Website Review Software

[NEF]

I'm currently looking at review options for our website. At the minute we use our own stores review option built into woocommerce. Although a lot of competitors use trustpilot, feefo, etc obviously these come at a cost and have some link benefit.

Can anyone advise from experience on there prefered options...

What I dislike about trustpilot is the high monthly price and the fact if you do not use it, they still list your business and it tends to be the very small percentage of bad customers that flock to it and it gives the wrong impression of a company, so Trustpilot tend to try and pull people in with this method to setup and account and will not remove a business lisiting, totally wrong, unlike the other options...

 

[zomex]

If you asked me yesterday I would have said use a Google Business Profile. But it's come to my attention that Google choosing not to display some reviews I'm getting that clients have shown me as proof. Google being Google there's no way to contact them about this.

Also would not use Trustpilot for the reasons you mentioned. It's overpriced and they keep your reviews hostage unless you keep paying.

I'm open to hearing others suggestions.

 

[Nudge]

I'm currently looking at review options for our website. At the minute we use our own stores review option built into woocommerce. Although a lot of competitors use trustpilot, feefo, etc obviously these come at a cost and have some link benefit.

Can anyone advise from experience on there prefered options...

What I dislike about trustpilot is the high monthly price and the fact if you do not use it, they still list your business and it tends to be the very small percentage of bad customers that flock to it and it gives the wrong impression of a company, so Trustpilot tend to try and pull people in with this method to setup and account and will not remove a business lisiting, totally wrong, unlike the other options...

Totally get where you’re coming from! It’s frustrating when platforms like Trustpilot make it hard to control how your business is represented.

A lot of small businesses I’ve worked with stick to WooCommerce reviews for simplicity but also look into alternatives like:

• Google Reviews – Free, credible, and great for SEO. You just need to actively encourage happy customers to leave feedback.
• Reviews.io – More affordable than Trustpilot and integrates well with WooCommerce.
• Judge.me – Budget-friendly, focuses on eCommerce, and even supports photo reviews.

Whatever route you go, building a process to request reviews after a positive interaction can help balance out the negatives and make sure your happiest customers are heard. Curious—are you leaning towards keeping it in-house or testing one of these tools?

 

[fisicx]

@NEF - What sort of reviews do you want? Is it to increase sales (via product reviews) or promote the business?

 

[antropy]

We use Trustpilot and Google Reviews - both good, but Google unfortunately won't remove obviously fake reviews.

Paul.

 

[fufuda]

google review is good.

 

[Reviewnicely]

I'm currently looking at review options for our website. At the minute we use our own stores review option built into woocommerce. Although a lot of competitors use trustpilot, feefo, etc obviously these come at a cost and have some link benefit.

Can anyone advise from experience on there prefered options...

What I dislike about trustpilot is the high monthly price and the fact if you do not use it, they still list your business and it tends to be the very small percentage of bad customers that flock to it and it gives the wrong impression of a company, so Trustpilot tend to try and pull people in with this method to setup and account and will not remove a business lisiting, totally wrong, unlike the other options...

As much as people use trustpilot it does not mean you have to use it. The most popular one is google business profile. And for profession like doctors or even real estate they have other review platforms that people in those industries use.

So what I will say is find the review platform that other businesses in your industry use and be on there.

It will help customers in your niche find you.

I hope that makes sense?

 

[Paul Carmen]

As no two businesses are the same, the review solutions we'd recommend differ depending on what you do; e.g. the setup would be different for an ecommerce company compared to a B2B business, in terms of functionality.

I couldn't see any business or website URL in your UKBF bio, but generally two different review options are best; e.g. Google reviews and a review platform that supports your brand, product or service proposition, depending where you need to show reviews (SEO, website, Google, PPC etc) is the best solution.

We offer advice on best practice for reviews and are a partner agency for some of the better value and featured review platforms, plus review display tools. You can read about this here: https://insiteweb.co.uk/review-generation-strategies/.

Feel free to DM me if you want more help or info.

 

[Ozzy]

I've always opted to use Google for reviews, and have utilised QR codes in delivery boxes and also links in Thank You emails asking customers to leave reviews.
For my daughter's riding school we have also found Facebook reviews to be extremely beneficial, as she gets most of her business via her Facebook and Instagram pages.

Picking up on @Paul Carmen comment, the fact our daughter gets most benefit from Facebook demonstrates finding the option that works best for your business. Where are your customers mainly coming from?

