How To Show Testimonials in WordPress

One way to increase conversions using your WordPress site is to display feedback to potential customers in the form of testimonials. For best effect, you’ll also want to use tools that are tailored specifically for creating and managing them.

However, finding solutions with just the right combination of features and usability can be challenging. That’s why we’ve done the work of finding suitable plugins you can use to easily create, feature, and manage customer testimonials.

In this post, we’ll walk through how to create custom testimonials in WordPress. Let’s dive right in!

Why Create Custom Testimonials?

If you want, you can simply add customer testimonials manually to your posts and pages. However, this method won’t provide you with a central location for easily managing them. You’ll also need to copy and paste each quote manually, which is inefficient.

A better option is to use tools built specifically for creating and managing testimonials. This offers you automatic structuring and formatting, a centralized location for managing all of your testimonials, and even an option to display them using a pleasing sliding animation. 

How to Make a Testimonial Slider

A typical testimonial slider functions similarly to a carousel. It slides through each testimonial one at a time, and the transitions are accompanied by some kind of animation.

Creating a testimonial slider in WordPress can be accomplished using a plugin. First you’ll need to create a slider or ‘rotator’, and then attach the testimonials to it. In the next section, we’ll walk through this process in detail.

Creating Custom Testimonials Using Plugins

There are several plugins that provide functionality for creating custom testimonials. Examples include Easy Testimonials, Testimonial Rotator, Testimonials Widget, Strong Testimonials, and more. Every plugin works a little differently, so let’s look at a few examples.

1. Testimonial Rotator

First up, let’s learn how to create custom testimonials displayed as a slider, using the Testimonial Rotator plugin.

Step 1: Add a Rotator

You’ll want to start by installing and activating the Testimonial Rotator plugin. Once this is done, navigate to Testimonials > Add Rotator:

Here, you’ll need to add a new rotator before you can begin creating customer testimonials. The rotators are used to group the testimonials, and display them in sliders or carousels. For example, you might want to display different groups of testimonials for the various services you offer.

Next you’ll want to enter some basic details for your new rotator, starting with a name:

Further down the screen, you can select options for your new rotator. These include settings such as transition effects, image sizes, whether or not you want the testimonial display order randomized, and so on:

The drop-down option for image size is necessary if you want your images displayed differently than your theme allows for by default. After that, the “Hide” options enable you to remove various aspects of the rotator:

These changes can also be made from the Widgets screen.

The Select a Theme section gives you a choice between seven different themes. Simply click on Use to choose whichever option you prefer:

Once you’ve made your desired changes, click on the Publish button to make them permanent.

Step 2: Add Testimonials to Your Rotator

Next, it’s time to add your testimonials. To get started, navigate to Testimonials > Add New:

The first option here is the title field, where you can feature a snippet from the testimonial. You’ll also want to enter the full text of the testimonial in the main editor.

Note that if you selected the Hide Title checkbox in the rotator settings earlier, this field will be hidden in your testimonial slider:

Next, scroll down to the bottom of the screen. There you’ll see collapsible tabs titled Testimonial Options, Testimonial Image, and Testimonial Order:

The Testimonial Options section provides three choices:

• Attach to Rotator: This is where you can match testimonials to rotators. For example, you can add this testimonial to the rotator you created in the previous step.
• Star Rating: You can have star ratings show up alongside your testimonials.
• Author Information: This displays information about the person who gave the testimonial.

The next two tabs let you add a featured image, and specify a custom order for displaying your testimonial.

Step 3: Display Your Testimonials

Finally, you’ll need to display the testimonials you’ve created. Navigate to Appearance > Widgets and find the Testimonial Rotator option:

Click and drag it wherever you want it displayed:

Once the widget is dropped in a suitable location, you’ll need to customize some more settings. The first is to enter a title. This can be anything you choose, such as “Customer Testimonials” or “What Our Customers Are Saying”:

The Limit field lets you specify a maximum number of testimonials to display on the page. Featuring too many testimonials can slow down your website.

The Display field lets you select how you want your testimonials formatted. The List display type comes without animations, and all content is shown at the same time. The Rotator display type creates a slider that uses animations.

The options for Show as determine whether or not you want to display the full testimonial or an excerpt. If you choose to show an excerpt but none is found, it will be automatically created from the beginning of the testimonial.

Custom Excerpt Length enables you to choose how long the excerpt selected above (if any) will be. This is counted in words, not characters. Finally, there’s an Override Rotator Settings option, which when checked expands to show you all the settings that can be overridden:

This is useful for specifying some common settings via your rotator, and overriding them as needed for each testimonial group you create.

2. Easy Testimonials

Next, let’s walk through how to display custom testimonials using the Easy Testimonials plugin. You can start by installing and activating it, and then you’ll be ready to jump right in.

Step 1: Create Your Testimonials

First, navigate to Easy Testimonials > Add New Testimonial to create a testimonial. This will open up the WordPress editor. This means that your testimonial can be structured similar to any post or page:

Below the post editor, you’ll notice the Testimonial Information meta box. There you can enter information such as Client Name, Email Address, Rating, and more.

Once you’ve included all the necessary details, publish your testimonial and you can view it live right away:

You can repeat this process to create as many testimonials as you need. Then you can display them on a page or post, using the WordPress Block Editor.

Step 2: Display Your Testimonials

At this point, open a page or post and click on the plus icon to add a new block from the Easy Testimonials plugin. You’ll notice that there are five display types to choose from:

You can pick Single Testimonial to display just one peice of content, Random Testimonial to show a random one, Testimonials List for a longer selection, Testimonials Cycle for a slider, or Testimonials Grid to display them in a table format.

For example, here’s what the grid display type looks like:

Note that the Easy Testimonials plugin is a lot more comprehensive than Testimonials Rotator. You might want to explore all of the available options, to familiarize yourself with them and make tweaks to suit your specific needs:

For instance, you can choose to display your testimonials using shortcodes rather than blocks. To do that, navigate to Easy Testimonials > Shortcode Generator. Follow the instructions on the screen to generate a shortcode, which you can copy and paste anywhere you want your testimonials to appear:

There are several more options available, such as using CSS to customize the look of your testimonials, or even creating a form for collecting them from your customers. Some of these extra features are free, while others might require an upgrade to the premium version.

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Displaying testimonials on your site is an excellent way to gain the trust of potential customers. It also offers you a way to shine the spotlight on existing customers, which helps you build stronger relationships with them.

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