How to Add Google Reviews to Website (for Dummies)

Importance of Embedding Google Reviews on Your Website

When a new visitor lands on your website, they need some proof of your credibility.

Social proof is standard practice on websites. That includes reviews and testimonials from customers, logos of existing customers, case studies, numbers, and so on.

The purpose of social proof is to establish trust between your business and potential customers.

When the prospects see that your business is trusted by other people, they are more likely to convert into paying customers.

Embedded Google reviews are the easiest way to implement social proof on your website. It can be done in no time at all, and often for free.

Additionally, most people read reviews before making a purchase decision. If you don’t offer them on your website, they will find comments from current customers elsewhere.

Embedding Google reviews has further benefits, like 

• Improving your SEO performance (you can rise in the Google search results as well as get a better click-through rate), 
• Providing useful information for potential customers, and 
• Adding a visually appealing element to your website
• Increasing time spent on the page, as you provide relevant content

In other words, adding reviews on your website can improve your search engine visibility, trust in potential new customers, and add credibility. All these factors then add upto getting you better conversions from your web page.

Where to use Google reviews?

As stated, when people land on your website, they need to see positive Google reviews to realize that you are a trustworthy business.

Thus, landing pages and home pages are the most important places where you should add Google reviews.

Some people like to create a separate review page, which is a nice addition.

One further way to utilize Google reviews is to show popups to your website visitors. You’ll learn more about this option later in the article.

Now, let’s look at three different ways of displaying Google reviews on your website.

First of All: Have Google Reviews!

If you don’t have Google reviews yet, it’s about time to start collecting Google reviews!

The first thing you have to do is get your company a business profile, which enables your customers to find you on Google maps.

After that is done, your customers can leave reviews whenever they want.

However, when you don’t actively ask for reviews, you are more likely to get negative reviews from unhappy customers.

It’s rare for people to leave reviews after yet another “okay” or “just fine” interaction with a business. Usually, it takes an exceptionally amazing experience (or a negative one). That is thanks to the peak-end rule.

But when you take matters into your own hands and ask your customers to leave reviews, you will likely get more positive reviews.

In fact, over 70% of customers are willing to leave a review after a nice experience if the company provides an easy way to do so.

Get on asking for Google reviews! When you integrate it into your customer journey, you will see a continuous flow of new reviews.

Who knows, maybe the new reviews include some positive feedback as well.

Creating Google Review Widgets

Displaying Google reviews is best done with a dedicated Google review widget.

What is a Google Review widget?

Widgets are add-on elements that you create in one program (such as Trustmary) and add to your website.

A Google review widget is an application that helps you easily take your existing Google reviews and add them to your website with style.

Here’s an example of how such a review widget can look like:

How to create one?

With Trustmary, the process of adding Google reviews to your website is super easy, and your first widget is free.

You can import Google reviews, and Trustmary puts the best of the best into a dynamic widget. 

If you wish to customize your widget, it’s easy to do in the widget editor.

Anyone with website admin credentials can do it without the help of developers.

Whenever your marketing team is updating the website, they can easily add a Google reviews widget to the correct spot.

Now that we have gone through the basics, we can look at the three most popular ways to implement Google reviews on your website.

1. Google Review Widget HTML Code – Free

The most popular way of embedding Google reviews is using an HTML embed code. It’s also a free option.

Before you get scared of the technical term, I promised I would make this simple and in layman’s terms! Just keep reading.

What is HTML code?

HTML comes from the words “Hyper Text Markup Language”. It is a type of language that is used in styling and formatting web pages.

HTML is a standard markup language for all pages that appear in a web browser: such as this one.

For example, as I am writing this article on WordPress website builder, all the formatting, such as titles, bolded text, and hyperlinks, is made with HTML. 

Thanks to the user-friendly interface, I don’t have to write HTML myself, but it’s there, integrated into the WordPress editor.

Sometimes, I have to use HTML in order to embed an element to the blog, such as the survey at the bottom.

Here’s an example of what an HTML code for the survey looks like:

<div data-trustmary-survey= “2G_Hizn0g” data-p1=”00″ data-p2=”0000″> </div>

Looks complicated, but luckily, you don’t have to understand HTML any deeper if your goal is to embed Google reviews on your web page.

When you create a Google review widget, you will get an embed code somewhat similar to the above code snippet, and you only have to paste it to your website.

I repeat, here’s

How to Add Google Reviews to Website with HTML

1. You use a visual widget editor to create the review widget
2. Copy and paste the code to your website building platform
3. Hit update
4. And then you have Google reviews on website!

How to use Google review widget HTML embed code?

As you can see, when I pasted the above code snippet, nothing special happened.

