Your website says that you do great web design work.

But, how does any potential client know that?

They may see your portfolio for samples of your work, but it doesn’t answer all the questions.

Your portfolio doesn’t answer, “How are you to work with as a web designer?”

It doesn’t answer, “Will you be responsive to my emails?”

“Will you nickel-and-dime me on this project?”

If you are getting clients from word of mouth referrals as well as the Internet, you’ll notice that there is a difference between the two.

Clients coming from referrals are much more likely to hire you over clients coming from the Internet.

Why?

Trust.

Clients coming from referrals trust the recommendation of a friend or colleague.

Clients coming from the Internet don’t have that trust built in.

Before they reach out to you they need to build that trust.

Before they reach out to you, they need to feel comfortable that you probably will not take their money and run, or deliver a bad project or client experience.

When you’re dealing with a complete stranger – where is that trust going to come from?

One way to build that trust is with client reviews and testimonials for your web design business.

You’ll find that the more positive client reviews and testimonials you have, the more clients reach out to you.

If 50 people have positive things to say about your web design business on the Internet, chances are that you do good work.

It makes people comfortable that they are making the right choice.

Here’s some data to back that up from a consumer survey:

• 85% of people trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation
• Positive reviews make 73% of consumers trust a local business more

In short, reviews matter and can help you get more clients.

So, how can you get great client reviews?

You need a process. And here it is.

Where do we start?

The first part of getting positive reviews is getting the client on board.

The Process for Getting Positive Client Reviews and Testimonials for Your Web Design Business

First, you need to do a great job.

This is a given.

No one is going to give you a glowing review if you do sloppy or inattentive work.

Do work that’s so good that it makes people want to give you a positive review.

Generally, people only want to give you a review when you have either done a bad job, or an amazing job.

Nothing in between.

If you did “Okay”, then your client will not feel compelled to warn anyone about working with you or sing your praises online.

Next, once their site is launched, now it’s time to reach out.

The best time to reach out for the review (and sending them your last bill for that matter) is when your client is at the peak.

When they are happiest, they are most likely to say great things about you.

Your clients are going to be happiest with you when their website goes live.

That day, you should be reaching out.

What should you say?

It should be along the lines of:

Hey,

It’s been great working with you on your website. I hope you are pleased with how it turned out. We think it looks amazing!

I wanted to reach out because reviews and testimonials help our future potential clients to understand what it’s like to work with us.

Would you be willing to write a great review about us?

If so, I would be happy to send you a link where you can share your review.

Every line of this has a purpose and is intentional.

The first line is to get them excited about the website now that it’s launched. If you are excited about the website and having worked with the client, it will likely make them more excited about the website as well.

The next line explains why you need reviews for your web design business. You need help getting reviews because it helps your business. There’s a reason behind it. Straightforward. Makes sense. If they had a good experience, they should want to help you out.

The next line asks, specifically, if they would be willing to write a “great” review.

You need that word.

If they say they can’t write you a great review, then you don’t want it.

You only want great reviews.

So, this helps weed out people who would only give you a mediocre or bad review.

The last line shows them that it’s easy. You will send them a link. All they need to do is follow your link and write a line for a review or testimonial.

So, how do you get the review and where should it go?

Where you Want Your Positive Reviews

There are a ton of different places you can get positive reviews:

• Google Business
• Yelp
• Facebook
• Bing
• Your website
• Other online directories

So where should you focus?

Ideally, everywhere, but that may not be feasible.

Also, you will need business profiles on these sites before you can get reviews.

Google Business and Yelp are the top two recommendations because they get a good amount of the traffic and Google Business reviews will help especially with your Local SEO efforts.

Sharing a link to your Yelp profile to leave a review is easy.

Sharing a link to your Google Business profile to leave a review is not.

Here’s how you do it:

First, you will need your business’ Google Place ID.

Go to PlaceID.

Search for your business.

Once you find it, copy the PlaceID.

Now, use the following link formula:

https://search.google.com/local/writereview?placeid=<place_id>

Then, try out the link.

That should work for you and once you go to that link it should go to a “write a review” part.

Once you have the OK from a client that they would like to leave you a positive review, send them an email:

Hey [client name],

It’s been a pleasure to work with you on your website. I appreciate your willingness to write us a positive review to help potential clients interested in our services.

You can write a review of us at [link].

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Best regards,

[your name]

Save it as an email template so you can use it in the future.

You can send 1 link to Google, Yelp, etc. or you can share a list of multiple links, in case your client feels like sharing it on multiple platforms. That would be great, but obviously it is more time consuming for this person who is doing you a favor.

Once you have a review for your web design business, you should follow up with the client to thank them.

Let them know how appreciative you are.

Also ask if they wouldn’t mind if you share the review on your website as a testimonial.

Then, that positive review is going a long way to help you out.

And that’s all there is to it.

What has your experience been like getting positive reviews from clients for your web design business? Please share your experience in the comment section below.