---
title: "Star ratings"
description: "How readers rate recipes, how votes are counted, spam protection, privacy and caching."
url: https://scrumptiouswp.com/help/ratings/
site: "ScrumptiousWP"
---

# Star ratings

Readers can rate a recipe from 1 to 5 stars right on the card. The average and the number of ratings show on the card, in the [Recipe Grid](https://scrumptiouswp.com/help/recipe-grid/), and in Google’s recipe data — which can show stars in search results.

## How it works for readers

1. Hover (or tap) the stars and click a rating.
2. The card shows *Thanks for rating!* with the new average.
3. Their rating is remembered in their browser. If they rate again, their earlier rating is **changed**, not added again.

No account, no comment and no email needed.

## One vote per person

Each visitor has one vote per recipe:

- Logged-in users are counted by their account.
- Everyone else is counted by a **one-way scrambled code** made from their IP address and a secret unique to your site. The real IP address is never stored.

To stop spam, each visitor can submit up to **30 ratings an hour** across all recipes. Beyond that they see *Too many ratings. Please try again later.*

## Imported ratings

Recipes imported from WP Recipe Maker, Tasty Recipes or Create keep their average and count. New votes are added on top. See [Importing](https://scrumptiouswp.com/help/importing/).

## In Google results

Recipes with at least one rating include an `aggregateRating` in their Google data. Google decides whether to show stars; ratings must come from real readers, which these do.

## Caching

If your site uses page caching, the average shown to **other** visitors may lag until the cached page refreshes. The person who voted always sees their result immediately. The number Google sees is always up to date in your database.

## Turning ratings off

**Recipes → Settings → Reader features → Star ratings**. Existing votes are kept, so turning it back on restores them.

## Privacy

See [Privacy and your data](https://scrumptiouswp.com/help/privacy/). In short: your database stores the rating, the recipe, the time, and either the user ID or the scrambled visitor code — no IP addresses and no cookies. The reader’s own browser remembers which rating they gave (in local storage) so the card can show it.

## Related

- [Reader features](https://scrumptiouswp.com/help/reader-features/)
- [Google recipe data](https://scrumptiouswp.com/help/google-recipe-data/)