Displaying customer reviews across your website can help build trust in your brand and convince even the most stubborn visitors to click that ‘buy now’ button.
With as many as 96% of shoppers seeking out reviews, the key is to make it as easy as possible for your customers to find them – from your homepage right through to the checkout.
But with so much to choose from, where should you start? We’re here to lend a helping hand and show you some of the best ways to bring your website to life, all through the magic of your customer feedback.
What is customer review web integration?
Customer review web integration is the process of incorporating customer feedback, usually in the form of reviews and ratings, directly into your website.
This integration often involves embedding review data from third-party platforms, like Feefo, into your site's existing design and structure. By doing so, the reviews become a natural part of your online presence rather than an external afterthought.
Review integration with your website works through application programming interfaces (APIs) provided by your chosen third-party review platform. These APIs offer tools and code snippets that can be embedded into your website’s backend. This technology fetches real-time data from your review platform’s servers and displays the latest customer reviews and ratings directly onto your website for your visitors to see.
For small businesses, this can be a game-changer in building a reputable online presence and fostering consumer confidence.
Why use third-party integration services?
As a small business, making savings where possible can be crucial for keeping your company afloat. So, you may be wondering why it’s necessary to use a third-party integration platform to help you display your reviews.
The short answer is that collecting and displaying your customer feedback can be tricky – particularly if you’ve never done it before. Independent review platforms are experts at helping businesses make the most of their feedback; from customisation and technical support to acting as social proof, specialist review platforms can do all of the hard work for you, so you have one less thing to worry about.
Here are some more reasons why you should choose a third-party integration service:
- Streamlined review management – Third-party platforms are experts in collecting and managing customer feedback. By hiring their services, you offload the complex task of review management, which includes gathering, verifying, and organising reviews. At Feefo, we even have sophisticated tools that protect your business from fake reviews, ensuring stringent quality control.
- Technical reliability and support – Third-party review platforms are equipped with robust infrastructure designed to handle large volumes of data with high reliability. They offer technical support and regular updates, ensuring the review integration works smoothly and stays up-to-date with the latest web standards and technologies.
- Richer insights and analytics – Third-party providers often provide in-depth analytics and insights about customer feedback. These insights can be invaluable for understanding consumer behaviour, identifying areas for improvement, and making informed business decisions. This level of data analysis is typically beyond the scope of what a small business could achieve on its own.
- Competitive advantage – A well-integrated review system can set you apart from competitors. It demonstrates a commitment to transparency and customer satisfaction. Businesses that actively engage with customer reviews are often perceived as more customer-centric, enhancing their brand image and loyalty.
- SEO benefits – Integrating customer reviews from established platforms can improve your website’s Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Search engines, like Google, value fresh, trustworthy, and relevant content. Regularly updated customer reviews can contribute to these factors, potentially improving your website's search rankings.
- Enhanced credibility and trust – As well as trust being a significant factor in your website’s organic search rankings, it’s also a key signal for your customers. Using a third-party platform for customer reviews adds more credibility to your website. Customers often perceive reviews on established independent platforms as more authentic and unbiased compared to testimonials directly hosted on a business's site. This perception of impartiality can significantly boost consumer trust.
How can I integrate software into my website?
Integrating customer review software into your website may seem daunting, especially for small business owners without extensive technical expertise. However, platforms like Feefo make this process straightforward.
Our customisable widgets seamlessly integrate with your website to proudly showcase your hard-earned customer reviews and ratings. We also provide you with dedicated client pages where you can craft your brand’s narrative and offer a comprehensive view of your business’s reputation.
These review display features are all part of our service offering, and we’re also on hand to provide support whenever you need it.
Where should I display customer reviews on my website?
Homepage
Your homepage is your virtual shop window. It must look inviting and entice visitors to come inside and look around. Shoppers can be fickle these days; with so many choices online, they could jump ship to a competitor’s site at any moment, so doing everything you can to pique their interest early is essential. Reviews and user-generated content, such as photos and videos, can play a huge role in helping to capture their attention and keep them on-site longer.
Let’s look at some ways our widgets can help bring your homepage to life.
1. Service Review Carousel
Our service review carousel is the perfect option if you want to show off your best reviews but don’t have much space on your homepage. It catches the eye by automatically scrolling through your top reviews, ensuring that feedback won’t be missed.
