Extend header options for Google Reviews [Discussion]

Good day, friends :raised_hands:t2:

We’ve realized we have lots of cool ideas you might not know about at all. That’s why we’ve decided to share them in our Wishlist, giving you a glimpse into what we’re working on. :slight_smile:

So, our first suggestion is to make the Google Reviews header more flexible and functional.

The header is crucial in our widget, showing ratings to quickly reflect customer attitudes towards businesses and featuring a review collection button. Yet, it has limitations and sometimes lacks visual appeal on websites. We aim to enhance the header and introduce 9 new styles.

Our ideas

  • Create new headers that emphasize the source of the reviews, featuring a prominent Google logo or icon.

  • Create new headers that focus on the rating, displaying a larger number for the rating value.

  • Offer headers with various layouts: with elements aligned to the center or the edges.

  • Make headers with a new element that indicates the business rating as a text characteristic, for example, ‘Excellent on Google’.

  • Add the option to disable any element in the header if it’s not currently needed (for example, the number of reviews, if you’ve just started collecting them and there are only a few).

  • All headers will be adaptable and look great on any device and at any widget size.

  • Fix the issue in the current version of the header where the rating is displayed on the left side when the Write a Review button is turned off (some users prefer to show only the rating and reviews, without any additional elements): we want to position it in the center.

  • Currently, when the header background is disabled, there is insufficient padding from the reviews, causing it to stick to them. We want to fix this.

  • Improve ADA Compliance by adding a ‘role=”heading”’ attribute to the header title.


The prototype

We’ve tried to reflect the new layouts on this image:


Over to You

Guys, it’s super important to hear what you think about all of this! Hit the Vote button if you’d want these changes in your widget. And any ideas and comments of yours will be highly appreciated, so make sure to let us know your thoughts :point_down:t2:

2 Likes

Those ideas are good but most people want their reviews to show up instantly like they do on Google itself, or at least within a few hours (NOT 72 - too long).

3 Likes

Agree with Michael_Berry. Another more pressing issue we’re having is no API to Google Business Profiles. So we’re manually adjusting hours. Socialablekit offers this widget but we don’t want to be between two providers.

1 Like

I would love to see (LEFT-Alignment) HUGE 5.0 number, then same size HUGE GOLD STARS, with smaller Grey (### Reviews) after it.

With Second line of Google Reviews / Rated: EXCELLENT

1 Like

@TradePrintingUK many thanks for your comment, Mark, and welcome to the Elfsight community! :star_struck:

I see, so you need an option to control the rating size, right?
Also, is it mandatory for the word ‘excellent’ to be placed below the rating? :slight_smile:

1 Like

I’ve been here for a while, Helga.

The 5.0 is very important to us (at huge size) as it emulates what Google Business reports. See attached.

Screenshot 2024-03-13 at 10.52.53

The Rated: EXCELLENT isn’t as important as the HUGE 5.0

2 Likes

Oops, my bad, Mark!

Aha, I see your point regarding the rating size, thanks. I know that we’re working on the layout with a big rating number, but I’ve shared your idea with the devs just in case anyway.

Thanks a lot for your help! It really helps us navigate, and I mean it :slight_smile:

2 Likes

Friends, thanks a lot for your votes and comments here!

With 27 votes for this idea, we’ve decided to add it to our roadmap. No specific ETA, but we’ll strive to deliver it in one of the near updates :rocket:

@Michael_Berry @David_Andersen your comments are indeed reasonable, thank you for them! We really wish we could reduce or eliminate this cache entirely, but things are more complicated in terms of getting data. For now, this is the most optimal process we are able to offer, but we we’re definitely on the lookout for a smoother and more convenient option.

P.S. if you have any other ideas or comments regarding the header options, make sure to tell us in the comments :blush:

2 Likes