How to Add Testimonials in WordPress Site?

Testimonials are essential criterion for any business website to build trust and authority. It helps visitors to understand your skills as well as existing customer’s feedback. If you have lot of testimonials from your readers, customers, or clients, then do not hesitate to showcase them on your site. Fortunately, WordPress offers multiple options to showcase testimonials. In this article, we will explain all possible ways you can use to add testimonials in WordPress site.

What are Testimonials?

To start talking about testimonials means people are advocating or vouching for an experience from your product or services. The vouch can come as social likes, comments, recommendations, online reviews or customers’ feedback. A great testimonial usually reflects at least one of the following;

• Contain positive written information or affirmations.
• Supportive or believable profile picture.
• Persuasive straightforward story.
• Use Authoritative figures or influencers.

Therefore, make sure to only showcase attractive testimonials on your site instead of dumping hundreds of testimonials that do not add any value.

Collecting Testimonials for Your Site

The first approach to show testimonials on your WordPress site is to collect them. In the collection process, ensure you have the right ones, and they should be enough (at least five).

• LinkedIn recommendations, YouTube, Facebook, or Instagram reviews with other local search directories can be a head start.
• Email outreach is a direct way of questioning customers about your business to receive well-written feedback that could serve as a testimony.
• Questions like “what do you love about our service?” or “Would you recommend this product?” can come in handy for this purpose.
• Also, ensure to take note of the details (name, review, and photograph and title) of the person giving you testimonials.

Add Testimonials in WordPress

After the collection process, here are some of the ways you can insert testimonials in WordPress:

1. Add with Gutenberg blocks
2. Insert custom code
3. Check your theme or page builder plugin
4. Use free plugin like Strong Testimonials or Easy Testimonials

Let us explain each option in detail in the following sections.

1. Using Gutenberg Blocks

Gutenberg block editor offers different types of blocks that you can make use for inserting a testimonial. This is useful when you want to showcase simple style and do not want to install additional plugin. You can combine image with rounded corner, quote, text, and separator blocks to create beautiful testimonial widget for you site. it is also possible to group the blocks and add background color or image to your testimonial.

Alternatively, click on the + icon from top left corner and go to “Patterns” section. Select “Text” from the dropdown and insert a “Quote” block.

This will look like testimonial, and you can move the image down and edit the background color to make it appealing. The best part is that you can add the block as a reusable block and insert anywhere on your site.

2. Custom Testimonial Widgets

This is a best option when you want to insert one of two testimonials. You can create a new testimonial page and showcase only few important items using custom code. Below is how the widget will look like and you can use the Custom HTML block or code snippets plugin to insert the code.

You can get the complete code for the above widget in this article under colorful CSS testimonials widget section.

3. Theme or Page Builder Plugins

Many commercial themes offer testimonials as a custom post type. Check your theme and make use if the feature is already available. Alternatively, you can check testimonials is available in page builder plugin if you use. For example, you can use the testimonial module when using the popular Divi theme. You can customize the settings using Divi Builder to create a beautiful testimonial without additional plugin.

Similarly, you can use the in-built testimonial and testimonial carousel widgets with the popular Elementor page builder plugin.

4. Use Free WordPress Plugins

Free testimonial plugins are recommendable to manage a library of business reviews from people and include them in your website. They would help in keeping track, making updates, and managing your customer profiles. Here, we will explain with two free testimonial plugins.

4.1. Add Testimonials with Strong Testimonials Plugin

Due to its simplicity, you will find this amazing to use if you are a beginner. The plugin is flexible as it allows for creating complete custom testimonial templates from scratch. It is well known and popularly in use because of its overwhelmingly positive reviews and frequent updating. Head on to install and activate the “Strong Testimonials” plugin.

From your WordPress site dashboard, hover on the “Testimonials” menu at the left sidebar and click on “Add New”. Fill in the title for the testimonial, the full descriptions and the customer or client information (full name, email, company name & website, star rating). The “Featured Image” is for setting up an image of the customer that gives a review. Then finally, hit the “Publish” button once done.

Ensure that before all this, you have permission from clients or customers to share their details. Repeat the above process to add as many as the testimonials you have gotten. Move to create custom templates with the styling that one or more of your testimonials would inherit. Navigate to the “Testimonials” tab, select the “Views” option, and click on the “Add New” button.

Give the name (title) of the view for all your testimonials. Furthermore, indicate the mode you want; is it the display (list or grid), slideshow, form, or single template. For any mode choice you select, there are suitable options for setting up or fully configuring them to your taste. Click on the “Save Changes” button to activate everything you have done. Locate the “Shortcode” on the top page and click on the “copy to clipboard” button beside it.

Now, create a new page in your WordPress dashboard with “Testimonials” as its title. Paste that shortcode and then tap the “Publish” button to make the testimonials visible at your site frontend.

In summary, here are other things worth knowing about this plugin;

• Provide few designs for stylings like background and font color while inheriting others from your website theme.
• Custom fields and CSS are at your disposal for use to make any reasonable advance changes.
• Everything before testimonial display takes its cause from the view.
• Privacy is taken into account as there is no sharing, storing or editing of users’ data.

4.2. Add Testimonials with Easy Testimonials Plugin

This is another free plugin option to add testimonials in WordPress site.

After installing and activating the plugin, move your mouse over the “Easy Testimonials” menu and click on the “Add New Testimonial” option. Give a title to the testimonial with a description, then below the post or page editor, fill the required details. The plugin offers option to enter client name, email address, position/web address, location/product/item in review, and the rating.

At the right sidebar of the page is the “Testimonial” document section that can assist you to include more features like the featured image, category to your testimonial. Furthermore, you can copy the shortcode below at the right end side of the page. Once you are okay with all the changes, hit the “Publish” button. The testimonial becomes visible immediately, and you should repeat this process to add as many testimonials as you would need.

Now, open any page or post where you wish to add the testimonial(s). With the Gutenberg editor, click on the “Toggle block inserter”, scroll down to locate the “EASY TESTIMONIALS” heading with five blocks to make your choice for a testimonial.

Here are each of their functions in terms of testimonial display format.

• Single: it only displays one piece of your testimonial, that is, the choice you make or a selection.
• Random: it shows only one (any) of all your testimonials without considering your choice.
• List: it allows for multiple selection and display of all the testimonials.
• Cycle: creates a slideshow (slider) for all testimonials.
• Grid: it displays all the testimonials in a table format.

Click on the “Publish” button to see how the testimonials would turn out. Here is what the testimonial slider looks like if that’s your choice of a testimonial display.

Remember, there are many setup features to lay hands from the “Easy Testimonials” menu, like using a shortcode generator rather than blocks to create and display testimonials. Also, customizing testimonials with CSS and collecting testimonials through forms are available for your use. Feel like doing more? You can always upgrade to their pro version.

Final Words

We hope this article helped to understand how to add testimonials in WordPress site using different options. If your theme or page builder plugin do not offer this feature, then we recommend using a plugin to keep it simple. Testimonial plugin is essential rather than building from scratch as they give you exquisite layout or views. In return, you keep building trust and a stronger relationship with existing or new customers/clients.