Using customer testimonials on your website is an excellent way to keep users engaged. However, many are unaware that the placement of those testimonials can drastically change how effective they are.

A successful website should have a dedicated testimonial page for customer reviews. However, testimonials should also be strategically placed throughout the website. The best places for testimonials are on the home page, the products/services pages, or high-traffic pages that are relevant.

Whether you are just starting a website or have been running one for quite some time, testimonials are crucial to gaining credibility and watching your site grow and succeed. Read this post to learn more about different types of testimonials, how to get them, and where to place them on your website for the best results!

What is a Testimonial?

 

A testimonial is a formal statement of satisfaction from a past buyer and is often used interchangeably with the word review.

Testimonials are given by clients and are shared to add credibility to a company as a form of social proof. Many can be seen on a company’s website or during ads for a certain product (Source).

Although they are not used as often as they should be, customer testimonials are a great way to sell. Your customers become your best asset for continuing success and business growth by putting up a few testimonials on your website.

The main purpose of a testimonial, like a testimony shared in a courtroom, is to encourage and influence; sharing an authentic perspective to highlight something/someone in a positive light.

Having a testimonial of any kind will almost automatically make your website gain a good reputation and seem more reliable online. Just like how having zero reviews can make any website and/or product look fishy. Think about all the times you have consulted customer reviews and product pictures before you decided to buy a product.

If there were no reviews of a product that you were looking to buy on a website, would you have purchased that product from there? Maybe, but now imagine there was another website that did have reviews. Wouldn’t you rather buy from the one with reviews rather than the one without?

Testimonial Types & Social Proof

 

Because it’s always a good idea to have reviews, let’s go over the different types.

To promote your site’s success, add consumer:

• Quotes or Text
• Audio Recordings
• Videos
• Interviews
• Star Ratings (out of five)
• Case Studies
• Social Media Posts, Comments, Content.
• Press Reviews (similar to a quote, but given by a newspaper/article/blog)
• Influencer Reviews (using authority and fame to show company status/integrity)
• In-Action (show a video/ photo gallery of your product “in-action”)

Having multiple types is great.  Videos are the best. Depending on your product or service, having the client record them themselves without a script and share them on their own social media via your website is one of the best ways to promote your site.

Regardless of the kind of testimonial(s) you use, they all have got to be inspirational, visually engaging, specific, and most importantly, authentic. People can tell the difference between a scripted sponsorship and a review that was written freely.

• Inspirational

Testimonials do not need to be moving potential customers to tears, but enthusiastic and supportive reviews will help others see your business as a potential place to purchase a product, rather than a company that simply exists to sell items.

• Visually Engaging

How a testimonial looks is almost as important as what it says. (Source)

If you put a photograph of the person who gave the testimonial below the written testimonial or review, then it makes the customer feel like a real person actually wrote it because they wanted to, and not like a bot or a hired person created it because they had to. While the photograph does not have to be of the person who gave the testimonial, especially because they may not want their photograph to be put on a website, it does help the company seem reliable if it is of the person who gave the testimonial. If the person in the photograph seems like they are approachable and trustworthy, then their testimonial is more likely to be read and influence the reader.

If you are using a video testimonial, make sure that the person speaking is the main focus of the shot, professional-looking, and is in the center of the shot. This calls the viewer’s attention to the person speaking, rather than the other items in the shot.

• Specific

When a testimonial is detailed, it adds to your business’ credibility and reliability in a consumer’s eyes.

It shows a level of confidence in the product that a customer has, and promotes that same exuberance in potential clients. It helps bring awareness to a product/service and could increase target audiences’ interests.

If possible, statistics are also helpful and expand trust in prospective buyers. People love to see good numbers and rely on them to make decisions about products.

(Speaking of statistics, around 90% of customers say that the reviews of a product on a website influenced their shopping.)

Where to Put Testimonials

 

Where you put testimonials should depend on where visitors spend the majority of their time on your site, as well as the purpose of each page.

While it is important to include testimonials on product pages to show how a product may work, many people base their testimonial placement on their website pages’ specific traffic patterns*.

*Side note: Take a look at your website’s data. If you are using software programs like Crazy Egg and other various applications, you can view where consumers/website visitors spend most of their time on your site. This is handy because then you can make sure to add testimonials on the pages with the most visitation or add a link to where the reviews are.

Testimonial Page

One of the first aspects to establishing credibility is showing potential customers the proof of satisfaction from previous customers. So, where the easiest place to put said testimonials? A testimonials page.

Dedicating a whole page to customer reviews makes the reviews accessible and user-friendly. Potential consumers might even find it “company confident” to allow a whole section of past reviews.

