What good are your reviews if nobody sees them?
Whenever possible, you should show them off on your site by using a review “widget” or badge. Many review sites offer them for the taking.
But review widgets and badges are more than flashy “trust” symbols. They can also:
- Encourage any current / past customers who visit your site to leave reviews
- Help with your barnacle SEO (because you’re linking to your listings)
- Add a little extra color and je ne sais quoi to your site
For the record, here’s what I’m talking about:
For the third part of my recent unofficial trilogy on more-advanced review strategy (see this and this), I’ve rounded up every piece of review bling I could find.
How many widgets / badges you can put on your site depends mostly on your industry and on where you already have reviews.
See which ones you can add to your site. Here are the links:
Angie’s List
Widget: http://www.angieslist.com/angie-badge/
Industry: Any
Avvo
Widget: http://www.avvo.com/partner_with_us/syndication
Industry: Legal
Cylex
Widget: http://bit.ly/1tYUsBR
Industry: Any
HomeStars
Widget: http://bit.ly/1ERKE4Y
Industry: Home-improvement
Martindale
Widget: http://bit.ly/1D6bPY2
Industry: Legal
Kudzu
Widget: http://www.kudzubizsuccess.com/?p=599
Industry: Any
SuperPages
Widget: http://www.superpages.com/ratings_badges/search_page.html
Industry: Any
TripAdvisor
Widget: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Widgets
Industry: Tourism and dining
Trulia
Widget: http://www.trulia.com/tools/ambassador/
Industry: Real estate
WeddingWire
Widget: http://www.weddingwire.com/shared/Widgets
Industry: Wedding-related
Wellness
Widget: http://www.wellness.com/docs/12761/wellness-provider-program
Industry: Health
Yelp
Widget: https://biz.yelp.com/bling/
Industry: Any
Zagat
Widget: http://www.zagat.com/business-owners/badge
Industry: Dining
Zillow
Widget: http://www.zillow.com/webtools/widgets/review-widget/
Industry: Real estate and home-improvement
A few notes:
You’ll notice I didn’t include paid review-encouragement systems – like CustomerLobby, DemandForce, or SmileReminder – although they do give you ways to showcase your reviews.
Didn’t see the site you wanted represented among the above widgets / badges? You can always create your own badges, which you link out to places where you’ve got reviews. That’s the only good way to show off your Google+ reviews, for instance. (If you do this, I suggest you have the links open into new browser tabs, so that you’re not making people leave your site.)
Use CrazyEgg or a similar tool to see how many people click on your review badges – or even see them in the first place. You may conclude that you should show off your reviews in the sidebar, or only on specific pages, or on this or that part of the page. Tinker around until your plan comes together.
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Am I missing any review widgets that you know of?
Do you use any widgets on your site? If so, which one(s) do you like?
Leave a comment!
