Social proof is a valuable element for any website. Studies have shown that about 95% of customers read reviews before making a purchase. Others say they won’t even make a purchase until they’ve read reviews about the product/services or the business.
Even though you may have excellent marketing and promotion strategies, your target audience will choose to read the reviews of other customers. Their goal is to gain credible information on whether buying from your company is worthwhile or not. This is what makes social proof so valuable for your website and your business.
However, gathering social proof such as reviews and showing them on your site can be a problem. Reviews must be shown correctly on the site, and it’s also essential to ensure they stand out online.
Different Kinds of Reviews
Most people are not aware that there are different types of reviews. Some may be comments left on product pages by customers who were happy with the product and their buying experience. Others may take the form of videos or badges.
When you want your site to look credible, it’s imperative to choose the type of review that has the most impact on site visitors and customers. In most cases, it’s best to have a combination of different review types. Not only do they add depth to your site, but a combination of review types also increases SEO.
Testimonials
Testimonials are one of the most common types of reviews online. These are usually messages left by customers that share what they liked or didn’t like about a product or service. Testimonials may also include a picture of the person who wrote the review, along with their name. This gives their review more credibility.
Most testimonials are left at the bottom of product pages. These can also be showcased on your site’s homepage to create authenticity and trust when someone interacts with your site.
Review Badges & Widgets
Some customers may choose to leave reviews about your business on other sites, such as Yelp or Angie’s List. If so, you can add a widget or badge to your website that makes it easier for other customers to find these reviews. You can even include a button that says something like, “Find Us on Angie’s List.” It may also be possible to add the star rating left by the customer, too.
Some review sites also allow your business to show the actual review in a widget that regularly updates with new reviews.
If badges and widgets are used correctly, they should not slow your site down. And some of these can also be customised to fit your site’s style and branding. However, avoid using too many widgets on your site, or you will definitely see performance issues crop up, such as a site slowdown.
Case Studies
Case studies are another type of review that can bring in new leads. Case studies are documents that contain a large amount of information about how your company has worked with other companies. These usually take the form of a structured document that explains a customer’s problem and how you were able to help them with these issues.
Case studies may even exist on their own pages, making it even easier to share more in-depth information. However, it can be challenging to interview customers to create an in-depth case study. What’s more, all the statistics and data must be interesting; otherwise, site users and customers will avoid the case study completely.
The Rating
Five-star ratings are a basic type of review that’s also very common and popular with customers. This type of review allows customers to give you a rating, usually between 1 (the worst) and 5 (the best) to show how well they like your service and product.
You can create rating reviews with some basic CSS on your site or use a star-rating widget that automatically calculates your average score (based on the reviews you’ve received).
Star ratings are great; however, they are pretty basic. They’re not the best tool to convert and convince customers to buy your products. What’s more, many customers want more information than a star rating offers.
How to Display Reviews on Your Website
Now, you’re ready to determine how to display reviews on your website! For instance, you may want to allow your reviews to display on third-party sites. This can work best for hotels, restaurants, and other businesses. However, if you sell other products and services, you may want to consider some other ways to display reviews.
- Create a Testimonials Page
You may want to consider creating a testimonials page where you can display reviews and testimonials. This must be a page that’s easily found by customers, and it must contain all the information they want and need about your business.
The page could include a form at the bottom, where other customers could leave their reviews. It’s essential to use a CAPTCHA or another type of security measure to keep people from spamming your site.
- Show Reviews in Your Website Header
Another way to show reviews is on the website’s header. Placing reviews at the top of the page can increase credibility and lead your target audience to stay engaged with the page and the site.
You may want to include a picture of the person who wrote the review along with their name. This makes their reviews more credible, which is imperative when you’re building trust.
- Add Reviews to Social Media Ads
Another way to use your reviews is to add them to social media ads. This adds more interest to your ads. These can be effective when you use an attractive image on social media, along with a quoted review from a happy customer. This can make your ads that much more effective.
These are only a few of the ways you can use reviews for your website and business.
Summing It Up
The key to reviews is to use them effectively to show off your social proof. Collecting great reviews can be challenging; however, these are crucial to your website and business.
When you have positive reviews, the next step is to use them effectively. Show them off and display them in ways that draw attention and create credibility.
