Social proof like customer reviews, ratings, and testimonials helps build trust with your website visitors.
But what type of social proof should you add to your website...and how do you actually do it?
In this guide, we showcase the 11 best formats of social proof (with an example for each one), and then we detail the 7 best tools, separated by category so you know exactly which one to choose.
11 best ways to add social proof to your website (with examples)
How can you add social proof to your website? There are so many ways to add real social proof, you're sure to have one or more of these options available to you.
1. Embed your social media feed and include user-generated content
Showcase customers using your products, attending your events, or dining in your restaurant. Just embed your Instagram or other social media feed and approve posts to be sent to your website that show your products or services in a great light.
Example: Dover Saddlery
Tack brand Dover Saddlery uses Curator to add their social media feed to their website. They've got plenty of user-generated content featuring their products for riders and horses.
2. Add testimonials in line or with a carousel
Include testimonials from your clients or customers. Add a few in a row or organize them into a carousel that makes it easy for website visitors to navigate through the different quotes.
Example: Marie Forleo
Business coach and influencer Marie Forleo includes testimonials from students of her signature course, B-School, on her website. Site visitors can click the arrows to read more testimonials in the carousel.
3. Embed customer reviews from a trusted platform
Instead of adding standard text testimonials, you can embed reviews directly from a well-known platform like Trustpilot, Google, Facebook, Yelp, Airbnb, or other relevant review website.
Example: Rosedale Chevrolet
Rosedale Chevrolet embeds reviews from DealerRater in their website to include real reviews from a trusted, third-party source.
Example: Warren & Migliaccio, L.L.P
Warren & Migliaccio, L.L.P. is a law firm that displays client reviews with filter options by source (Facebook, Google, Avvo, and Lawyer.com), allowing visitors to choose which platform’s testimonials to read. Collecting social proof from different sources helps the company build trust and demonstrate transparency.
4. Create a portfolio page
Show off your best work, recent client projects, or artistry with portfolio images. In many industries, a picture is worth a thousand words. For graphic designers, interior designers, and other creative professionals, their portfolio is their best form of social proof.
Example: The Stone House
The Stone House is a historic venue for weddings, parties, and other private events. Immediately on the home page of their website, they include portfolio images from previous events. This shows potential customers the ambiance and style, helping them see what it would be like to choose the venue.
5. Add case studies to your website
In many industries, a testimonial or review is just not long enough to tell the full story of the customer transformation. Case studies usually include a problem statement, solution, and results to provide more details.
Example: Wepa
Wepa is a cloud-based printing solution for university campuses. In the resources section of their website, they have several case studies that showcase real photos of the printers and students who use them. Website visitors can click on a particular case study to view the full PDF story.
6. Include client logos
Client logos are one of the simplest and easiest forms of social proof in the B2B world. Because these act like a seal of approval, just make sure to get permission from your clients before adding them to your website.
Example: DevSquad
Software development agency DevSquad has a section on the homepage of their website with client logos. We like how a testimonial is included next to the logos for some extra social proof and a real human touch.
7. Add certifications and associations
Social proof isn't just the opinions of your customers. It's also about the organizations you're a part of.
In heavily regulated industries, it's important to show potential customers that you have the right credentials or are part of key associations. Medical offices, construction companies, architects, lawyers, and accountants should all consider adding this sort of social proof.
Example: Grass Valley Smiles
The Grass Valley Smiles dental office has a section on their website that showcases their memberships with the American Dental Association, California Dental Association, and the Sacramento District Dental Society. This puts patients at ease that the dental office adheres to standards and best practices.
8. Showcase before-and-after images
For products and services designed to transform people and places, before-and-after photos are the best form of social proof available. Businesses that sell weight loss, acne, hair, and beauty products should consider utilizing this sort of social proof, as well as interior designers and personal stylists.
Example: Vegamour
Vegamour is a hair growth serum. On each product page, the company adds a carousel of before-and-after images from customers to show potential buyers the positive results.
9. Add influencer endorsements and content
Many brands partner with influencers to grow their organic reach and inspire trust with their target audience. You should add your influencer endorsements and content to your website to improve conversions and reduce the sense of risk customers feel when buying a product.
Example: Tamagotchi Uni
As part of their Holiday 2023 marketing campaign for the Tamagotchi Uni, the first ever Tamagotchi with Wi-Fi, the company partnered with Charli D'Amelio, arguably the most popular TikTok influencer in the world. The website prominently showcases Charli in multiple images and videos to add a trusted face to their exciting new product.
10. Highlight your press coverage and podcast interviews
Traditional and digital PR like magazine interviews and podcast interviews are excellent forms of social proof. They show that you've gotten the attention of important media outlets, which adds a lot of credibility to your business.
