The Review Widget can display both 1st and 3rd Party reviews left by your customers. Displaying customer ratings and 1st-party reviews (testimonials) on your website provides you with a big marketing advantage. Combined with 3rd party reviews from your online review sites, like Google and Facebook, your business can gain additional credibility.
The Review Widget allows you to select what types of reviews you want to display.
1st-party Reviews only: The classic view. Your widget will display 1st-party reviews (testimonials), marked up with review schema to try and obtain stars in the search results.
1st-party & 3rd-party Reviews: This option lets you display all of your reviews together. See your 1st party reviews (testimonials) mixed in with your 3rd-party reviews (Google, Facebook, etc.) in order by date. The widget will also display filters to a customer viewing your website, in case they want to only view one review site’s reviews. It’s important to note that ONLY your 1st-party reviews are marked up with review schema, so 3rd party reviews will not be part of the totals and rating displays (to stay within Google’s guidelines for schema).
3rd-party Reviews only: You can now display all of your reviews from your online review sites (excluding Yelp). This version of the widget does NOT include review schema (it’s against Google’s schema guidelines). The review total and rating average are only from your 3rd-party reviews.
Tip! The above guidelines for 3rd part reviews come from Google’s guidelines on review schema. You can’t apply schema to 3rd-party reviews, as they are already marked-up on the sites they originated from.
In addition, we've added refined options to manage the review content that appears, and the overall appearance of the widget itself, such as:
Auto display of 1st-party reviews: Automatically display content in your widget if it’s above the rating setting. (You still have individually control from your Customer Dashboard or Profile too).
Auto display of 3rd-party reviews: Automatically display reviews in your widget if it’s above the rating setting.
Number of reviews to show per page: This controls the pagination of how many reviews appear before creating a 2nd page (or more) in the widget). Setting it to “7” will show seven reviews in the widget before generating a new page in the widget.
Widget placement: You need to enter the URL of the page where you have placed the review widget. This is needed for Google schema guidelines, especially if you are going to use our Badge Widget or create Tag Widgets. You will also set the text that the link displays for the Badge or Tag Widget by completing the Link Anchor Text field (or using our default of “View Reviews”).
Layout Options
Vertical Layout
The Vertical Layout is ideal for any page that includes a sidebar or other split layout to seamlessly integrate on your landing page while displaying review content and testimonials.
Horizontal Layout
Neatly incorporate reviews on landing page using the horizontal layout, it’s compact design makes it easy to insert between paragraphs or in a section of its own to create rich content, while helping to reinforce your brand’s messaging with real customer experience.
Full Page Layout
Create a dedicated landing page for all your reviews and testimonials by using the Full Page Layout to showcase your feedback. With this design visitors will see a bar graph indicating the distribution of all your star ratings, which gives this style an additional visual impact, as well as an extra area to add customized content.
Data Only
The Data Only option allows you to choose what review content you wish to display, and then provides you with a data only feed allowing you to fully customize your own layout. This is a great option for businesses who want full control on how data is displayed, and for those who are tech savvy to create the code necessary for the additional functionality they desire.
Customize the Design of the Review Widget
In addition to managing the review content that appears, you can customize the look and feel of the widget to match the colors and font styles used within your business website and choose what content areas to include.
Options include:
Add a Feedback Button: Enable your customers to “Give Feedback” at a click from the Review Widget and engage them in the feedback process. It’s a simple ON/OFF toggle.
Button Color: Customize the color of your button to match your brand colours and website design by entering a hex number.
Button Font Color: Select the text color that “Give Feedback” displays in.
Display Social Share Buttons/Review: Add the ability for users to share a specific review to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ with one click.
Social Share Image: This image displays on social media sites when a review is shared. Some social media sites show this image and some do not.
Display Links to Review Sites (Vertical and Full Page Layout Only): Turning this option on will show links to the review sites that you are request reviews on, and allows consumers to click the links and leave you a review.
Intro Paragraph Content (Full Page Layout Only): Tell consumers that you value feedback and invite customers to leave a review by adding unique brand messaging to your widget. Font and font size, weight, and color can be adjusted using Advanced Settings with this feature.