testimonials

[findtim]

hi, i have always skipped past testimonials on websites as who is going to post a bad one ?????????
BUT, with social media and the change of thinking in peoples minds i think this is now a VERY important area of a website.
lets use dubbodentist once again
this thread is about asking for different ways of making testimonials MORE valuable to the visitor.
I do not read them, also others don't ? they read testimonials on facebook but not on websites !!!! so why is that ?
my research shows the testimonials page is by far the LEAST visited page in my clients websites.
BUT i think it can be the most powerful conversion page/post/widget IMO............. but the visitors disagree !
have testimonials now become outdated?
how are you finding the testimonial pages ? or is it not defunct and just social media? which doesn't make sense to me as i still want a testimonial from "tony the plumber" who says " great website, great to work with tim and my business has grown since i got a website .......... "
tonytheplumber dot com dot au ( its a made up domain )

tim

 

[Shane]

I use a testimonials page on my business site.
It may only get a few dozen visits per month, but based on the analytics I can tell you it's in the top 10 for time spent on page and the top 5 for value generated.
So they may not get visited a lot, but in my opinion they provide very good value.

 

[findtim]

I use a testimonials page on my business site.
It may only get a few dozen visits per month, but based on the analytics I can tell you it's in the top 10 for time spent on page and the top 5 for value generated.
So they may not get visited a lot, but in my opinion they provide very good value.

thanks for the feedback shane, whats your opinion on having a DATE ? of the feedback, i'm for NOT having a date as self managed websites tend to get old

i have a client right now that won a "local council business award 2012 " and wants to put it on his site !!! , i'm going ummmmmmmmmmmm , its a bit old now !!!
keep it current is my view. if he had done 2011,2012,2013,2014 then that would be ok i think.

tim

 

[Ashman]

Tim,

I sell physical products and people often leave comments about their experience with the product. I don't have a testimonial page as such.
However, the other day I received an email from a customer asking for customer testimonials.
I am in the process of re-designing my website so I will include a prominent section for testimonials this time.

 

[FirstPageResults]

Dedicated page sounds a bit old school to me. Not convinced it adds much value - nothing that can't be integrated into a well designed site/page/layout anyway.

I do prefer the use of 3rd party review sites though (for obvious reasons). You can always quote a testimonial from one of those sources, which adds some credibility.

 

[findtim]

Dedicated page sounds a bit old school to me. Not convinced it adds much value - nothing that can't be integrated into a well designed site/page/layout anyway.

I do prefer the use of 3rd party review sites though (for obvious reasons). You can always quote a testimonial from one of those sources, which adds some credibility.

i know i'm a bit off track here FPR but do you not think you can end up with bad testimonials going down that path?
which gets me back to allowing comments, allowing automatic comments can be a dangerous thing.

tim

 

[FirstPageResults]

I didn't mean to automate it in anyway, if that's what you're thinking.

I'm just saying that unless you are putting a persons name, and the name of a well known company next to it then your testimonial may as well be fake for all I know. At least with 3rd party review sites there is usual some vetting and quality control. If you get more bad reviews then good ones, then you probably deserve them!

For the few remaining clients that I consult to these days, I tell them to follow up with their customers and direct them to such sites. Some of them have ended up with awards/badges which you can then use in your marketing..

 

[Data Glasses]

Remember visitor number displays, they seen a bit old hat these days , does anyone have one on their site ?

 

[findtim]

Remember visitor number displays, they seen a bit old hat these days , does anyone have one on their site ?

these are like the "follow us on facebook" and it has " 2 followers" ! doesn't breed much interest, i never liked visitor counters and i use to test them out only to find the numbers would reset themselves so it was all fake.
if people care about how other many people came to your site or how many other people like you then i think they are at your site for the wrong reason. you want decision makers not sheep.

tim

 

[Shane]

thanks for the feedback shane, whats your opinion on having a DATE ? of the feedback, i'm for NOT having a date as self managed websites tend to get old

I date all of mine, but I'm constantly adding new ones to the site. I generally get around a dozen each and every month.
If you were getting a far lower number, or not regularly updating the site, then perhaps not including the date would be better.

Dedicated page sounds a bit old school to me. Not convinced it adds much value - nothing that can't be integrated into a well designed site/page/layout anyway.

I do both, in terms of having a dedicated page as well as having relevant testimonials listed down the side of each product/service page.
As I said, the dedicated page only gets a few dozen views each month, but the analytics show that it's providing good value.

 

[FirstPageResults]

I do both, in terms of having a dedicated page as well as having relevant testimonials listed down the side of each product/service page.
As I said, the dedicated page only gets a few dozen views each month, but the analytics show that it's providing good value.

Yep sounds logical. I do wonder though if people (including the dozen you mention) Google "<business name> review" as well.

Congrats on getting so much positive feedback btw, sounds like people really value your service. Are you asking for the reviews?

 

[Shane]

Yep we always ask for the reviews. Without doing that I doubt we'd get any!

 

[findtim]

Yep we always ask for the reviews. Without doing that I doubt we'd get any!

so you have a step by step process? what instigates the process as you must have many domains to focus on.
is it a plugin?
i'd like to visit one of your sites and see how the UX works if you could send me a link and thus i will give you my feedback
tim

 

[Shane]

I'll PM you Tim. I get a little paranoid about posting too much information.