Customer reviews are playing an increasingly important role in the decision-making process for customers, who, in the age of intense competition and an abundance of eCommerce options, are looking for evidence of the quality, credibility, and reputation of a business before hitting the ‘buy’ button.
Positive reviews help to establish trust and credibility, which in turn encourages potential customers to take action. They’re what every business wants. But even negative reviews can be valuable, in that they can identify weak points and help to make the business better. If you’re making mistakes, it’s best to know about them.
And since Google gives considerable weight to customer reviews, showcasing reviews on your website can also help to improve a website’s search engine rankings, leading to improved organic traffic.
This is all a long way of saying: reviews are important. If people know that others have had a good experience with your brand, then they’ll be more likely to become customers themselves. Indeed, social proof is so powerful that, in one study, it was found that people trust customer reviews almost as much as they do a recommendation from their friend.
You can unleash the power of reviews by showcasing them on your website. In this post, we’ll run through six different methods that WordPress users can use to do just that. Once you’re all set up, you’ll be putting your customer reviews to good work and improving the website experience for your visitors, among many other benefits.
How to display reviews on your website
Now we know why displaying reviews on your website is important, let’s take a look at how to do it.
To maximize the effect, it’s essential to display reviews in a user-friendly, well-organized, visually-appealing, and reliable manner. A handy plugin can help you do just that. WP Review Slider Pro is an effective tool for WordPress users to gather, display, and analyze their reviews. It’ll draw your reviews from more than ninety review sites, including Facebook, Google, and Tripadvisor, among others, ensuring that no review is left behind.
Take the following steps to add the powerful WP Review Slider Pro plugin to your website:
- Download the plugin.
- Install the plugin from your WordPress dashboard and press “Activate”.
- From within the plugin’s dashboard, download your reviews from various sites using the links on the left-hand side, and save them to your database.
- You can use the “Review Funnels” page to scrape all reviews from a list of available sites. You can also add reviews manually on the “Review List” page.
- All reviews will then show up on the “Review List” page.
- The “Templates” page will allow you to create a review slider or grid to display the reviews. All reviews will be shown by default, but you’ll also have the option to display only certain reviews if desired.
- Review badges can be created on the “Badges” page, and you can also solicit reviews by creating a review submission form on the “Forms” page.
- Looking to make a badge or review template float on your site? You can do so on the “Floats” page.
Method 1: Testimonial sliders
Testimonial sliders showcase testimonials or customer reviews in a rotating carousel format using dynamic elements. They’re especially recommended for displaying multiple reviews within a limited space in an engaging and visually appealing manner.
The two primary benefits of testimonial sliders are:
- They’re a compact and efficient way to display multiple customer reviews, helping to maximize screen real estate.
- They’re dynamic and interactive by nature, helping to capture the visitor’s attention and encouraging them to read multiple reviews.
You can easily add testimonial sliders to your website with the WP Review Slider Pro plugin. You can see how the plugin looks in practice on the Abridge Academy website, also pictured below. Note the buttons on either side that will present the visitor with new reviews.
Want to only display a single review at a time? You can highlight your excellent reviews by showcasing each one on its own in slider format with WP Review Slider Pro, as the below image shows, on the Aloha Hawaiian Vacations website. You can then toggle through single-view reviews using the arrow buttons.
Method 2: Review grids or masonry layouts
Want to dazzle your visitors with your brilliance? Then let review grids or masonry layouts do the work for you. This method displays reviews in a staggered or grid-like manner, allowing businesses to showcase many reviews simultaneously. They allow for ratings, excerpts from reviews, and accompanying images.
The two primary advantages of this method are:
- It’s highly organized and allows for the presentation of multiple reviews in a visually appealing way.
- It makes the most of website space. With grids or masonry layouts, visitors can quickly browse multiple reviews at once without interrupting their overall website experience.