 

[NEF]

Most of the customers are coming to our online store and making purchases of products.
We use our own review system that google does pickup on and use these reviews also...

Like I say my main bug bear is this poxy trustpilot that uses bad reviews and wants you to buy into it...with no way of removal. With google you can remove your review account and with facebook you canturn off reviews... with trustpilot they try to put people over a barrel...

Sounds like our own review system and google reviews are the best solutions..

 

[AlanJ1]

We use Trustpilot and pay, we answer all negatives and just deal with them as they are. Most relate to delivery for us which is mute on Ecom as when shipping hundreds of thousands of orders you will have delivery issues. Our positives far outweigh the negatives.

 

[Paul Carmen]

Most of the customers are coming to our online store and making purchases of products.
We use our own review system that google does pickup on and use these reviews also...

Like I say my main bug bear is this poxy trustpilot that uses bad reviews and wants you to buy into it...with no way of removal. With google you can remove your review account and with facebook you canturn off reviews... with trustpilot they try to put people over a barrel...

Sounds like our own review system and google reviews are the best solutions..

Your own review system will not be a solution for most online/digital product and brand marketing. While fine for displaying reviews on your website, many businesses need reviews to show in their marketing at the stage before a customer visits their site.

As an example, showing ads in Google PPC with review stars requires an approved Google review partner. Showing review stars in organic SERP results cannot be done via self serving reviews (GBP reviews are ineligible); e.g. it requires a 3rd party review platform too.

 

[NEF]

Your own review system will not be a solution for most online/digital product and brand marketing. While fine for displaying reviews on your website, many businesses need reviews to show in their marketing at the stage before a customer visits their site.

As an example, showing ads in Google PPC with review stars requires an approved Google review partner. Showing review stars in organic SERP results cannot be done via self serving reviews (GBP reviews are ineligible); e.g. it requires a 3rd party review platform too.

I use our store review platform built into my Woo theme and they show in Google SERP results and Google pulls them out for reviews in search also. Just enable it in Google Merchant..

Showing ads in Google PPC just requires you to have a product feed to Merchant centre and enable reviews...

So that information your stating, is very misleading..

 

[Paul Carmen]

I use our store review platform built into my Woo theme and they show in Google SERP results and Google pulls them out for reviews in search also. Just enable it in Google Merchant..

Showing ads in Google PPC just requires you to have a product feed to Merchant centre and enable reviews...

So that information your stating, is very misleading..

Sorry, I seem to be confusing you, we are not talking about the same things here.

There are three main types of reviews that you will see in PPC or organic search results (SERPs); these are, brand, product/service and GBP (Google reviews).

What I dislike about trustpilot is the high monthly price and the fact if you do not use it, they still list your business and it tends to be the very small percentage of bad customers that flock to it and it gives the wrong impression of a company, so Trustpilot tend to try and pull people in with this method to setup and account and will not remove a business lisiting, totally wrong, unlike the other options...

Your original post above refers to Trustpilot reviews, and customers leaving negative reviews, this is what I commented on. If you have a basic (not paid) Trustpilot account, customers can only leave negative brand reviews. You cannot show brand reviews in Google Ads without using an approved process or review partner platform.

Product reviews are a different, they still need to be via an approved Google partner, or by signing up to Google product ratings, and as you say having a feed to Merchant Center to display them in shopping ads.

It sounds like you don't actually use your own reviews (by using your own reviews it's generally meant that you send review emails yourself and than show them on site), you're using a 3rd party system. You can potentially aggregate them and show your own product reviews (not brand) in SERPs, but this requires you to write schema.org markup and put it on the product pages for Google to read.

You don't say what theme or plugin you use, but this is either part of a review platform that is approved by Google, or a plugin that integrates with Google Merchant Center product review feed, and adds some sort of markup to the product page code for aggregated product review scores.

It's quite confusing I know, but if you want your company brand reviews to show in PPC search ads, then you cannot do this yourself either, it has to be by a Google approved review partner or using the Google Customer Reviews programme.

There is the same issue with Google Business Profile (GBP) reviews, these never show in PPC or the SERPs, only in your Google Business Profile or map pack results.

 

[fisicx]

This is why I asked the question in an earlier post.

What are you hoping to achieve with these reviews @NEF ?

Product reviews are a totally different thing to reviews if the business.

