Showing real customer reviews on your website can increase conversion rates. Here's how to embed Google, Tripadvisor, Trustpilot, Capterra and other platform reviews — with the tradeoffs between native widgets, API-driven displays, and manual approaches.
By Abhishek Gharat Last updated
When a visitor has to leave your site to check your reviews, many don't come back. Bringing those reviews to your own pages — especially near pricing, booking, or contact sections — removes that friction and surfaces the social proof at exactly the moment a visitor is deciding whether to act.
Research by Baymard Institute found that reviews displayed on product or service pages increase conversion rates by 15–20% on average. The effect is strongest for high-consideration purchases (services, healthcare, travel, B2B software) where buyers need third-party validation before they commit.
Pros: Easiest to set up, auto-updates, carries platform brand trust
Cons: Limited design control, loads external scripts (page speed impact), some load slowly on mobile
Best for: Google, Trustpilot, Tripadvisor, Booking.com — all provide verified widget generators
Pros: Full design control, matches your site exactly, can combine multiple platforms
Cons: Requires developer work, API keys to manage, breaks when platform changes API, ongoing maintenance
Best for: Larger websites with engineering resources and a strong brand consistency requirement
Pros: Pulls multiple platforms into one display, no per-platform API work, usually has pre-built design templates
Cons: Monthly subscription cost, still adds external scripts, widget can break when a platform revokes API access
Best for: Businesses that want reviews from 3+ platforms in one place without custom development
Pros: No external dependencies, full control, zero page speed impact
Cons: Does not update automatically, requires manual curation, less credible because it is not verified
Best for: B2B businesses where 3–5 hand-picked testimonials with logos carry more weight than a large volume of reviews
Trustpilot provides a free TrustBox widget generator at support.trustpilot.com/hc/en-us/articles/201836896. Log in to Trustpilot Business, go to Integrations → TrustBox Widgets, choose your style (carousel, mini, list), copy the embed code, and paste it into your website's HTML. The widget updates automatically as new reviews come in.
Tripadvisor's Widget Center is at tripadvisor.com/Widgets. Sign in with your listing credentials, choose from rating badge, carousel, or review banner, and copy the embed code. Works on any HTML-based website.
Log in to your Booking.com Extranet, navigate to Promote your property → Property Rating widget, configure the display, and copy the embed code. Displays your current score and review count with automatic updates.
Google does not offer a native embeddable widget. Your options:
Both platforms provide embeddable rating badges through their vendor portals. Log in to your G2 vendor account or Capterra vendor dashboard and look for Badges or Marketing Assets to generate your embed code. The badge displays your current rating and links to your review page, with automatic updates.
The conversion-optimised placements in order of impact:
Third-party review widgets load external JavaScript and may affect page speed. Before adding any widget, check its performance impact with Google PageSpeed Insights before and after. For high-traffic pages, prefer a server-side rendered approach (calling the API at build time or server side) rather than a client-side widget.
For structured data markup, adding Review and AggregateRating schema to server-rendered review content can make your star ratings appear in Google Search results as rich snippets.
Indirectly. Embedded reviews typically load via iframe or external script, so their text is not crawled as your page content by Google. To get review content indexed on your own site, you would need to render the text server-side (e.g., via API with server-side rendering) and mark it up with Review schema. Embedded reviews also improve on-page conversion rates and user dwell time. These are positive user engagement signals that can indirectly support SEO performance.
It depends on your industry. Google Reviews are recognised by almost everyone. Trustpilot is trusted for e-commerce and service brands. Tripadvisor for hospitality. G2 and Capterra for software. Displaying platform-branded reviews (with the platform logo) adds credibility because visitors can verify the source independently.
Google does not offer an official embeddable Google reviews widget. Options are: (a) use a third-party review widget service that accesses the Google Places API on your behalf; (b) build a custom display using the Google Places API (requires a Google Cloud account and API key, and has a per-request cost); (c) use a static display of screenshots with a link to your Google listing. The Places API is the most flexible but requires ongoing technical maintenance.
