How do you display Google reviews on your website, in short?
Someone landing on your website wants reassurance: is it good, is it reliable, have other people been happy? Your Google reviews answer those questions better than any sales copy, because they come from your customers.
You still need to show them properly. Some methods are free but limited; others are richer but come with strict terms of use. And in many countries, publishing customer reviews comes with information rules that few business owners know about.
Why show your Google reviews on your website?
Most of your visitors have already seen your Google profile, or will. Showing reviews on your site still does three useful things.
Reassure people at the moment of decision
A visitor reading your menu, services or prices is making up their mind. A few well-placed reviews next to the booking button or quote form answer that last hesitation without sending them elsewhere.
Give concrete examples
A review describing a specific experience (“the birthday cake was ready on time”, “the leak was fixed the same day”) says more than any slogan. It shows what you do well, in your customers’ own words.
Invite people to leave their own
A reviews section is also the perfect place for a “Leave us a Google review” link, giving happy customers who visit your site a direct path to the form. Our article Google review link: find it and share it shows how to get that link.
What displaying reviews won’t do: it doesn’t directly improve your position on Google Maps, which depends on your profile, and it won’t put stars next to your site in search results (more on that below).
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What are the ways to display Google reviews?
Here are the five options, from the simplest to the most technical.
| Method | What visitors see | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|---|
| Button or link to your profile | A “Our Google reviews” button | Free, instant, always up to date, no special rules | Visitors leave your site to read the reviews |
| Embedded Google Map | Your business on a map, with a link to the profile | Free, also helps people find you | Reviews aren’t shown in full on the page |
| Widget from a specialist tool | A review block that updates automatically | Quick to install, polished look | Often paid; subject to the tool’s terms and Google’s |
| Google Places API | Up to 5 reviews pulled from Google | Official, current data | Development work, billed requests, mandatory attribution, no storage |
| Hand-quoted reviews | A few chosen quotes, with author and date | Free, fully under your control | Needs updating; disclosure rules apply |
1. A button to your profile
The basics, and often enough. A clear “Read our Google reviews” button, with your rating if you like (keep it current), opening your profile in a new tab. Add a second link to the review form for customers who want to write one.
2. An embedded Google Map
Google lets you embed a map of your business on your contact page, straight from Google Maps (“Share”, then “Embed a map”). It mainly helps customers find you and gives them one-click access to your profile, where the reviews live. It isn’t really a way of displaying reviews.
3. A widget from a specialist tool
Plenty of tools offer a review block you paste into your site. Before picking one, check the price, how reviews are fetched, whether the tool filters reviews (and tells visitors so), how much the script slows your pages down and what happens if you cancel.
4. The Google Places API
For a custom-built site, a developer can pull your profile’s reviews through Google’s Places API. It returns at most 5 reviews, sorted by relevance, and the reviews field is billed in the API’s most expensive tier. The display rules are covered in the next section.
5. Hand-quoted reviews
You can quote a few reviews on your home page or service pages. Copy them word for word, with the author’s display name, the date and the rating, plus a link to all your reviews. It is simple and effective, as long as you follow the disclosure rules below.
What rules does Google set for displaying reviews through its API?
If you or your developer use the Google Places API, Google Maps Platform’s rules are specific. According to the Places API policies page:
- Google attribution: when the data isn’t shown on a Google map, the Google logo must appear, and included attribution must never be removed.
- Author credit: you must always credit a review’s author, using their avatar, name and profile link when space allows. When space is tight, the minimum is the avatar.
- Clear ordering: you must include a clear notice describing how reviews are ordered and filtered. By default, they are ordered by relevance.
- Link to the source: visitors must be able to view the original review on Google Maps.
- No storage: API content must not be pre-fetched, cached or stored beyond the allowed exceptions (the place ID itself can be stored).
These rules also apply to any widget built on the API, so ask the vendor how they comply. A widget that scrapes reviews without attribution, or quietly shows only 5-star reviews, puts you at needless risk.
What do consumer protection rules say about displaying reviews?
Rules on online reviews vary from country to country, so check what applies where you trade. In the UK, the US and the EU, the direction of travel is the same: reviews must be genuine, and the way you present them must not mislead customers. A few principles hold almost everywhere:
- Be honest about selection. Featuring a handful of reviews is fine; presenting a hand-picked selection as if it were all your reviews can mislead. Say it is a selection and link to the full set.