 

[NEF]

Product reviews entice customers, people looking to purchase read them. Just look at Amazon, there reviews are for products, not the business.

 

[NEF]

Sorry, I seem to be confusing you, we are not talking about the same things here.

There are three main types of reviews that you will see in PPC or organic search results (SERPs); these are, brand, product/service and GBP (Google reviews).

Your original post above refers to Trustpilot reviews, and customers leaving negative reviews, this is what I commented on. If you have a basic (not paid) Trustpilot account, customers can only leave negative brand reviews. You cannot show brand reviews in Google Ads without using an approved process or review partner platform.

Product reviews are a different, they still need to be via an approved Google partner, or by signing up to Google product ratings, and as you say having a feed to Merchant Center to display them in shopping ads.

It sounds like you don't actually use your own reviews (by using your own reviews it's generally meant that you send review emails yourself and than show them on site), you're using a 3rd party system. You can potentially aggregate them and show your own product reviews (not brand) in SERPs, but this requires you to write schema.org markup and put it on the product pages for Google to read.

You don't say what theme or plugin you use, but this is either part of a review platform that is approved by Google, or a plugin that integrates with Google Merchant Center product review feed, and adds some sort of markup to the product page code for aggregated product review scores.

It's quite confusing I know, but if you want your company brand reviews to show in PPC search ads, then you cannot do this yourself either, it has to be by a Google approved review partner or using the Google Customer Reviews programme.

There is the same issue with Google Business Profile (GBP) reviews, these never show in PPC or the SERPs, only in your Google Business Profile or map pack results.

I have google advertising and the product reviews are shown from the store products that we submit to the feed via merchant centre, so you do not need a third party review system to do this...

 

[Paul Carmen]

I have google advertising and the product reviews are shown from the store products that we submit to the feed via merchant centre, so you do not need a third party review system to do this...

I'm not sure you've read my post properly; you're using a 3rd party plugin or review aggregator, I've explained it and the options in detail.

Your original post talked about brand on Trustpilot, You're also not Amazon, so unless you're a very well known company, people are likely to want to see reviews of what other customers have experienced dealing with your company. If you're not concerned about this, why mention Trustpilot and negative reviews at all...

I'll bow out now, as you asked for advice, but seem to want to have an argument.

 

[NEF]

I could just setup Google Business reviews and leave google to sort it for free, if I just want a business or brand review or use Facebook via a page .

Trustpilot is bad, I would not pay them a penny, a company that will not remove your listing when requested… that’s not right.

Do you market SEO ?

 

[fisicx]

Product reviews entice customers, people looking to purchase read them. Just look at Amazon, there reviews are for products, not the business.

It’s more likely people will first look at reviews of the product and then choose a supplier based on company reviews.

 

[Russ Michaels]

I'm currently looking at review options for our website. At the minute we use our own stores review option built into woocommerce. Although a lot of competitors use trustpilot, feefo, etc obviously these come at a cost and have some link benefit.

Can anyone advise from experience on there prefered options...

What I dislike about trustpilot is the high monthly price and the fact if you do not use it, they still list your business and it tends to be the very small percentage of bad customers that flock to it and it gives the wrong impression of a company, so Trustpilot tend to try and pull people in with this method to setup and account and will not remove a business lisiting, totally wrong, unlike the other options...

I would not solely rely on Trustpilot, it's a well known scam and those in the know do not trust reviews on there. Get yourself listed on multiple directories and use several of them to collect reviews.
Google reviews will be the most useful to your Google business profile ranking.
I also recommend Sitejabber....

Trustpilot Reviews - 1.2 Stars

1,097 reviews for Trustpilot, 1.2 stars: 'Trust pilot needs to be shut down. The experiance customers face leaveing reviews is just shocking over and over again genuine reviews are removed. Customers don't need the hassle of having to prove purchases over and over again its defeating.'

www.sitejabber.com

 

[Dandan2]

What we do is;

Request reviews by email 2 weeks after every order. Have a emoji face system where if a customer clicks on a smiley face it takes them direct to Trust Pilot to leave a review (I do not pay TP any monthly fees) and if a customer is unhappy and click on an unhappy face, it takes them to a custom built google form where we address the customers concern internally.

 

[fisicx]

But reading the posts from @NEF they indicate they are collecting product reviews. TP and Google are for business reviews. There are two different things happening that have got all mixed up.