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Testimonials; they're a pretty big deal for most websites. They give visitors confidence in your services and products while also giving you more authority as a business. But what makes a good testimonial and how can you add them to your WordPress site?

What You Need In A Testimonal

Everyones seen those "stock" testimonials, seriously don't do that. You'll look stupid, and people will see right through them. Reach out to customers and past clients personally to ask them for a testimonial along with permission to use their name and picture.

Any good testimonial should have all the following:

• A short one or two line to the point testimonial about your product, service or business.
• The full name of the person who provided the testimonial
• A picture of the person who provided the testimonial.

If you're also offering perhaps freelance web design services or similar, you'll want to link the full name to the website that you built/designed for the client. It's important the testimonial left is real and links back to a person. No one believes annonymous testimonials anymore and neither should you.

How To Add Testimonials To Your WordPress powered site

There are a few ways you can add testimonials to your WordPress site either:

• Using a theme with built in testimonials functionality
• Using a plugin that offers a shortcode or widget to output your testimonials
• Using one of the many page builders that offers built in testimonial functionality

There's also another way though. Unlike most aspects of your website where you have may have no choice about either learning to code or using a plugin here you do. At it's most basic a testimonial is an image, a paragraph and one line of text for the name. Because of this, it's one of the few pieces of functionality you can add to your site within the WordPress editor.

The "Theme" way.

There are thousands of themes that offer in-built testimonial functionality. Here are just a few:

• Businessx - A clean and free business theme with built-in testimonial functionality.
• Coni - A strong multipurpose theme, perfect for a blog, business sites, and agencies. Built in testimonial functionality and nicely designed.
• Higgs - Strong and striking portfolio theme with built-in testimonial functionality.
• Scope - Business and Agency based theme with a good looking design, boxed layouts and built-in testimonial functionality.

The "Plugin" way.

Just like with themes, there are many plugins that offer the ability to display testimonials on your WordPress site.

• Easy Testimonials - Easy Testimonial is a free plugin on WordPress.org that provides a well... easy way to display testimonials on your site, in a widget or output with a shortcode. It offers everything you'd need in such a plugin including outputting a testimonial carousel, a testimonial list. Is fully responsive and even allows you to collect testimonials on the front-end. There isn't much this plugin can't do.
• Testimonials Widget - Just like with easy testimonials, testimonials widget is a free plugin available on WordPress.org. Once again offer a wide range of functionality and display options with both widget and shortcode options for output. Though unlike Easy Testimonials you can't collect testimonials from your customers using Testimonials Widget.
• Testimonials Showcase - Testimonials Showcase is one of the most featured packed testimonials plugins available. Not only does it offer multiple layouts including display in either a grid or slider, it comes with an in-built star rating system. Multiple customization options and front-end submission form for collecting testimonials. Unlike both other plugins mentioned though this one isn't free and will set you back $16 per site.

The "WordPress" way.

In the WordPress editor switch to text mode and you can either use HTML or plain text. If you'd rather use the WYSIWYG editor, but beware that you may end up with out of whack spacing on how you want it laid out.

 

If you'd rather not use a plugin or a specific theme for implementing such functionality on your website that shouldn't be an issue.

 

By using the standard WordPress editor, you can simply use the built-in media functionality to add the image, and if your theme offers built-in caption support, you could include the name of the client or their testimonial as a caption. Then once you've done that. Just add some text with anything required such as the name or testimonial and you'll good to go.

You may though be thinking well that looks crap. You could well be correct, depending on your theme the styling may look a little wonky. This is when it wouldn't go amiss to use some HTML and CSS to get things aligned and styled as you'd like. If you'd like some nicely styled testimonials and don't want to use a plugin and you don't know HTML or CSS have no fear! Follow this simple tutorial over on w3Schools .

Just add the HTML in the "text" portion of the WordPress editor (not the WYSIWYG editor). Then add the CSS to your global custom CSS in the wp-admin > Appearance > Customize > Custom CSS (destination will vary depending on your theme). Notice your site looks a little wonky after following the tutorial? That's most likely because the custom CSS added to which your theme uses the same classes. Go back to the HTML and prefix any classes with your site name, your initials or anything you want. Maybe jk-container instead of just container. But don't forget to update your CSS as well!

Conclusion

There are many ways to add testimonials to your WordPress site and hopefully you know have a better idea of how to implement such functionality on your site. So do you find testimonials help your conversions? Maybe you used to use testimonials but don't anymore? Let us know in the comments below.