- Never edit a review. Fixing a typo or trimming an awkward sentence changes the author’s words. Quote exactly, or don’t quote.
- Show dates and sources. When a review was written, and where, helps visitors judge it.
- Never invent or buy reviews. Fake reviews are illegal in many countries and against Google’s policies.
- Disclose incentives. If customers received anything for leaving a review, say so where your rules require it.
If you trade in France, the rules are more detailed: the Consumer Code requires, among other things, the date of each review and of the experience, and a statement on whether reviews are checked. Our French guide covers this in full.
Will reviews on your site put stars next to it in Google?
It is a stubborn myth: add reviews and structured data (“schema”) to your site and yellow stars will appear under your link in Google. For a local business, they won’t.
Google’s official documentation on review snippets is clear: if the entity being reviewed controls the reviews about itself, its pages using the LocalBusiness type or any other Organization type are ineligible for star ratings. Google’s own example is reviews published on the business’s own website, including through an embedded third-party widget. LocalBusiness and Organization are only eligible on sites that publish reviews about other businesses.
In practice:
- be wary of any tool promising Google stars through its widget;
- don’t add misleading review markup to your pages: at best it is ignored, at worst it risks a manual action from Google;
- the stars people see on Google are your profile’s, so that is where reviews matter most. Our guide to getting more Google reviews shows how.
Where should reviews go on your website to be useful?
A wall of reviews at the bottom of the home page rarely gets read. A few well-chosen reviews where visitors hesitate work much better.
- Next to the action: beside the “Book” button, the quote form or the appointment widget.
- On service pages: a review about the dish, treatment or type of job featured on that page.
- On the home page: two or three short, varied reviews, with a link to all of them.
- On the contact page: the map, your address and the link to your Google profile, where all the reviews are.
Mix customer profiles (regulars, newcomers, different services) and refresh the selection from time to time: reviews from several years ago make a site look neglected. Think about phones too: on a small screen, two short reviews beat a scrolling carousel.
Finally, show that you reply. Quoting a review alongside a good reply shows you care. Our guide to replying to Google reviews explains the method.
Which method should you choose?
The right choice mostly depends on how your site is built and how much time you have.
- You want simple and free: a button to your profile on every key page, plus two or three quoted reviews with author and date, labelled as a selection. That is enough for most local businesses.
- Your site runs on a mainstream website builder: see whether it offers a reviews section or a compatible widget, and check its terms (filtering, attribution, price).
- Your site is custom-built: the Places API is an option, but ask your developer to follow the attribution rules and store nothing, and factor in the cost of requests.
- You have a Voxtya website: it includes a “Reviews” section showing reviews from your customers on the page. For an existing site, Voxtya also offers embeddable widgets (bookings, menu, prize wheel and a review collection page): they help you collect reviews, not display them.
For the rest of your site (must-have pages, legal basics, speed on phones), see our small business website guide.
Which mistakes should you avoid when displaying reviews?
- A frozen rating. “4.9 on Google” typed in two years ago may no longer be true. Update it or link to your profile.
- Edited reviews. Even a corrected typo changes the author’s words.
- A selection presented as the whole. Say it is a selection and link to all your reviews.
- Missing dates. They help visitors judge reviews, and some rules require them.
- Promising Google stars. For a local business, reviews on its own site aren’t eligible.
- A heavy page. A bulky widget slows things down on phones; test page speed before and after.
- Mislabelled sources. Don’t present reviews from elsewhere as Google reviews; always show the real source.
And remember the essential point: a polished display is no substitute for a steady flow of new reviews. A QR code at the counter, made with our free Google review QR code generator, does more for your reputation than the nicest widget.
The steps at a glance
The steps to choose a display method and present your Google reviews clearly and fairly.
- Add a button to your profile. Put a “Read our Google reviews” link on key pages, plus a link to the review form.
- Choose a display method. Quoted reviews, a tool’s widget or the Google Places API, depending on your site and budget.
- Pick a few reviews. Varied, recent and relevant to the services shown on each page.
- Quote them exactly. Exact wording, the author’s display name, date and rating, with no edits.
- Add a short disclosure. Say it is a selection and link to all your reviews.
- Follow the API rules. If you use the Places API: Google logo, author credit, ordering notice, no storage.
- Refresh regularly. Update the selection and the displayed rating a few times a year.
Do it without spending your evenings on it
The Voxtya website
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