Example: Selena Soo
Selena Soo is a publicity coach with an impressive media page. She includes a list of selected media coverage and articles, showing potential clients that she knows what she's doing and can help them get great press coverage too.
11. Add awards
Try adding any awards, badges, or competitions that you've won to your website to inspire trust and reduce the feeling of risk customers feel when making a purchasing decision.
Example: Authentic Web Solutions
Web development and marketing agency Authentic Web Solutions includes awards and acknowledgments on their website to show potential clients that their work is high quality and well recognized.
7 best tools for adding social proof to your website
We selected these social proof tools based on a few important criteria: ease of embedding, affordability, customization options, moderation capabilities, integrations, and how well each tool supports real-world social proof strategies like reviews, testimonials, user-generated content, and case studies. We also prioritized beginner-friendly platforms that don’t require coding or advanced web design experience.
To make it easier to find the right fit, we organized the tools into categories based on the type of social proof they help you create:
Social media & user-generated content tools for embedding social feeds, customer photos, influencer content, and live event content
Reviews & testimonial tools for showcasing customer reviews, ratings, and testimonials from trusted platforms
Case study & portfolio tools for displaying client work, success stories, reports, and visual project examples
Social media & user-generated content tools
Your customers are already creating content about your brand—these tools help you actually use it. From Instagram feeds and influencer posts to branded hashtags and live event walls, these platforms make it easy to turn real customer content into powerful social proof that keeps your website fresh, engaging, and trustworthy.
Best for:
Method #1 (social feeds + UGC)
Method #9 (influencer content)
Wall-of-love style pages
Live event content
1. Curator
✅Free plan: Yes
With Curator, you can embed your social media feed directly in your website. Set it to automated approval to add all posts to your site, or manual approval to pick and choose the best content. Curator is great for moderating and showcasing user-generated content as well as influencer-created content. And you can also add Google Reviews and Yelp reviews, making it a one-stop shop.
Features:
Social media feeds from 15+ platforms
Manual and automated moderation tools
Customizable feed templates and layouts
Review integrations for Google and Yelp
Rights management tools for UGC campaigns
Pricing:
Curator offers a strong free plan with 3 sources and 2,000 monthly views. Paid plans start at $25/month for branding removal and faster updates. Business plans start at $59/month and include premium sources, API access, and unlimited monthly views.
2. Taggbox
✅Free plan: Yes
Taggbox is a powerful platform for collecting, moderating, and displaying user-generated content from social media. You can embed Instagram posts, TikToks, reviews, videos, and branded hashtag campaigns into customizable galleries and social walls. It’s especially useful for ecommerce brands that want shoppable UGC, advanced moderation tools, and highly visual website feeds.
Features:
Shoppable social media galleries
AI-powered moderation and filtering
Review widgets and social proof embeds
Hashtag campaign aggregation
Ecommerce integrations for Shopify and more
Pricing:
Taggbox offers a free trial plus separate pricing for website widgets and social walls. Paid plans scale based on features like moderation, shoppable galleries, analytics, and display capabilities, making it a flexible option for ecommerce brands, marketers, and event teams.
3. Walls.io
✅Free plan: Yes
Walls.io helps brands collect and display social media posts, customer photos, and live event content across websites, digital signage, and event screens. It’s especially strong for conferences, universities, and community-driven brands that want interactive social walls, hashtag campaigns, polls, and direct user submissions. The platform also includes AI-powered moderation tools to help keep your feed clean and on-brand.
Features:
Live social walls for websites and events
QR-code user submissions and direct uploads
AI-powered moderation filters
Polls, reactions, and audience engagement tools
Digital signage and event screen support
Pricing:
Walls.io offers a free trial plus paid plans for websites, events, and digital displays. Website-focused plans start at around $250/year for basic social feed embeds, while higher tiers add advanced moderation, analytics, integrations, and interactive event features like polls, reactions, and direct uploads.
Reviews & testimonial tools
Nothing builds trust faster than hearing directly from happy customers. These tools make it easy to showcase reviews, ratings, and testimonials in polished widgets that look professional and feel authentic. Whether you want a simple testimonial carousel or reviews pulled from trusted third-party platforms, these platforms help reduce hesitation and increase conversions.
Best for:
Method #2 testimonials
Method #3 reviews
Client trust sections
4. Elfsight
✅Free plan: Yes
Elfsight makes it incredibly easy to add polished testimonial and review widgets to your website without coding. You can create testimonial carousels, review popups, star ratings, and social proof sections that match your brand’s style. It also supports pulling reviews from platforms like Google and Facebook, making it a flexible option for businesses that want attractive, easy-to-manage trust sections.
