Introduction to TrustQuotes for Web


In this article we will cover:

  • What is TrustQuotes for Web?
  • Building a widget
  • Deploying your widget
  • Advanced Customization
  • Best practices
  • Trademark considerations
  • TrustQuotes for Web Star Ratings Feature



What is TrustQuotes for Web?

TQFW is an easy to build, self-serve digital widget filled with customer proof published on TrustRadius. The widget can be deployed across 1 or more landing pages that you want to drive higher conversion and multiply pipeline deals with. TQFW allows you to dynamically stream review excerpts based upon review tags and other parameters.



Building a Widget

Here is a step-by-step guide to configuring your TrustQuotes for Web widget

  1. Log into the vendor portal on TrustRadius
  2. Navigate to the TrustQuotes tab, then access TrustQuotes for Web on the side panel
  3. Click "New Widget"
  4. Under Basic Configuration, fill out the following:
    1. A recognizable name for your widget
    2. How buyers can act if they click through the widget to TrustRadius
      1. This is a feature for buyers to dive more in-depth to your product reviews
      2. Click through rates are very low (buyers are more likely to stay on your page)
  5. Under Filters, configure which TrustQuotes will populate the widget
    1. Filter Tags
      1. Limits the quotes to only those matching the selected tags
      2. Recommended for narrow content targeting 
      3. Priority of tags are set under "sorting"
    2. Minimum Overall Rating
    3. Include Anonymous
      1. If set to no, reviewers who have withheld their names (appearing as "Authenticated Reviewer" on TrustRadius) will be excluded
    4. Maximum Quotes
      1. Per Reviewer
        1. Limits how many quotes are shown per reviewer
        2. Sorting options determine the top quotes
      2. Total
        1. The overall limit on the quotes to be loaded into the widget
        2. Improves performance for very large numbers of quotes
  6. Under Sorting, determine the ordering of TrustQuotes after filters are applied:
    1. Tag Ordering
      1. Prioritizes quotes based on the provided tags
      2. This can be used for prioritizing the most relevant quotes for a given page (ex: vertical market-focused, geography focused, etc.)
    2. Anonymous
      1. Prioritizes "on the record" over "off the record" reviewers
    3. Date
      1. Prioritizes content freshness
      2. Setting the date interval determines the date equivalence. This allows you to bucket quotes based on the number of days set within the filter.
        1. For example, if you set the date interval to 30 days, all quotes from reviews within a 30 day period will be treated as one "block" and the quotes within that block will be treated as equal for sorting purposes. 
        2. Within a date interval/block of quotes, quotes will then be sorted by the next sorting criteria that is applied (i.e. sorted by Rating)
    4. Rating
      1. Prioritizes higher ratings over lower ratings
  7. Display
    1. Display Style
      1. Speech Balloons - Shows quotes with speech balloons with reviewer headshot
        1. Balloon Width - sets minimum width in pixels (for responsiveness)
        2. Balloons Displayed - sets the maximum number of balloons (columns)
      2. Classic - A less graphical, more text-based rendering
        1. Navigation Mode - Paginated (with buttons) vs scrollable window
        2. Navigation Controls - Up/down vs left/right navigation buttons
        3. Group Quotes - By reviewer vs individually (one entry per quote)
    2. Quote Display Options
      1. Maximum Quote Length - Sets maximum characters per quote (truncated with "...") - manages space constraints
      2. Review Titles - Determines whether or not review titles are featured and linked
      3. Reviewer Info - Determines whether reviewer details are included when available (title/role/company size, etc.)
    3. Widget Decoration Options
      1. Default Header - Includes/ suppresses "Reviews on TrustRadius" header
      2. Default Footer - Includes/suppresses footer link to "Read all reviews"
    4. Debug in Preview
      1. Shows detailed review and quote scoring information in the preview only (not in live deployments)
    5. Custom CSS
      1. Include specified CSS (Cascading Stylesheet) code for in-line customization (see "Advanced Customization" for more details)

   


Deploying a Widget

To Deploy a TrustQuotes for Web Syndication :

  1. Click “Get JS Code” from within the Preview window
  2. Set the desired widget height (in pixels) and background color
  3. Copy the two lines of code from within the “Get JavaScript Deploy Code” dialog :
    1. <div> container for the TrustQuotes for Web widget
    2. <script> tag that loads the configured widget
  4. Embed the copied code into the target page


Note: After deployment, any saved changes to widget configuration will affect live deployed widgets

Note: If desired, the same widget configuration cab be deployed to multiple site locations (analytics will remain segmented by location)



Advanced Customization

By default, the TrustQuotes for Web widget appears exactly as in the Preview. 


