Reputation was important to businesses long before the internet. However, with the rise of online reviews, managing a business’s reputation has taken on a whole new dimension. Some businesses saw online review as a nuisance at best and an intense effort to ruin them at worst.
For businesses that have taken a more constructive stance towards them, online reviews were an opportunity to gain some of that coveted social proof. Anyone looking to embed Yelp reviews on their WordPress website will likely fall into a more constructive crowd.
In this article, we will show you:
Why You Should Add Yelp Reviews to Your Website
Yelp reviews – or any other online review – are an asset that can find use in many different situations. Need a reference? Why not choose the best from your online reviews? Do you want to promote your website on social media? Social networks have their own review features, they are also an excellent channel for sharing reviews from other platforms. Need to take control of your local SEO? Again, you’ll need reviews to get the most out of it.
For a business that understands how to manage Yelp reviews, having them featured on their website is like a badge of honor that also helps them sell everything they sell. After all, reviews are a form of social proof and people will take them into account when making purchasing decisions.
Adding Yelp reviews can be more beneficial than letting your website visitors leave reviews right there on your website. Yelp is a third-party service, so any review with it can seem more credible than a review on your website. Again, this only works if your business has good reviews and you have a good understanding of how to manage the bad ones.
How to Embed Yelp Reviews on Your WordPress Website
To be able to add Yelp Reviews to your website, you will need two things – a Yelp Account that you will use to create an app, and a WordPress plugin that will allow you to view all the information you will get from Yelp using the app.
You have to understand that although they can do it in different ways, several different plugins can do the job perfectly. Here are some of the add-ons you can choose from:
We will use RichPlugins’ Widget for Yelp Reviews plugin to show you how to easily add Yelp reviews to your website. Before we get to that, let’s move on to creating an app on Yelp.
Create an App on Yelp
The purpose of creating the app on Yelp is to get an API key. You’ll then use this key to link your Yelp widget to the review website itself. To get started, you can go to: Developer’s subdirectory on Yelp.
Here you have to select Yelp Fusion from all the options you have and hit the “Get started” button when the Fusion page opens. There, you will be asked to create a new application.
After filling in all the required information and clicking the “Create New Application” button, You can access information about your app, including your client ID and most importantly your API Key.
Now that you have the most important information you will need from Yelp, you can go to the backend of your website. There is a plugin waiting for you to install.
Add the Yelp Widget to Your Website
After logging into your website and viewing the backend, you can navigate to: Plugins – Add New. You can search for the term “Yelp” and one of the first results that will pop up will be RichPlugins’ Widget for Yelp Reviews. Go ahead and install and activate the plugin.
After installing and activating the plugin, you can proceed. Settings > Yelp Review Widget. There you will find the general settings tab, which is where you need to paste your Yelp API key. Go back to the Yelp Developers site, copy the key and paste it into the appropriate field.
The plugin allows you to add Yelp reviews to your WordPress website using shortcodes and widgets. The shortcode will work better if you want to display the reviews on a post or on a page, within the body of the content. The widget option is better if you want the reviews to appear in predefined areas where widgets are usually located.
In the Shortcode tab, you can link to a business whose reviews you want to view. You automatically get a business ID, a generated copy of the shortcode, as well as a few useful options such as pagination, widget size, and the ability to set a dark background.
Once you have the shortcode, adding the widget is as simple as: copy and paste the shortcode into the page or post it where you want it to appear.
The other way of adding it as a widget will probably give better looking results. get over your head Appearance > Widgets. You’ll search for the Yelp Review Widget and you’ll probably find it at the very bottom.
You will be able to choose how the widget is displayed – in the sidebar, header, footer depending on what is supported by your theme – and when you are satisfied with your selection, you can hit the “Add Widget” button.
You will find the widget under the appropriate widget category – in this case sidebar widgets. Once again you will have to enter your business link, give the widget a title and take care of all the settings. Save the widget when done.
Next, you have to make sure your new widget’s homepage is enabled and visible in the theme. Once you’re done with that, you can have peace of mind knowing that the Yelp reviews you choose – you don’t have to add reviews for your own business – will appear on your website.
Let’s wrap it up!
If you play well, online reviews on websites like Yelp can easily become a great asset for your business. To get to this stage, you first need to learn how to deal with bad reviews and what is the best way to trust the good ones.
When it comes to the latter, displaying Yelp reviews on your WordPress website is a great strategy. It’s incredibly easy to set up, doesn’t need to cost you a dime, and provides all the social proof you could need to let your potential customers relax knowing they’re in good hands.
