Social Proof and Your Website

Adding Social Proof to Your Website

Out of all the factors that contribute to an online businesses success, one of the most important is Social Proof. It is one of the absolute quickest ways to build trust, which is essential when you are trying to grow your business and pick up new clients. While creating content on your website and keeping a regular social media presence can help establish your authority as an expert in your field, nothing will move the needle quicker than Social Proof.

What is Social Proof?

But what is Social Proof? Put simply, it is proof, from a previous client, that you know what you’re talking about. This comes in the form of Testimonials and Reviews. 95% of online customers say they read reviews before purchasing a good or service. An additional 72% said that they will not consider using a service or purchasing a product without reading the reviews first. That is the power of Social Proof.

The Power of Trust

There’s an old adage I like to use; “If they don’t trust you, price doesn’t matter. If they do trust you, price doesn’t matter.” What that means is simple. If a customer doesn’t trust you to provide the service you say you are going to provide, then it doesn’t matter how cheap you are. No matter the price, they won’t trust you. Conversely, if a client has absolute trust in you, then the price will also not matter, because they trust you to provide the service for them. So you see why it is so essential to build up the customer’s trust as much as possible.

Different Types of Reviews

Testimonials – Testimonials are quotes from customers, obtained by you and displayed on your website. This can include the customers full name, if they consent to it, their business, the logo, or even their picture. Again, please make sure you get their permission first.
Review badges / widgets – If you get a lot of reviews on a service such as Angie’s List, or Yelp, you can usually embed a widget, or badge on your site that shows these reviews, along with a link that encourages people to find you on the site of choice.
Case Studies / Portfolio – This goes more in-depth than review badges or testimonials. Ideally this will give a brief outline of what the customer needed, and how you provided services that covered these areas. It is common practice to include visual references, and when possible, a quote from the client.
Ratings – These are similar to Testimonials but are normally a star rating, or other similar numerical rating. Just make sure the star rating on your site matches, or is at least similar to what you receive on Google or Yelp. If you give yourself a high rating and have a lower rating on Google, it may make you look dishonest to your clients.

How to Use Reviews on Your Site

Now that you know what the different types of reviews are, you need to know how to use them on your website. In some cases, website owners leave the ratings on the various third party sites and don’t worry about it. However, adding them to your site can help greatly with your Social Proof, as well as your SEO. Here are several ways you can use Reviews to improve the Social Proof on your website:

Create a Testimonials Page – This is a no-brainer and can be as simple, or as complex as you want it to be. At its most basic, a testimonial page will merely be a page that displays testimonials that you have collected from clients. You’ll want to put the absolute best reviews at the top. If you want to make a more complex Testimonials page, you could include a form at the bottom that would allow clients to fill out their own review and add it to the page. Just make sure to set it so that you have to approve it before the review displays. That way if you get spam, or a bad review, you can address it before it goes public.
Add Short Reviews to Website Header – This is a great way to get positive reviews in front of clients when they first enter your website. Sprinkling short reviews, or at least positive statements about your company in the header is a great way to get people’s attention.
Sprinkle Testimonials Throughout the Website – Use positive quotes as dividers between sections on the different pages of your website. Include them on the home page, the About Page, and all the services page. Doing so will help your SEO, as well as help reinforce the notion that your company delivers to their clients in a big way.
Use Testimonials in Social Media Ads – If you have some great quotes about your product or service, design Social Media ads that focus on them. It helps create trust in prospective clients and will help increase engagement and click through rate on the ads.
Link to Reviews in Email Signature – If you want to go the extra mile to help land prospective clients, include a link in your email signature that takes the reader to your Testimonial page. That way the Testimonials will help build up the “halo effect,” meaning the client will already be inclined to think positively about your business or service before they have a formal meeting with you. This increases your likelihood of landing the client as the process moves forward.

Social Proof can help establish trust

As you can see, there are a variety of ways to use Reviews and Testimonials to add Social Proof to your website. This will help establish your authority, which increases trust. All of this will help you land more clients and build your business. If you have any questions, be sure to contact me, as I’m always more than happy to help out. In the meantime, stay tuned, as I’ll have more posts in this series coming soon.

Till next time!