ] Featured image set (tool logo)

Once published, load the URL /reviews/<your-slug>/ and check that every section renders. If a section is empty (e.g. no FAQ), the theme silently skips it — nothing looks broken.

---

How the homepage picks a "featured" review

The hero scorecard automatically shows the review with the highest Overall score. If you publish a new review that scores higher than the current featured one, the hero updates on the next page load.

The "Top-scored tools right now" grid and the "Featured reviews" sidebar on blog posts both use the same score-DESC ordering. There is no manual override — score is the only lever.

---

Managing published reviews

Reviews → All Reviews — the standard WordPress list table, with the tool name, category, and publish date as columns.

---

Managing review categories

Reviews → Categories — same UI as blog categories. Six terms are seeded on theme activation:

• CRM Software (crm)
• Email Marketing (email)
• SEO Tools (seo)
• Funnel Builders (funnels)
• Form Builders (forms)
• Project Management (pm)

You can add, rename, or delete categories freely — the archive URL is /reviews/category/<slug>/.