Do you want to display & add Yelp reviews on your WordPress site? Yelp reviews are user reviews about restaurants, brands, services, lifestyle products, hospitals, doctors, and more. This article will show you how to display Yelp reviews on your WordPress site for users to read general public reviews. Check the best Yelp business reviews website implementation guide for WordPress.
Testimonials and reviews are some of the most powerful tools to build trust. In this article, we’re going to talk about why you should showcase your business reviews up and front, with a focus on Yelp. We’ll also introduce you to a plugin to help you add Yelp reviews to WordPress and teach you how to use it.
Reviews Importance
People looking to buy new products or try new services tend to look online to find the best option. Setting up a website to promote your business is an excellent way to reach them, but having an online presence might not be enough.
Having a site can help people find you, but you also need to present your business in an excellent light to convince those visitors to become customers.
There are a lot of ways you can use your website to build trust with prospective customers. For example, you can use product photos, showcase your services, share contact information, and more. Those are the basics that almost any business website can benefit from.
However, if you want to go the extra mile, you should include client reviews and testimonials for your business.
Testimonials are an excellent way to build trust with visitors to your website. They help validate your business and provide valuable information to prospective clients. People tend to trust recommendations from their peers more than sales pitches, which can be powerful tools.
These days, there are a lot of platforms people can use to leave reviews for businesses online, such as Google and Yelp. We’re focusing on Yelp for this article because it’s one of the most popular online platforms for business reviews.
Remember that when it comes to business reviews, you shouldn’t limit yourself to displaying five-star comments. You want to have as many excellent reviews as possible, but if all your testimonials are too glowing, it can make them look false.
However, if your business does have an abundance of five-star reviews, then by all means, don’t be shy about showing them off.
Yelp Reviews Widget WordPress Plugin: Display Implementation Guide
The Reviews Widget plugin lets you pull data from Yelp and display it on WordPress using a widget. This plugin can showcase the latest reviews for any Yelp business you want, including multiple locations.
Out of the box, the plugin pulls the latest three reviews from whichever Yelp business you choose. The default style the plugin uses for the reviews is very clean, and it showcases their star ratings so that visitors can get a quick idea about your business’ quality.
The way the plugin works, it needs a Yelp API key to pull the information it needs from the platform. It then stores your latest reviews within the WordPress database, so it doesn’t have to remove them from Yelp each time someone visits your site.
It’s the only Yelp plugin with this feature, which can slightly increase loading times and avoid issues in case Yelp is temporarily unavailable.
Key Features:
- It enables you to pull data from Yelp through its API.
- Add Yelp reviews to WordPress using widgets.
- Store your Yelp reviews within the WordPress database.
Price: The standard plugin is free, and the developers also offer a premium version, which starts at $45.
We should also mention that other plugins enable you to add Yelp reviews to WordPress. For example, the Yelp Widget Pro plugin shares a lot of functionality with our pick, so feel free to check out either plugin to see which one you prefer.
Usage In WordPress to Display Yelp Reviews in WordPress
We’re now going to put the Yelp Reviews Widget plugin to use. As such, go ahead and install then activate the plugin before proceeding.
API Key Yelp Reviews WordPress Implementation Guide
To connect your website with Yelp, you’ll need an account on the platform ready to go. Log into your account, then jump to the Yelp Developers page. Inside, you’ll find a button that says Explore Yelp Fusion which is the platform’s program that enables developers to build apps with its API. Click on that button now:
On the next page, a button reads Fusion API on the top menu. Click it and then look for the Create App option on the next page, which you’ll see on the left-hand side: It will now ask you for a few details about your ‘app.’
You only need to fill in a few primary fields, such as App Name and Contact Email. When you’ve done that, click on the Create New App button:
Your app should be ready to go now, and you’ll get access to a Yelp Client ID and API Key: Keep this tab open for now and return to your WordPress dashboard. Next up, we will connect the Yelp Reviews Widget plugin to the platform using this key.
Plugin Setup Yelp Reviews WordPress Implementation Guide
Once you’re on your dashboard, jump to the Settings > Yelp Reviews Widget tab. The plugin will display a welcome screen with instructions, which you can ignore for now. Instead, switch to the Settings tab:
The plugin will ask you to enter your API key, which you obtained during the previous step. Paste it in the API Key field and click on the Save button below: That’s it! Now all that’s left is to use the plugin’s widget to add reviews to your pages.
Reviews Widget
Using the Reviews widget is no different than any other widget. Go to the Appearance > Widget tab and look for the indicated widget at the bottom of the page: Drag the Reviews widget to the section where you want to display it. In the example below, we’re adding it to our sidebar, right below the search bar:
Now, let’s go ahead and choose which business’ reviews the widget will display. Technically, you can use the widget to show reviews from any Yelp’ business, but you’ll want to display yours. You can do this by using the Search Term and Location fields to help the widget narrow down the options and pull a list using the Search Business button:
When you find your business, select it. The plugin will now display your business’ latest reviews and you can save your selection: You’ll also notice there are a few extra tabs that read Review Options, Display Options, and Advanced Options. These settings are only available for the pro version of the plugin, so skip these and save your finished widget.
Your widget is now good to go! It should appear on your pages if you’re using a design that includes a sidebar: However, If you’re a Divi user, remember you need to add sidebars to your pages using the Sidebar module: Once you select the module, you can choose which Widget Area to display:
Save the changes to your page, and that’s it! This approach requires a couple of small extra steps. However, but it gives you full control over where to display your Yelp reviews.
Final Words on Yelp Reviews WordPress Implementation Guide
There are many ways you can build trust with your website’s visitors. However, few methods are as effective as displaying reviews from past customers.
In these cases, pulling reviews from a third-party platform such as Yelp tells visitors they’re the real deal. If you want to add Yelp reviews to WordPress, we recommend you use the Reviews Widget plugin and follow these steps: Get an API key. Configure the plugin. Add the Reviews widget to your pages.
