Client reviews: where to put them on your website
Posted on 28th April 2023
Client feedback matters: fact. From LinkedIn recommendations to reviews on Google, Facebook, TrustPilot and the rest, people will trust what a third party says about your business much more than they’ll trust what you say about it yourself!
According to a 2021 report, over 99.9% of customers read reviews when they shop online, whilst another poll revealed that 73% of consumers are more trusting of businesses with online recommendations. Reviews are especially important for local businesses, as the same poll found that 88% of potential customers check out testimonials for local services. A 2022 Brightlocal survey even showed that 49% of consumers trust local business reviews as much as personal recommendations from friends and family.
With all that in mind, bigging up your online reviews is a no-brainer for any business website. But where’s the best place to put them to make sure they get noticed without flogging potential clients over the head with an endless stream of testimonials? Here are our top 7 website locations for placing your reviews.
1. Home Page
Let’s start with the obvious. Most visitors to your site will arrive at the Home page, so it’s essential to make a good first impression. Seeing positive reviews straightaway will encourage newbies to read on and find out more about your products or services, and – hopefully – buy from you as a result.
However, the Home page also has other important functions to perform. You need to get the balance right between promoting reviews and communicating other key messages. If you have a real stand-out review, consider placing it within a hero image at the top of the page, so people see it immediately. It could be static or form part of a slider.
Another popular option is to have a dedicated testimonials slider part-way down the page. This often comes after your primary marketing messages and above the call to action. Depending on your website’s functionality, you could programme the slider to automatically pull the latest entries from a dedicated Testimonials page (see below) so it stays fresh. It may also be possible to stream reviews directly from a third-party site such as Tripadvisor – but this could mean any less favourable reviews being highlighted on your Home page.
Thirdly, you could have a side bar showing a few key testimonials, which could follow the reader down the page. Bear in mind that these don’t always show up that well on mobiles and tablets, though.
2. About page
Whilst testimonials shouldn’t dominate an About page, it’s always handy to include third party back-up when you’re talking about your business and why people should use your services. The best reviews to pick are those that reflect and build on some of the main page content, such as statements about your team’s friendliness, experience or expertise, or the quality and eco-credentials of the materials you use in your products.
From a design viewpoint, hero images and sliders also work well on an About page. You could also include links to your Testimonials page and third-party review sites under a headline such as ‘Check us out for yourself’ or ‘Don’t just take our word for it.’
3. Products and services pages
This is another area of your website where choosing the right reviews is critical, as they need to be relevant to the product or service you’re promoting. A well-placed testimonial with glowing feedback could be the tipping point that turns a prospect into a customer.
So, choose your very best recommendations for the product / service in question and put them in a prominent location, such as next to the pricing section. Or, if you have enough specific reviews, you could put them in a slider. Draw the reader’s attention with suitable review titles such as ‘Web design review’ or ‘Five-star SEO service’.
Don’t be tempted to pad out product and services pages with more general testimonials. The core aim of reviews on these pages is to push the reader off the fence and make a specific purchase. If you don’t have any recommendations for certain products or services, why not ask some happy customers to provide them?
4. Calls to action and Contact Us page
If a customer is in two minds about contacting you, a cunningly placed review offers a useful nudge. That’s why you often see them next to call to action buttons, giving the more hesitant prospect a compelling reason to get in touch.
For the same reason, putting a testimonial on your Contact page gives added impetus for people to pick up the phone or contact you online. Reviews emphasising your speed of service or saying how easy you are to deal with are good choices.
5. Thank you page
Leading on from the above, another good place to put reviews is on the ‘Thank you’ page that displays when a customer has filled in your online enquiry or quote form. A short testimonial or two will reassure them they’ve done the right thing by contacting your business and remind them why they should decide to work with you.
6. Testimonials page
If your website has a good scattering of reviews on its other pages, you may not want or need a dedicated page to house them. However, it’s worth considering as some people will jump straight to this page to check out what other people say about your business. That’s why many companies call their dedicated reviews pages ‘What our clients say’ or similar, to draw attention to the (hopefully) unbiased and objective feedback to be found there.
If you do have a dedicated page built, this is another place to add links to third party review sites and perhaps a summary of your average star ratings on Google, Trustpilot etc.
7. Relevant blog articles
If you’re writing blogs about your company in general, or specific products or services, it makes sense to include a relevant review or two to verify what you’re saying. Don’t over-egg the omelette, though. Just a couple of short customer quotes will be enough, or perhaps a video testimonial of a customer talking about or using the product or service you’re discussing in the blog.
A final tip: talk to your web designer.
If you’re not sure about the best places to put your reviews, ask your web designer. Here at it'seeze Nottingham, we’re full of ideas for displaying your testimonials and recommendations to maximum advantage in all the right locations on your website, helping you make a great first impression at every stage of the sales funnel.
Like to know more about it'seeze Nottingham’s web design services? Give us a call on 0115 7777 3001 or drop us a line and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.
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