Yes, with a third-party aggregator like EmbedSocial, Trustmary, or Reviews.io. These services pull reviews from multiple platforms via API and display them in a unified widget. Costs vary from around $29 to $99/month depending on the number of platforms and display volume.
The highest-converting placements are: near your primary call-to-action (pricing page, booking button, contact form), on the homepage above the fold, on product or service pages alongside the relevant offering, and on landing pages where visitors arrive from ads or search. Reviews near the conversion point reduce hesitation at the moment of decision.
This depends on the method. Native widgets from platforms like Trustpilot or Tripadvisor automatically display your latest reviews and do not permit filtering, or 'cherry-picking,' as this violates their terms of service. Some third-party aggregator tools offer filtering, but using it to hide negative reviews can mislead customers and may still violate the original review platform's display policies. The most credible approach is to display an unfiltered, automatically updating stream of reviews. Using a service to solicit private feedback before a public review is posted is a compliant way to improve your overall public rating.
For WordPress, you can use a plugin that connects to a review platform API (like the Google Places API) or a third-party aggregator. These plugins provide a block or shortcode to place the widget. For Shopify, you can add review widgets by installing an app from the Shopify App Store or by pasting the embed code from your review service into your theme's Liquid files as a custom HTML section.
Yelp's Terms of Service strictly prohibit republishing Yelp content, including review text, on your website. Their Brand Guidelines state: "Don't copy reviews from Yelp and paste them on your own website... this is a copyright violation." The only approved method is to use one of Yelp's official badges or to link directly to your Yelp business page.
Using the Google Places API requires a Google Cloud Platform account with billing enabled. While Google provides a recurring $200 monthly credit for most accounts, requests beyond that are billed. A 'Place Details' request, used to fetch reviews, has a specific cost. For most small businesses, usage will likely fall within the free credit, but it is not entirely free and requires monitoring your Google Cloud billing account.
While the core method is to paste an embed code, the specific steps vary by website builder. Here is how to approach it for the most common platforms.
WordPress offers two primary ways to add review widgets:
For Shopify stores, the most reliable method is using an app from the Shopify App Store. Many review collection services and aggregators have dedicated apps that integrate with your theme. For platform widgets like Trustpilot, they also offer an official Shopify app. Alternatively, you can paste embed code into your theme by navigating to Online Store > Themes > Customize, selecting "Add section," and choosing "Custom Liquid" or "Custom HTML" to paste your code.
Both Squarespace and Wix use a "code block" or "embed code" element. To add a review widget, get the embed code from your provider (e.g., Trustpilot's widget generator or a third-party tool like Elfsight). In your site editor, add a "Code" block (Squarespace) or "Embed HTML" element (Wix) to the page and paste the code. Note that some scripts may be disabled on lower-tier plans for these platforms.
Before embedding reviews, consult the terms of service for each platform. Most have strict rules to maintain the authenticity of their content. Key restrictions often include:
Violating these terms can result in your API access being revoked or, in the case of Yelp, a formal request to remove the content due to copyright infringement.
When you display reviews by rendering the text directly on your page (not in an iframe), you can add Review and AggregateRating schema. This is a type of structured data that helps search engines understand the content. The primary benefit is eligibility for rich snippets in search results, which can display your star rating directly below your page title in Google. This increases click-through rates.
A basic AggregateRating schema looks like this in JSON-LD format:
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org/",
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "Your Business Name",
"aggregateRating": {
"@type": "AggregateRating",
"ratingValue": "4.8",
"reviewCount": "340"
}
}
</script>Implementing this requires that the rating value and review count are accurate and verifiable on the page. Google's guidelines prohibit using this markup for reviews that are not visible to the user.
Saint Aura helps you collect the authentic, platform-verified reviews that embed widgets display. A print-ready QR code, guided review prompts in 20 languages, AI-assisted drafts and private feedback routing — set up once, then connect any embed widget you want to show on your site.