Features:
Testimonial sliders and carousels
Google and Facebook review integrations
Drag-and-drop widget customization
Popup reviews and star ratings
Mobile-friendly responsive designs
Pricing:
Elfsight offers a free plan with one widget and 200 monthly views. Paid plans start at $6/month billed yearly for 3 widgets and 5,000 monthly views. Higher tiers range from $12 to $24/month and add more widgets, projects, collaborators, and traffic capacity.
5. LocalImpact
❌Free plan: Free plan: No. Free trial available.
LocalImpact helps local businesses collect, manage, and showcase customer reviews across platforms like Google and Facebook. The platform combines review widgets, automated review requests, AI-powered replies, and reputation management tools in one dashboard, making it especially useful for multi-location businesses and agencies.
Features:
Review widgets for Google, Facebook, and 36+ platforms
Automated email and SMS review requests
AI-powered review replies
SEO-friendly customizable review embeds
Multi-location and white-label management tools
Pricing:
LocalImpact plans start at $19/month for one location and basic review management features. Growth plans cost $49/month and add automated review requests, AI tools, analytics, and integrations. Agency plans start at $99/month for multi-client and white-label management features.
Case studies & portfolio tools
Sometimes a quick review isn’t enough. If your product or service delivers a major transformation, case studies and portfolio showcases help you tell the full story. These tools make it easy to present client work, before-and-after results, reports, and detailed success stories in a polished, professional format.
Best for:
Method #4 portfolios
Method #5 case studies
PDF embeds and client showcases
6. Venngage
✅Free plan: Yes
Venngage is a graphic design program that's great for B2B companies. It comes fully loaded with tons of templates for creating infographics, reports, and case studies. Use it to generate beautifully designed case studies for your website.
Features:
Professional case study templates
Drag-and-drop design editor
Charts, graphs, and data visualization tools
Brand kits for consistent styling
Collaboration tools for teams
Pricing:
Venngage offers a free plan with up to 5 designs and basic exports. Paid plans start at $19/month for individuals who need unlimited designs and premium assets. Business plans cost $49/month per user and add collaboration tools, brand kits, PDF exports, and advanced sharing features.
7. Issuu
✅Free plan: Yes
With Issuu, you can embed any PDF into your website, so site visitors can flip through the content. This is great for adding PDF case studies to your site, as well as magazine and newspaper features.
Features:
Interactive PDF embeds
Flipbook-style viewing experience
Website embedding tools
Analytics for reader engagement
Content publishing and sharing tools
Pricing:
Issuu offers a free Basic plan with limited uploads and embeds. Paid plans start at $21/month for unlimited flipbooks, website embeds, and basic analytics. Higher-tier plans cost $188/month and add branding removal, lead generation tools, advanced analytics, and enhanced customization features for publishers and businesses.
There are so many ways to add social proof to your site. Pick your favorite tool and cross this task off your list in no time.
For more ways to improve your site, check out our list of 27 different types of website widgets.
Why you should add social proof to your website
There are a ton of reasons for adding social proof to your website.
Here are the key benefits:
Build trust: Social proof helps build trust with your website visitors. When potential customers see that others have had positive experiences with your products or services, they are more likely to trust your brand.
Credibility: Social proof demonstrates that your business is established and reputable, which can reassure customers that they are making a wise choice by engaging with your products or services.
Reduce risk: Social proof reduces the perceived risk associated with a purchase. Buyers are often concerned about making a wrong decision or wasting their money, but social proof can alleviate that.
Differentiation: In a competitive market, social proof can set your business apart from the competition. If your website showcases a large number of positive reviews or endorsements, it can help you stand out. For example, providers using specialized EMS software to streamline their scheduling and operations can highlight positive customer experiences as an edge over competitors.
Validate claims: If your website makes specific claims about your products or services, social proof can validate them. For example, if you claim that your product is the best in its category, positive reviews from satisfied customers can support this.
Improve conversion rates: Social proof can boost your website's conversion rates, leading to more sales, sign-ups, or other desired actions. When visitors see that others have taken the desired action, they are more likely to follow suit.
Word-of-mouth marketing: Showcasing positive social proof can inspire more word-of-mouth marketing. When they see that other customers are recommending your brand, satisfied customers might be more likely to share their experiences with others.
SEO: User-generated content like reviews and rating, can have SEO benefits by providing fresh and relevant content for search engines. Reviews include lots of details, secondary keywords, and semantic keywords that people search for.
Add social proof to your website with Curator.
Previous post: