Before I buy anything online, I always look for reviews from real customers.
Reading a good review makes me feel much more comfortable clicking the ‘buy’ button. That’s why I always recommend adding testimonials and reviews to your own WordPress website. It helps visitors feel that same confidence in you.
The hardest part is figuring out how to display those reviews. I’ve tried just copying and pasting them onto a page, but that took way too much time, and got messy very quickly.
After testing many different plugins and methods, I’ve found two excellent ways to add reviews to your WordPress site.
In this guide, I’ll walk you through both options – from building a custom testimonial page to automatically importing reviews from sites like Google, Trustpilot, and TripAdvisor. By the end, you’ll be able to pick the perfect approach for your business.
Why Display Social Proof? The Importance of Customer Reviews
As I mentioned, just copying and pasting reviews onto a page gets messy fast.
That’s why I use a dedicated testimonial plugin. A good plugin lets you add and manage your testimonials easily and display them in a clean, professional layout, such as a simple list, a formatted grid, or even a slider that rotates through different quotes.
I’ve spent time testing different tools, and I’ve found two excellent methods that I want to share with you in this post:
- SeedProd: This is a powerful page builder that includes a dedicated ‘Testimonial’ block. This is a great option if you want to design a custom landing page or homepage featuring all your best customer quotes. It gives you full control over the look and feel, so it’s also a good option if you have strict branding guidelines and need your testimonials to perfectly match your site’s unique design and visual identity.
- Reviews Feed: This plugin automatically pulls reviews from other sites including Google, Facebook, and Yelp. It’s a fantastic option if you already have a lot of reviews on these third-party sites and want a way to display them directly on your own WordPress website.
In this guide, I’ll show you how to set up both options so you can decide which approach is the best fit for your online business.
Method 1: How to Build a Custom Testimonial Page with SeedProd
For this first method, I’m using SeedProd, which is a popular page builder plugin. This means it lets you create detailed page layouts visually, without having to write a single line of code.
It’s a very popular tool, and I’ve seen it used to create a lot of different sites including the WP Charitable, Duplicator, and WPForms websites. Even the SeedProd website is designed using SeedProd.
I’m starting with SeedProd because it’s a great choice if you want to build a completely custom page for your reviews or testimonials, like a new homepage or a special landing page.
SeedProd comes with 90 ready-made blocks and more than 350 templates so you can easily create all kinds of custom pages in WordPress.
In my opinion, SeedProd is perfect for anyone who wants to add specific testimonials to their site, while ensuring they look exactly right. For example, you could use it to design a ‘What Our Customers Say’ page that matches your brand colors, fonts, and style perfectly.
Step 1: Setup SeedProd
The first thing I did was install and activate the SeedProd plugin.
A quick note here. While there’s a free version of SeedProd, I’m using the premium version for this tutorial since it includes a ready-made ‘Testimonials’ block.
I also noticed the premium plugin connects with many popular email marketing services, so it can help you capture leads and grow your mailing list. This lets you build trust and market to these contacts over time, converting even more visitors into paying customers.
After activating the plugin, you’ll need to enter the license key. To do this, just go to SeedProd » Settings in your WordPress admin menu and add the license key.
You’ll find this key by logging into the SeedProd website. It’s also included in the purchase confirmation email you got when you bought SeedProd.
Step 2: Create and Name Your Testimonials Page
With that done, you’re ready to build your page.
SeedProd is designed for creating new, custom pages, so for this guide I’ll be creating a dedicated landing page just to display my testimonials. However, the steps will be largely the same no matter what kind of page you’re creating.
To start, go to SeedProd » Landing Pages and click the ‘Add New Landing Page’ button at the top.
In the area that appears, go ahead and type in a descriptive name for your page.
I called mine ‘What Our Customers Say.’
Below the name, you’ll see a field for the ‘Page URL’. SeedProd automatically creates this for you based on your page title, which is helpful.
However, I still recommend taking a moment to check this. You’ll want a link that’s clean and easy to read, as this will help search engines and visitors understand what your page is about.
You can make any changes by typing directly in the ‘Page URL’ field.
Step 3: Select a Template from the Library
Once you’re happy with the name and URL, click the ‘Next: Choose Template’ button.
This immediately takes you to the template library. I was impressed by the number of professional designs available.
To help you find the right design, you can filter these templates by type, like ‘Sales’ or ‘Lead Squeeze’.
To select a template, just hover over that design and then click the small ‘Checkmark’ icon when it appears.
I’m using the ‘Thrifty Squeeze Page’ template in all my screenshots, but you can use any design you like. If you prefer to start from scratch, then SeedProd also has a blank template.
Step 4: Add Your First Testimonial
After choosing a template, SeedProd will open your design in its drag-and-drop editor. This screen is split into two parts, with a live preview of your design on the right.
On the left, you’ll see a panel with all the different content ‘blocks’ you can add to your page.
To add content to your design, just find a block in the left-hand menu and then drag it onto the live preview.
You can then click to select the block and make any changes in the left-hand panel. For example, you might add a Headline to your page, such as What Our Customers Say.
It’s also easy to edit images using the SeedProd page builder.
Just click on any ‘Image’ block and use the settings to add alt text, upload a new image, or make any other changes.
If you want to remove a block from your custom page, then simply click to select that block.
Then, click the trash can icon in the mini toolbar.
Since we’re creating a review page, scroll through the blocks in the left-hand panel to find the ‘Testimonials’ block.
Then, drag it to the area where you want to display your customer reviews.
After adding the block, you’ll notice that it contains a placeholder testimonial.
To edit this placeholder, just click to select the testimonials block. The left-hand panel will then update to show fields where you can type in the customer’s quote, add their name, and enter their title or company.
There’s also an area where you can add an image, such as their headshot or company logo.
Wherever possible, I recommend adding the customer’s photo and full name. Seeing a person’s real face and full details next to a quote makes the review seem more authentic and trustworthy.
Step 5: Display Multiple Reviews as a Slider
Do you want to display multiple reviews or testimonials in the same area? In that case, click the ‘Add Testimonial’ button.
This adds some new fields where you can type in your second review.
Simply repeat this step to add as many testimonials as you want. I added three to my page and was happy with the default look.
However, you can customize the slider by selecting the ‘Carousel Settings’ tab.
This opened a new set of options where you can change the slider speed and customize how the navigation arrows look.
You can also enable ‘Autoplay,’ which makes the reviews slide automatically.
After that, you can explore even more design controls by clicking the ‘Advanced’ tab.
These are completely optional, but I found them useful for fine-tuning the slider’s design. For example, I adjusted the spacing around the text to give it more room to breathe. I also experimented with changing the font colors.
This section also contains an ‘Animation Effects’ setting.
You can use this to add a simple animation, such as having the testimonial block ‘fade in’ or ‘slide up’ when it first loads. In my experience, a short animation is a great way to get the visitor’s attention.
Step 6: Publish Your Page
You can simply keep adding blocks and editing them until you’re happy with how the entire customer review page looks.
When you’re ready to publish, click the green ‘Save’ button in the upper-right corner and then select ‘Publish.’
After a few moments, SeedProd will display a success page.
To see your new testimonials page in action, click the ‘See Live Page’ button.
You’re now ready to start promoting this new page to your customers.
Method 2: Adding a Social Review Feed to WordPress (Automatic Method)
Now, let’s look at the second method, which uses the Reviews Feed plugin.
The SeedProd method I just covered is perfect when you want to manually add your favorite testimonials. However, sometimes you may already have a lot of reviews on other sites like Trustpilot, Google, and Facebook.
If that’s the case, manually copying and pasting all the testimonials from these other sites would take a lot of time. Plus, you’d need to constantly check those pages to find and add the latest reviews as they came in.
This is the exact problem that the Reviews Feed plugin is designed to solve. Instead of you typing in the reviews, this plugin connects directly to other accounts on sites like Google, WordPress.org, Yelp, and TripAdvisor.
It then automatically pulls your existing reviews right into your WordPress blog or website, and displays them beautifully.
This is already a good start, but to make things even better, Reviews Feed gets new reviews automatically and then adds them to your site. You don’t have to do any extra manual work.
The other thing that really impressed me was the styling. As soon as I added a feed to my demo site, it automatically matched my WordPress theme’s fonts and colors. It looked like a natural part of my site, rather than an out-of-place widget.
Reviews Feed also includes different layouts so I could display my reviews in a list, grid, or a carousel that rotates automatically through the latest quotes. This is perfect for showing lots of positive feedback in a small space.
Install and Activate the Reviews Feed Plugin
Let’s start by getting the Reviews Feed plugin set up on your site. I found this process to be very simple, so it shouldn’t take you long.
First, you’ll need to install the Smash Balloon Reviews Feed plugin. As always, check out our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin for full step-by-step instructions.
With that done, select Reviews Feed in the left-hand menu. You now can enter your license key into the ‘License Key’ field.
You can get this key by logging into your account on the Smash Balloon website, or in the email you received when you bought the plugin. After adding this information, click ‘Activate.’
Create a New Review Feed
With that done, select Reviews Feed from the left-hand menu, then select ‘Add New.’
This opens a helpful setup guide. The very first step is to add a ‘Source,’ which is the platform you want to pull reviews from, like Google or Yelp.
Go ahead and click the ‘Add New’ button to continue.
You’ll now see a popup with all the supported platforms. The exact process of adding a source will be different depending on the platform you’re using. For example, connecting to Google follows a slightly different set of steps compared to connecting to Yelp.
In this popup, select the platform you want to connect to. Then, click the ‘Next’ button.
From here, you’ll need to follow the specific instructions for your chosen platform. To help you out, I’ve outlined the different steps for each platform below.
1. How to Show Google Reviews
To start, I’ll walk you through the steps for Google, as it’s one of the most common platforms businesses use.
To connect to Google, Reviews Feed needs to know which business is yours. I found the easiest way to do this is by using a ‘Place ID’. This is just a unique code that Google assigns to every business location.
To find this ID, just go to Google’s official Place ID page and type your business name and address into the search bar.
When your business appears in the dropdown list, go ahead and click it.
You’ll now see a small popup on the map, with a unique ‘Place ID.’ Simply copy this code.
Now, go back to your WordPress dashboard and paste the code into the ‘Place ID’ field. With that done, just click the ‘Finish’ button to connect to Google.
2. How to Display TripAdvisor Reviews
When I looked into connecting to TripAdvisor, I found that it’s a bit different compared to other platforms.
To display reviews from TripAdvisor, you’ll need to get an API key. Unlike Google, TripAdvisor doesn’t offer a free key, so you’ll need to purchase access to their ‘TripAdvisor Content API’ in order to display your social proof.
If you decide to do this, head over to the TripAdvisor Developer’s API page and log into your account. If you don’t have one, you can sign up for free.
Once you’re in, navigate to the ‘Credentials’ section and click on ‘Create API key.’
You’ll have to fill out a form with your information, including your billing details, to complete the purchase.
After activating your key, you can copy it and then switch back to your WordPress dashboard. Here, paste the key into the Reviews Feed plugin.
However, you’re not quite done yet as you’ll need to restrict your API key so it only works on your website. This is a very important security requirement that you can’t skip.
For detailed step-by-step instructions, check out TripAdvisor’s documentation.
3. How to Display TrustPilot Reviews
Reviews Feed also supports Trustpilot, which is a review site where customers can leave star ratings and detailed feedback. I’ve seen a lot of online stores and service businesses use this platform, so I was happy to see that Reviews Feed supports it.
Connecting to Trustpilot was one of the easiest setups I tried. After selecting ‘Trustpilot,’ Reviews Feed simply asks for the URL of your Trustpilot page.
To get this, go to your Trustpilot page, copy the URL from your browser’s address bar, and paste it into the field.
After that, just click ‘Finish.’ That’s all it takes – my connection worked straight away.
4. How to Display Facebook Reviews
I also tested connecting a Facebook Page.
Many businesses use Facebook to talk to their customers, and many of those customers leave reviews right on the business page. That’s why it’s great that Reviews Feed supports it.
Plus, unlike Google or Yelp, you own your Facebook page. By displaying these reviews, you’re also reminding people to visit your Facebook page, so this can help you get more followers there, too.
Connecting to Facebook was very easy. After choosing it as my source, I simply clicked on ‘Connect with Facebook.’
The next screen gave me two options. I could connect directly or add an ‘API access token’ manually. I found the direct connection is the easiest and fastest way, so this is the method I’m going to show you.
To continue, click ‘Connect to Facebook.’
This will open a new Facebook window asking for your permission. You may recognize this page, as it’s the standard popup you see when you link any app to your Facebook account. It’s just asking you to confirm that this plugin has permission to see your Facebook pages.
To give this permission, click the button that says ‘Continue as [Your Facebook Username]’.
With that done, Reviews Feed showed me a new popup containing all the Facebook pages that are linked to my Facebook account.
Simply find the business page where you want to get your reviews from and check the box next to its name. After that, click the ‘+ Add Pages as Source’ button.
You’ll now go back to the main WordPress dashboard, where you’ll see a popup confirming that your Facebook page was connected successfully.
5. How to Show Reviews from Any Yelp Page
Yelp is very popular for local businesses and restaurants, but I also noticed that Reviews Feed doesn’t limit you to your own business page.
Since Yelp is a public site, you can get reviews from any business listing. I can see this being really useful if you run a business directory or you’re a blogger who is writing about restaurants in your local area.
While I think most users will connect to their own Yelp page, it’s nice to have the option.
After selecting ‘Yelp’ from the source list, the next screen was very simple. It just asks for the ‘Page URL.’
Just visit your business’s main page on Yelp, copy the URL, and paste it into Reviews Feed.
Finally, click ‘Finish.’ After a few moments, you’ll see a popup confirming that the source was added successfully.
6. How to Display Plugin and Theme Reviews
This next option is very specific, but it’s incredibly useful if you’ve developed a WordPress plugin or theme and published it on WordPress.org.
If you’ve published your work to WordPress.org, then Reviews Feed can get your reviews from these pages automatically. When visitors see real feedback from other WordPress users right on your product’s homepage, it’s a fantastic way to build trust.
After selecting WordPress.org as your source, Reviews Feed will ask for the URL of your plugin or theme’s listing on WordPress.org. Just note that you’ll need to copy the URL from the theme or plugin’s main page, and not a separate tab such as ‘Reviews’ or ‘Support.’
For example, the correct link for the WPForms plugin is https://wordpress.org/plugins/wpforms-lite/.
After getting this URL, paste it into the ‘Page URL’ field and click the ‘Finish’ button.
Moving to the Next Step
After connecting to your source, Reviews Feed takes you back to the ‘Add Source’ screen.
You’ll now see your new page or profile listed as an available source.
Click the checkbox next to that source, and then click ‘Next’ to continue.
Choosing a Review Template
Now, we get into the fun part! Reviews Feed will ask you to choose a starting template for your feed.
Reviews Feed has several professional-looking layouts, ranging from a simple list to an interactive carousel that slides through your reviews.
For my test, I chose the ‘Showcase Carousel’. I really like using this layout, especially on my homepage. It’s interactive, which can get the visitor’s attention, and it lets you show many great reviews without taking up a lot of space.
However, you can select any template you want to work with. After that, click the ‘Next’ button.
Reviews Feed will now open your design in its visual editor. It shows a live preview on the right and all the settings on the left. I love this setup because you can see all your changes instantly as you make them. It makes it very easy to try different options.
Straight away, I noticed that my feed already looked great. That’s because Reviews Feed automatically matches your theme’s fonts and colors, so it looks like a natural part of your site without you needing to do any work manually.
You can also customize almost every part of the feed, so let’s look at all the main settings that I recommend you use.
Adjusting Your Feed Layout
I like to start with the overall layout, so click on ‘Layout’ in the left-hand menu.
This is where you can choose between a ‘Grid’, ‘Masonry’, or ‘Carousel’ display. As you click each one, Reviews Feed will update the preview automatically.
I spent a few minutes trying out the different options to see which one looked the best for my page.
You’ll also find settings that let you adjust the spacing between the reviews, and change how many reviews the plugin shows at once.
If you picked the ‘Carousel’ layout like I did, you’ll also find the ‘Pagination’ settings here. This is where you can enable ‘Autoplay’ so the reviews scroll automatically, and change the autoplay speed.
When you’re happy with the changes you’ve made, click the ‘Customize’ link at the top of the left panel to return to the main settings menu.
Customizing the Review Header
The header is the section at the top of your feed. By default, it typically shows your average star rating and a ‘Write a review’ button. This is a great way to quickly show what customers think about you, while also encouraging visitors to leave you a review.
I like the header, but you can choose to hide parts of it, or even remove it entirely. To see these settings, click the ‘Header’ option.
To start, you can choose to hide the header entirely. This may be a good option if you have limited space, or your site has a simpler design and want your review feed to match that look.
To disable the header, click the ‘Enable’ toggle to turn it off.
Alternatively, you can remove just the ‘Write a review’ button by unchecking the box next to the ‘Button’ option.
This can be useful if you want to display your average star rating as social proof, but don’t want the clutter of an extra call-to-action. It’s also a good choice if you have a separate, dedicated ‘Review Us’ page and prefer to send all your visitors there, rather than directing them to a third-party site.
When you’re done, click the ‘Customize’ link to go back.
Styling the Individual Reviews
Now it’s time to style the reviews themselves, so select ‘Reviews’ from the main settings list.
Here, you’ll see two options: Post Style and Edit Individual Elements.
Post Style changes the container for each review. I clicked this option and was able to add a ‘Boxed’ style with a soft shadow and rounded corners. This really made each review stand out on the page.
Meanwhile, Edit Individual Elements controls what information appears in each review.
After selecting this option, you’ll see a list of checkboxes for things like ‘Author and Date’, ‘Rating’, and the ‘Review Paragraph’. If you don’t want to show a particular piece of content, then just uncheck its box and it’ll disappear from your review feed.
You can also click any of these elements to style them. For example, I clicked ‘Review Paragraph’ and increased the font size so the text was easier to read.
When you’re happy with how the individual reviews look, click ‘Customize’ to return to the main screen.
Configuring the ‘Load More’ Button
If you’re displaying your reviews in a list or grid, then you can add a ‘Load More’ button at the button of your feed. This lets visitors load more reviews and testimonials, which is handy if you have lots of reviews but still want to keep your page fast.
In that case, you can style this button by selecting ‘Load More’ from the left-hand menu.
You can now change the background color, hover state color, and the text inside the button.
Alternatively, you can remove this button by disabling the ‘Enable’ toggle.
Publish Your Testimonials and Reviews
This is the most important step: when you’re happy with how the feed looks, don’t forget to click the ‘Save’ button in the top-right corner.
Then, you’re ready to add the feed to any page or post on your site using the dedicated Reviews Feed block.
Just open any page or post inside the WordPress editor and then click the blue ‘+’ icon to add a new block. Next, start typing ‘Reviews Feed’ into the search bar.
When the right block appears, click to add it to the page.
If WordPress doesn’t show the right feed automatically, then open the ‘Select a Feed’ dropdown and choose the feed you want to display.
Now, the only thing left to do is publish or update the page as normal. And that’s it – the review feed is now live on your site!
A Few Other Tools I Use to Build Trust
Adding customer reviews is a fantastic first step, but building visitor trust is an ongoing process. This means it’s important to plan your next move.
After working with WordPress for so long, I’ve found a few other tools that perfectly compliment the plugins I’ve just covered. In this section, I’m sharing a few of my favorites that I think you’ll find just as helpful.
1. TrustPulse
The first plugin I’d recommend is TrustPulse. It focuses on a different type of social proof, which I’ve found works perfectly with a dedicated testimonial or review section.
While Reviews Feed shows what people thought in the past, TrustPulse shows what people are doing right now. It displays a small popup in the corner of the screen, showing actions visitors are taking on your site at that exact moment.
For example, it might say something like ‘Jane from New York just purchased this product’ or ‘John just signed up for our newsletter’.
I’ve used this popular social proof tool on my own sites, and it creates a really strong sense of urgency. It’s the same trust-building idea as reviews and testimonials, just in real-time.
2. WPForms
I don’t just wait and hope that people will decide to send me a review. In my experience, you’ll get a lot more feedback if you make it easy for people to share that feedback.
That’s why I recommend using WPForms to create a ‘Share Your Feedback’ form.
I typically create a form that collects the customer’s name, their review, and maybe a simple star rating. I also like to add a ‘File Upload’ field so they can send me a photo, too.
Here’s an important tip I’ve learned: I always add a simple checkbox at the bottom of the form that says something like, ‘I give permission to use this review on your website.’ This gives you clear permission to share their feedback publicly.
By using a form builder plugin like WPForms, you make submitting a review so much easier for your customers.
You can add the form to a dedicated ‘Leave Feedback’ page, or even link to it in an email you send after a customer makes a purchase. This helps you get more of those fantastic customer testimonials, ready to display on your site.
3. OptinMonster
Finally, if you want to get your best testimonials in front of more people, I’d suggest looking at OptinMonster.
I use this tool to create all sorts of popups and notification bars that get attention. Think about this: you could take your single best five-star review and display it as a slide-in when someone is looking at your services page.
This is a great way to encourage shoppers to go ahead and make a purchase. In my opinion, OptinMonster is a really smart way to use your social proof at the exact moment a visitor needs it most.
In this post, you learned how to build trust with reviews, which is a fantastic first step.
If you’re ready to learn everything else about building a professional WordPress site, we can help. We have a complete library of video tutorials covering everything from essential setup to advanced customization.
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