2. Media Gallery
There’s no better way to grab shoppers’ attention than with genuine photos and videos of your products in the real world! People can see exactly what your products look like, that they’re high quality and, most importantly, that your customers are happy. User-generated content is fantastic at giving your website a friendlier, more welcoming feel, with 79% of shoppers even saying that it now plays a huge part in influencing what they buy.
3. Slide-Out Reviews Tab
Suppose you’re looking for something a little more subtle but still want to keep your customer reviews in people’s eyelines. In that case, our slide-out review tab sticks to the side of your page and follows shoppers as they scroll up and down, ensuring they’re constantly getting the reassurance they need, no matter where they are on your site.
Product Pages
How can you turn a browser into a buyer? Reviews can play a huge role, with 65% of people reading reviews before purchasing. They build trust in the quality of what you sell and give shoppers more information that might be missing from your product descriptions.
Here’s how we recommend displaying your Feefo reviews on your product pages to get shoppers clicking that all-important ‘add to basket’ button.
1. On-Page Reviews
Our on-page reviews widget isn’t just a great way to display all of your most recent product reviews, it also gives you all the SEO benefits of collecting customer reviews. It automatically marks up your reviews with the correct schema, meaning that as long as you hit the requirements, your product pages could be eligible for organic stars, which help you stand out in search.
Find out more about the benefits of organic stars in our guide.
2. Product Attributes
Product attributes are our way of giving your customers more helpful information about your products. You know, the sort of insight that only people who have really used your product can tell you.
It’s quick and easy, too. Simply choose whatever aspects of your product you’d like your customers to rate and add them as part of your feedback request. Then, a handy attributes chart will appear alongside your on-page reviews, helping shoppers to make up their minds even faster.
3. Dynamic Topic Display
Build a buzz around your products by showing shoppers what customers love most about them. Our dynamic topic display widget uses AI technology to analyse the themes mentioned most in your customer feedback, from fit and quality to delivery and customer service. It looks great at the top of a product page or next to key calls to action and can even be linked to your on-page reviews widget.
Checkout
All of your hard work has got your customer to the checkout, but that doesn’t mean you can take your hands off the wheel. A massive 74% of online retail purchases are abandoned, with shoppers saying they’ve left the checkout process because they didn’t trust the site.
That’s why building trust here is so important, even at this late stage. And yet, it’s a trick that many retailers miss. With Feefo, it’s easy to make reviews a seamless part of your checkout process. Here are a couple of options we recommend:
1. Highlighted Snippets
Some short, glowing quotes from your customers can go a long way to reassure shoppers and remind them that they can trust you to deliver a fantastic service. Our highlighted snippets widget automatically pulls the best quotes from your reviews and doesn’t take up much space, so it’s perfect for that extra level of reassurance on your checkout page.
2. Trusted Service Award Badge
If you’ve been lucky enough to have won one of our coveted Exceptional Service badges, showing that off right from your homepage through to your checkout keeps your award-winning service at the front of customers’ minds.
Customer & Product Reviews
If you’re looking to start collecting and displaying reviews, you might be wondering which platform is the best to help you gather, monitor, and analyse your customer feedback.
From invite-only to open review platforms and services specialising in review collection for business-to-consumer (B2C) or business-to-business (B2B) models, it’s essential to do thorough research when making your decision.
At Feefo, we’re focused on helping businesses gain verified and authentic feedback to build trust and credibility.
We simplify the process of collecting, analysing, and leveraging your customer reviews to boost your brand. Our library of APIs, tools, and widgets provide personalised and user-friendly services that are ideal for gathering feedback for any campaign.
Whether you’re looking to crack down on fake reviews, require advanced analytics to provide deep insights into customer experiences, or want to find out what motivates your customers with surveys, we can help.
We work with thousands of B2B companies to improve their offerings and services and build customer trust.
If you need more advice
Hopefully, we’ve managed to get your imagination racing with loads of ideas to decorate your site with customer feedback.
Our incredible support team is always on hand to help you get the most out of Feefo, and we have plenty more helpful tips and tricks on our blog.
If you have any questions, need more guidance, or would like to know more about some of our featured products, please get in touch.