That’s because I pasted it as “normal text”, not as HTML.

Here’s how to choose the right type of element on WordPress:

1. Find “Custom HTML” block and add it to the desired spot on the page.
2. Paste your HTML code into it.
3. Check what the element looks like in the preview.

The process should look similar regardless of the website builder you use.

In essence, all you have to do is copy and paste a piece of embed code! Could it be any easier?

If you want to get started right away, search for your business location here and create your widget in less than a minute:

2. Google Review Widget Popup: No Code Option

Despite the embed code being very easy, you might want to opt for a no-code-at-all option.

In that case, showcase Google reviews with a popup.

This option requires no HTML code. 

BUT! In order for this to work, you need to install a Trustmary tag in the head script of your website. You only need to do it once, so you can simply ask for a web developer to do it for you. After that, you can manage everything on your own.

If you want to skip this part and you are using a WordPress website, check out the next option.

What is a popup?

A popup is a small window that appears on your screen while browsing websites. Usually, they promote something or try to get you to leave your contact information.

Popups are an effective marketing tool. For example, one of our clients experienced a 60% increase in contact requests when they implemented a popup with reviews on their website.

Creating a popup with Trustmary

You can easily create popups in Trustmary by choosing your favorite template and editing it to your liking.

You can modify the colors, and texts, use a CTA button or a lead generation form, and of course display Google reviews for extra effectiveness. All this with an easy drop down menu.

Once you are happy with your design, navigate to “Add to website” and install the Trustmary tag (or ask someone to do it for you).

When the tag is installed, you can add unlimited widgets without having to worry about it again.

Next, go to “Targeting”. Here you can choose on which page or pages you want to use the popup.

Simply write in the URL of the page. 

If you want to add it to add pages, use the *-wildcard. For example, if I write in trustmary.com/*, the popup will show up on all the pages in the domain.

Another important thing to decide is the trigger when the popup is launched. You can show it immediately after entering the page, after a certain time, after the visitor scrolls down a certain amount of time, or upon exit intent.

You can configure other settings as well, but it might be difficult to navigate alone without previous experience. 

If you want to tap into the great benefits of popups, book a meeting with us and we help you get started.

3. Google Review Widget Plugin for WordPress

The third option is using a WordPress review widget plugin for adding reviews to your WordPress site.

What is a plugin and how can I find it?

A plugin is an add-on program for WordPress that adds functionalities to your website.

You can search for WP plugins here or directly from your WordPress admin panel.

Add Trustmary’s plugin by searching for Trustmary, or click here to access Trustmary’s reviews and testimonial widget plugin.

Follow these instructions and you will have the plugin set up in no time!

Embedding Reviews

After installing the plugin, you can embed reviews using each of the above methods.

You can either copy and paste the HTML code or configure popups for the website.

Benefits of Adding Google Reviews with the Plugin

This solution gets rid of the most challenging part of adding reviews to your website: installing the Trustmary tag.

While adding the tag is not difficult, some businesses might not have access to the head script and require help.

The plugin makes embedding review widgets accessible to anyone.

Additionally, after installing the plugin, you can access all your review widget codes inside WordPress. 

This means you don’t have to log in to Trustmary and find the widget if you want to add it to a new page.

Of course, you still have to create the new unique widgets in Trustmary.

Google Reviews on Website: 3 Examples

Lastly, I’d like to show you real-life examples of Google reviews on a website.

These three examples are picked among Trustmary users, who have installed a Google review widget on their website.

Each company has given a personal design for the widgets in Trustmary’s easy widget editor.

I recommend you click the “Source” link below the image to get a better view of the widget on the actual website! It also helps you see how the widget is fitted to the websites’ styles.

1. Clothing Store Google Review Widget

This men’s clothing store has created a widget with Google reviews. The colors fit the website’s style perfectly and the widget complements the website’s design.

2. Photographer Google Review Widget

This wedding photographer created a Google review widget with Trustmary and modified the font to fit the website’s style.

3. Masseuse Google Review Widget

This Shiatsu massage practitioner made the widget their own by personalizing the font and colors. They also feature their amazing 5-star average rating in the widget.

Conclusion: Embed Google Reviews Now

I’m the CEO of procrastination, but let me tell you: every day you don’t have a Google reviews widget on your website, you miss out on serious business.

If you click on the below “create widget” button now, you will have a free widget up on the website in less than 3 minutes. 

(We have video proof of getting it done in less than a minute, so I’m overestimating here 😉)

Further Reading

• 8 Branded Google Review Widget Templates
• 7 Top Reasons Websites with Customer Reviews Outperform Others
• Online Reviews: Statistics That Will Blow Your Mind [2022]

FAQ