Embed Google reviews to enhance the user-generated content on your website

In a previous post, we discussed the power of user-generated content and how it can increase web traffic. In this blog post, we are going to go over the importance of reviews, where you can locate your Google reviews, and how to embed Google reviews on your website. By the end of this post, you will hopefully have added user-generated content to your website!

Finding your business google review page

For starters, if you have not set up a Google My Business page, you will want to do that before continuing. 

If you have already set up a Google my business: 

1. Sign in to Google My Business by navigating to business.google.com.
2. Choose the business listing you want to review. 
3. Once in your listing, choose the fifth tab on the left, “reviews.” Here is where you are going to find all of the reviews written for your business. 

Now that you can see all of the reviews, you might be wondering how to get the reviews that you see on your Google business page embedded on your website. 

The Best Way to Embed Google Reviews on a Website

Reviews are more than user-generated content; they are social proof and will speak on your business’s quality. 

Note: The following information assumes that you are using WordPress as your website CMS

There are two known to embed Google reviews on a website. 

1. Using a Plugin/Widget
2. Using an API Key

Using a Plugin.

WordPress offers many plugins to embed Google reviews. The one that we prefer to use on our client sites is WP Review Slider Pro. We choose to go with WP Review Slider Pro because they allow you to pull reviews from over 80 different websites, allowing all of your business reviews to be in one location. This plugin also has the power to capture reviews directly with a form on your website. 

Installing WP Review Slider Pro is just as easy as adding another plugin to a website. While you can download and get plenty of functionality from the free version, we highly suggest that you purchase the lifetime paid version for $99.

To install WP Review Slider:

• Login to your Wp-Admin 
• Hover over “Plugins” on the left side panel 
• Click “Add New”
• Search “WP Review Slider by LJ Apps” in the search bar 
• Click “Install”

Using an API Key. 

A basic understanding of an API key is that the key allows two different software to communicate efficiently. Using an API key to embed Google Reviews is a bit more complicated, and you may want to ask for help from your web developer. If you’re going to give it a go on your own, you will need to enable the Google My Business API.

Once it’s enabled, follow these steps that the development team at Google put together to display all reviews or specific reviews you want to include on your website.

SEO Best Practices for Adding Reviews

Now that you know how to add reviews to your website, let’s consider the best practices to follow when you embed Google reviews on your website:

Location of your reviews 

The type of website that you own will dictate where you should place your reviews. 

For brick and mortar websites, we recommend you embed Google reviews on the Home page or the About page. 

On an E-Commerce site, the reviews should be listed with every product. 

Use schema markup for reviews 

Schema makes it easier for webmasters to define their content assets and get maximum benefit for their efforts within the Google SERPs. Due to the value, search engines have all come together to use a versatile collection of Schemas.

Go to http://schema.org/Review for help on review markup. If you don’t want to implement schema in your website’s code manually, you can use a powerful SEO plugin.

We have talked about Rank Math PRO’s power a lot in the past, and we bring it up again today because Rank Math PRO will automatically detect the correct Schema markup for each post, page, product, or other taxonomy on your website. For all products on your website, you can add your product review schema through rank math.   

Reviews Are Powerful

When a customer leaves a review, they tell others if your company is reliable, and it is feedback on how your business can perform better.  

For those interested in how to embed Google reviews on their website, you will want to have a strategy to get more quality reviews. Why? Reviews will enhance local SEO and allow for consistent user-generated content.

Want A Website That Generates Traffic?

The team at Algorithmic Global has the skills you are looking for! We can build you a brand new website or do a simple SEO site cleaning. 

Feel free to reach out with questions about this post or if you run into problems with embedding Google reviews to your website. Give us a call at (301) 452-0602 or fill out the form on our contact page!