One of the most powerful ways to entice prospects and leads into becoming customers is by using reviews on your website.

Here’s a stat for you: 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations (Search Engine Land). Another study found that 90% of local business customers view reviews as a necessary component of a business website.

The tendency with a small business website is to describe what you do. That can get boring and in some cases you can come across as thinking too highly of yourself.

That’s where reviews are great. You let others talk about how wonderful you are.

And it pays.

According to one study, reviews produce an average of an 18% increase in sales.

You can only toot your own horn for so long. Sure, your service or product may be amazing. But if you really want to convince your prospect of the value that you offer, you can’t just rely on your own prose.

There are many different ways to present proof online. You can demonstrate your product in a video. You can display awards your business has won from associations or clubs. You can show how many years you’ve been in business (if you’ve been in business for a while).

Here are some tips on how to use reviews on your local business website.

On Your Homepage

The most obvious place to feature reviews on your website is on your homepage. Of any page on your website, the most viewed is typically the homepage.

Attention spans are short – you have a limited amount of time to catch the attention of your website visitor. You need to explain what you do in a very succinct fashion. Whatever value you offer your customer, you need to make it immediately apparent.

But aside from a subscription form, your contact information, your address, and other vital information, one of the best things you can have on your homepage is reviews.

Reviews show that real people use your business. This lends significant credibility to what you’re doing. Just make sure to demonstrate that these are real people that have given you their permission to use their name on your site.

On Your Product Or Service Page

Imagine a situation in which you discover an amazing product online, and you’re interested in buying it. It sounds so good that, on some level, you’re a little skeptical.

So you go searching for reviews. Unfortunately, you can’t find anything anyone has said about that product online. Maybe it was a great product, and maybe it would have solved your pain, but because there was no proof, you backed out of buying it.

This is why you need customer reviews on your product or service page. People want know that what they’re buying is worthwhile. Furthermore, they don’t want to spend a lot of time trying to figure out whether or not it’s worth the asking price.

When you have on-site reviews, people don’t have to go looking elsewhere. And if there are enough of them, you’ll convert more visitors by virtue of third-party credibility.

In The Sidebar Or Footer

The sidebar or the footer of your website is prime real estate for reviews, simply because they tend to appear on every page.

This means that, no matter what post or page on your site visitors land on, they have the potential to see glowing testimonials in the sidebar or footer that may prompt them to find out more about you and what you have to offer.

You don’t have to rely on a single review either. You can install a plugin or use a script to randomly load different reviews.

Bonus tip: you can also create a dedicated testimonials page to store all of the positive things people have had to say about you. This can build a lot of trust, as an entire page worth of positive reviews is clearly indicative of a business that’s doing something right.

Conclusion

90% of customers say buying decisions are influenced by online reviews (Marketing Land).

There are many ways to use reviews on your local business website beyond the ones mentioned here. The key thing to remember is that, by putting a spotlight on what others have had to say about your business, you can gain a significant amount of trust with your website visitors.

Make sure to come up with creative ways of involving your customers in your business and asking for reviews. You won’t regret it.

And if you’re looking for help with your website, make sure to take a look at our website development services.