You can label this page as “Testimonials”, “Reviews”, or something more unique like “Customer Stories”. Whatever name you give your testimonial page, make sure there is no confusion about the content that is stored there. Visitors to your website will not expect to find customer reviews on a page titled “Help.” If your reviews/testimonials page is labeled as something different, then the consumer will exit the website quickly, and will not purchase anything from your company because they do not believe your company to be trustworthy.

While including a page exclusively for customer testimonials seems to be the best idea, these reviews can and should be used throughout your company’s website.

Homepage

Your website’s homepage is one of the pages on your company’s website with the most traffic. It is the first thing that consumers see, and it is the page that most influences whether or not the consumer will continue looking for an item on your company’s website.  To learn more about the importance of your homepage and what else you should place there with testimonials read this post I wrote.

Using customer testimonials on your website’s homepage is an excellent way to show as many visitors as possible the credibility of your company and the products or services that it sells. The more credible and organized your website feels, the more likely users are to explore the rest of the site.

Not sure where to put the testimonials on your homepage? No need to worry.

Testimonials can fit almost anywhere on the page. However, to get the most involvement with the least amount of mindless scrolling, place your testimonials in what the graphic design world calls “the hero image”. A hero image is a large, banner-like image on a page. This image is usually the highlighted picture, standing front and center.

In place of a static, non-moving hero image, you could even include a slideshow of images, each featuring different customer reviews. Not only does this create immediate recognition of credibility, but it reduces the amount of space testimonials take up on the homepage.

If you already have content for the hero image of your page, or do not like the look of testimonials there, place these customer reviews about halfway down the page or near the bottom. Placing them in the middle of a homepage or after the fold is where most people will look for testimonials anyway.

Products or Services Page

The products or services page is potentially one of the most important places to include testimonials on your website.

Before people purchase a product or service online, they prefer to read customer reviews to both verify credibility as well as get an idea of what they’re paying for.

Without a quality testimonial section, viewers may choose to purchase said product/service elsewhere.

If you have testimonials for specific products, be sure to include those below the actual product on the page. However, if that specific product has yet to be reviewed, include testimonials for similar products so customers can get an idea of the benefits of a similar product/service.

About Us Page

Because customers are already looking at your “About Page” to learn more, this can be a good page to add some testimonials.

This can help them see what you do and how you do it, it can help potential customers feel better about putting trust in you and your product/service because others have testified that you deliver on your promises.

Calls to Action

More like a pop-up than an actual page, “call to action pages” could be another good spot to place a testimonial.

Usually, a call to action has a sign-up/subscribe button or form to fill out for the given service, and some websites leave a small testimonial here to encourage consumers to finalize a purchase and/or subscription.

Ultimately though, where the testimonials go on your website will depend on the specific content and mission of your site.

How to Get Testimonials

 

There are a few different ways to go about getting customer testimonials, but the top three methods are via:

• Social Media Platforms
• Emails
• Surveys

Social Media

Millions of people post about their favorite products every day.

A way to find these results would be to search up your company’s hashtag. (ex: #myfabletics) Looking this way, you can decipher if these are the kinds of testimonials you are looking for for your website.

If they are, you can add an Instagram/ Twitter (whatever social media platform used) section to your website, similar to an embedded link.

Email

A lot of companies send out an automated email after every purchase, asking customers to share their experiences with the site and/or company.

If an automatic send-out isn’t preferred or if you haven’t delved into that quite yet, sending out an email to recent customers can be just as beneficial. *(Note: send out personalized emails during office hours so consumers know it’s not a security threat).

If you are having a hard time thinking up what to say in an email like this, here’s a start:

Dear Valued Customer,

We thank you for visiting our site!

We are always looking to improve and would benefit from your feedback. If you have a few minutes to spare, we would love to hear what you love about our store and/or what you think could use some refining.

Thank you again, and we hope to hear about your experience.

Company/ Website Name

Depending on what level of professionalism you’re looking for, you can loosen up the language or make it a bit more direct. Whatever the case, emailing current customers about feedback is a great way to get authentic testimonials.

Survey

Like an email, surveys can be sent out after a customer purchases a product or service.

Sometimes customers seem overwhelmed by the idea of coming up with the right words to say in a testimonial-type email, but few would mind taking a two-minute survey. (Multiple choice is always easier than essay questions, right)?

In a survey setting you can ask “on a scale from 1-10” questions, “Yes, No, Not Sure” questions, or maybe even “How would you rate blank” questions using five stars as the standard.

For example: “On a scale from 1-10, how would you rate our product?” Or “Did you take a look at our Customer Review page before ordering?”

Surveys like this can be easier and “less-stress” for customers than an email or social media post. Whatever the case though, reaching out to customers to ask for critique and support shows you care about the company and its consumers. Not only does it help you to find things to fix, but it may just get you those testimonials you’re looking for for your site!

If you would like to see more examples of testimonials on other websites, go here, or go to any website that sells products, and look for the reviews.