WP Review Slider Pro allows business owners to showcase their customer feedback to their website visitors using this method. In the below example from Casa Leta Suites, you’ll see this method deployed to showcase TripAdvisor reviews.
Method 3: Video testimonials
eCommerce business owners can attract potential customers by making the most of video testimonials, which provide an authentic, engaging, and trustworthy way to showcase customer experiences.
It’s a method that allows business owners to tap into aspects not typically available by text reviews, such as tone of voice, powerful storytelling, and facial expressions, that convey trust and credibility.
Two key highlights of video testimonials are:
- Video testimonials tend to be more personal and are better at creating an emotional connection with website visitors, making them particularly effective at impacting the decision-making process.
- They provide an opportunity to present customer stories and experiences in a dynamic and compelling way.
You can upload video testimonials directly within WordPress. There are also plugins such as Easy Video Testimonials that can help, allowing customers to record and send video testimonials right from their browsers. You can then manage and display the videos anywhere on your WordPress site.
Method 4: Aggregating reviews
Have great reviews over multiple review sites? Review aggregation can collect and showcase reviews from various websites/sources/platforms and display them in a single location on your website.
It’s an effective way to give your website visitors a more comprehensive overview of your customer feedback, which ultimately helps them to make a more informed impression of your business.
Two of the primary benefits of review aggregation include:
- It’s time effective for customers since it consolidates reviews from various websites. There’s no need for customers to visit multiple review sites.
- It increases brand credibility and trustworthiness since it typically provides a broader range of views and experiences.
You can use WP Review Slider Pro for review aggregation. You can draw reviews from Google, Yelp, Google, Facebook, and more, and display them in a unified and organized manner.
Check out how White Sail Inn utilizes the plugin to see how review aggregation works in practice: here, you can easily view both Tripadvisor and Google reviews in the same place. Badges for both Tripadvisor and Google showcase credibility, further acting as social proof.
Method 5: Interactive review widgets
Looking for a way to both solicit and showcase your views? Then interactive review widgets could be just what you’re looking for.
Interactive review widgets are tools that allow your website visitors to leave reviews directly on your website (as opposed to a third-party review site). They encourage engagement and participation and can play a vital role in the overall review ecosystem.
Two of the primary benefits of adding interactive review widgets to your website are:
- They provide a platform for visitors to share their experiences, helping to increase engagement and instill a sense of community.
- They help businesses to collect feedback, which they can use to improve their understanding of customer preferences and improve their products/services.
You can use WP Review Slider Pro to add interactive review widgets to your website. These integrate seamlessly into your WordPress website, providing a convenient space for your visitors to share their experiences.
Check out how Elite Hail Systems use WP Review Slider Pro to showcase when someone leaves them a 5 star review in handy widget format.
Method 6: Testimonial blog articles
Finally, you can use testimonial blog articles to share your customer reviews. These are articles placed on the blog section of a website that offers in-depth details of the customer experience, allowing for detailed explanations of success stories.
Two of the primary benefits of using testimonial blog articles are:
- They allow for more detail. Rather than relying on review snippets, businesses can talk at great length about the customer’s experience, using an engaging and comprehensive narrative.
- The format allows businesses to discuss pain points, how they provide solutions, and all-around enhance their credibility.
You can see a great example of testimonial blog articles in action by heading over to Codecamedy’s blog, where they share different stories and accomplishments of the learners that use their platform.
Wrapping up
Reviews can be hugely beneficial to a business, but only if the customer can easily see, read, and understand them. If you’ve got a string of 5-star reviews, then put them to work!
By displaying reviews and testimonials on your website, you’ll be heavily influencing the customer’s decision-making process, and all-around building your brand’s trust and credibility.
The methods we’ve outlined above will help to provide social proof and valuable insights that push your brand forward.
If you’re ready to unleash the power of customer reviews on your website, then be sure to download the WP Review Slider Pro plugin, which makes the process of showcasing reviews as straightforward as possible. What are you waiting for? Get started with WP Review Slider Pro today!
