The Best Way to Show Reviews in WordPress
Reviews & why they're important
Over the last 5 years reviews have become a staple part of the consumer shopping process. Online tools now allow us to see deeper product or brand information before we make a commitment. Amazon has capitalized on this by creating a marketplace buzzing with reviews for all to see. Google also makes it very clear that they like businesses with consistent reviews. Ask any SEO expert about the benefit of reviews for your local pack placement – it’s a pretty important box to check. We can probably all agree that in today’s world, reviews are important. Having them prominently placed on your page or footer can really help drive trust and build your reputation – not to mention the Rich Snippet benefits and SEO boost you’ll get. Â
Ok, we like reviews – now what? There are so many tools, so many platforms, where do you start?
One tool to rule them all
There are quite a few WordPress “review” plugins out there. We’ve tried just about every one of them. If you’re brave you can attempt to integrate every network yourself using their built-in widgets, apps & scripts – but we don’t recommend doing that for a variety of reasons. It will drain the life out of you. No need to go through the same headache for Facebook, for Google, etc. just to get your reviews into your site. Then you’d have to deal with customization, styling (if it’s not an iFrame), and getting them to look right bunched together.
Our favorite plugin to streamline this process so far is WP Review Slider. We love their dev team (very responsive) – and their plugin just seems to work out of the box – no extra code needed, integration is straightforward and the built-in styles look nice.
Check out the features that make this plugin a delight to use:
Versatile integration
Manage all of your reviews
Extensive template options
Badges for aggregate ratings
Gather reviews directly on your site
This is a brand new feature which we haven’t fully explored yet – but it looks extremely promising for individuals hoping to capture reviews directly on their site. These wouldn’t publish to the networks, of course, but they would provide another means to gain testimonials and client feedback.
Get notified of bad (or good) reviews
Great support
We’ve had a few questions regarding the plugin caching and background tasks that were answered promptly and thoroughly. It’s both well supported and documented.
Free versions
If you just want to test it out – grab one of the free versions below (unfortunately, the free versions require a new plugin for every network – the paid version gives you all in one).
Paid version
Scroll down to the blue section 🙂
