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How to add testimonials to your website

From a customer's words to a widget on your page: which testimonials to show, which layout fits, and where to paste the code.

Published , updated

A testimonial does its work when a visitor reads it at the moment they are deciding. That takes four things: the words, a choice of which words to show, a layout that fits the page, and a way to put it there. This guide takes them in order.

1. Get the words

You need what the customer said, their name, and their agreement to be quoted. A role or a town beside the name helps the next reader see who is speaking.

If you have nothing written down yet, ask. One specific question gets a better answer than "would you write us a testimonial?":

  • What were you unsure about before you bought?
  • What changed after you started using it?
  • What would you tell a friend who was considering us?

How to ask a customer for a testimonial has wording you can copy.

If your praise already sits on a review site, you do not have to copy it across. A review widget shows it on your own pages and keeps it up to date.

2. Choose which ones to show

Three good testimonials do more than twenty vague ones. Keep the ones that do at least one of these:

  • Give a detail only a customer would know. "The sourdough sells out before nine" is believable in a way "great bakery" is not.
  • Answer a doubt. If people worry about delivery times, show the customer who was surprised by how fast it came.
  • Name a result. A number, a time saved, a problem that went away.

Leave the words as the customer wrote them. Fix a typo if you must; do not improve the praise.

3. Pick a layout that fits the space

The layout follows from how many testimonials you have and how much room the page gives them.

  • A few short quotes in a narrow band: a carousel shows several cards in a row and lets visitors move through them.
  • A dozen or more: a wall shows them all at once. This is the "wall of love" many sites give a page of its own.
  • Almost no space: a badge shows your rating and review count beside a button or in a footer.
  • One long, detailed story at a time: a slider.
  • A narrow column or a sidebar: a list.
  • Faces under a headline: a row of avatars.

4. Put it on the page

Build the widget, add your testimonials, and copy the snippet it gives you. Then paste the snippet where the widget should appear. Where that is depends on what your site is built with:

Each of those pages lists what the platform asks for first. Several only run a snippet like this on a paid plan, and it is better to know that before you start.

5. Put it where the decision happens

A testimonial at the bottom of a long page is read by the few who scroll that far. Put it next to the thing you are asking the visitor to do:

  • beside the price, for the visitor wondering whether it is worth it;
  • under the sign-up button, for the visitor about to commit;
  • on the checkout page, for the visitor having second thoughts.

A wall of everything still has its place: on a page of its own, linked from your menu, for the visitor who wants to read them all.

Keep it current

A testimonial dated three years ago raises a question you do not want asked. When a new one comes in, add it to the widget. You do not need to paste the snippet again: the widget on your page updates when you change it.