However, visual styles (fonts, colors, …) can be overridden, and are defined in: https://d30ia583fbtg8i.cloudfront.net/trustquotes/style.css


To override visual styling of the widget there are two options:


  1. Inside TrusQuotes for Web configuration via the “Custom CSS” field in the Display tab
    1. Custom CSS will be served in-line with the widget 
    2. Custom CSS applies automatically everywhere the widget appears
    3. Preview reflects any entered Custom CSS
  2. Outside TrustQuotes for Web via CSS directives on the target page(s) or in the included style sheet(s)
    1. Custom CSS must be edited separately in your page / CMS
    2. Custom CSS must be provided/included in each widget location


Note: Preview will not reflect any custom CSS



Best Practices

  • Place on conversion-focused pages where you can get a measurable benefit via increased conversion to a free trial, demo request, price quote request, webinar registration, etc.
  • Filter the widget's TrustQuotes to speak directly to the market segment coming to the page (match quotes to the context)
  • Make the widget visible (or partially visible) above the fold on shorter pages, on long copy pages keep it close to CTA for the page
  • If A/B testing isn't possible, do your best to construct before and after trend lines to quantify the impact
  • Add enough styling/formatting to make the widget compatible with your site, but not so much that you lose the benefit of 3rd-party validation.  
  • Keep the TrustRadius logo to boost social proof.
  • Emphasize relevance of the quotes via the syndication headline (use a header tag)
  • Use a mix of "classic" and "bubble quotes" syndication, with a preference for the former at points of
    conversion (next to web forms) and the latter on informational pages
  • Make the classic widget taller and wider where possible - more visible quotes will be more impactful


Trademark Considerations

  • Using the logo of the reviewer’s employer alongside a pull quote or otherwise attributing the
    quote to a company instead of an individual requires permission from an authorized representative of the company
  • TrustRadius does not display employer logos




TrustQuotes for Web: Star Ratings Feature


What Do Review Snippets Do for SEO?

These stars in Google search results allow your brand to stand out in search results for keywords that you already rank well for. For keywords on the first page of Google that don't already rank in position 1, this gives you a quick and easy way to drive more organic traffic via an improved click through rate (CTR). Studies have shown that you can see up to 35% increase in CTR when you have stars enabled in the search results. Some of our customers are also reporting improved rankings after driving higher CTR from URLs showing the star ratings.

This increased traffic comes in addition to the SEO benefits derived from using the TrustQuotes for Web widget that allows you to pull in review content into any page on your site. This content adds fresh and keyword rich content to the pages where you’ve added the widget. We've seen this lead to an increased volume in keywords that your URLs can rank for as well as improved rankings for keywords that you already rank for. Google is able to see and index this content on your site and use it in evaluating your pages for rankings in search as explained in this video from Google. This is why working with a site like TrustRadius who has the highest quality review content is a great way to help power your own website’s SEO results.


How Do I Activate This New Review Snippet Feature?

  1. Login to your Vendor Portal on TrustRadius.com

  1. Click on the “TrustQuotes” tab 

  1. Click on “TrustQuotes for Web” in the left-hand sidebar

  1. Click on the “Actions” button next to the TQW you would like to enable the stars structured data markup on and click “Configure” from the drop-down menu.

  1. Toggle the button next to “Google Review Stars Enabled” to the “on” setting (it will turn green when it is on). Make sure you click the “Save” button at the bottom of this page to save your settings.

  1. Resubmit URLs to your own Google Search Console. Google ultimately decides when and if they want to display the stars in the SERP for your domain. The time estimate could be anywhere between a few hours to a few weeks. The best thing you can do is follow our guidelines for setting up the widget, testing that the structured data is indeed working on your widget, and then resubmitting all URLs on your website where you have implemented the TQW with stars into your own Google Search Console for reindexing request to Google.

More questions related to this feature can be found in the FAQs here.