Trustpilot built a business on this concept: reviews of a brand, not of specific products. “I bought from this shop and here’s my experience.” Shoppers making purchase decisions often want that broader signal — is this shop reliable, are they nice to deal with, do they handle things when something goes wrong — alongside the product-specific detail.
Three review shapes, sitting in the same system
Trustie has three closely related concepts. They sound similar but serve different purposes:
- Product reviews are tied to a specific product. “This t-shirt fits well, washes fine, recommend.”
- Site reviews (this feature) are short ratings of the shop itself. “Fast shipping, nice packaging, will buy again. 5 stars.”
- Testimonials are longer-form brand endorsements you collect and curate. “I’ve been shopping here for two years and when one of my orders went missing in transit, they sorted it out without me having to ask twice.”
Each has a different role: product reviews inform product decisions, site reviews give volume of shop-level social proof, testimonials give you the handful of quotable stories you put on your homepage.
How site reviews are collected
Site reviews use Trustie’s custom form builder. You set up a site-assigned form — star rating, short text body, whatever optional fields you want (photo, demographic chips, custom questions). Customers can reach the form a few ways:
- The auto-generated reviews page has a “Leave a site review” button when site reviews are enabled.
- The
shortcode drops a submission form anywhere you want (a “Rate us” page, a thank-you page, a newsletter link target). - The floating widget can include a “Leave a review” action.
- An email you trigger through
trustie_send_site_review_request( $email )— programmatic, for shops building their own post-purchase flow or triggering after a support ticket resolves.
Unlike product reviews (which customers typically leave after buying a specific item), site reviews can come from anyone who’s interacted with your shop — buyers, returning customers, people who got good service via support.
Where they display
- Auto-generated reviews page — a dedicated Site Reviews tab alongside product reviews, testimonials, and Google Business reviews.
- Floating widget — under the Store Reviews section.
[trustie_site_reviews]shortcode — drop into any page or post, with parameters for limit, layout (grid/list/masonry), and rating filter.- Brand-level AggregateRating schema on the reviews page — your site reviews roll up into the same LocalBusiness schema that includes your Google Business and testimonial reviews.
The same card renderer used for product reviews renders site reviews, so the styling is consistent with the rest of your reviews across the site.
Moderation
Site reviews go through the same moderation queue as product reviews and testimonials. Same approve/reject/reply actions, same per-type filtering in the queue so you can focus on just site reviews if you want, same keyword flagging if you’ve configured it on the site-review form.
When site reviews vs testimonials
Both surface brand-level social proof, but they work differently:
- Site reviews give you volume. They’re quick to leave (one-screen form, a few sentences, a star rating), so more people do.
- Testimonials give you depth. They’re the longer pieces you curate and feature — the story you’d put on your homepage.
Most shops benefit from both running. A site-wide “Rate our shop” link collects volume; selected testimonials you import or request give you the quotable stories.
Are you considering Trustpilot, Feefo, or Reviews.io?
Trustpilot, Feefo, and Reviews.io are third-party review platforms with established brand recognition. Their trust signal is strong because shoppers already know the Trustpilot mark. They also involve ongoing subscription costs and your reviews live on their domain, with widgets embedded back into your site.
Trustie’s site reviews function this way: self-hosted, on your domain, in your theme’s styling, owned by you. No monthly fee tied to your review volume. The trust signal is your shop’s aggregate rating on your own site, which is substantial once you have a few hundred consistent reviews.
The fit: if the Trustpilot badge itself — the external logo visitors recognise — is what you want shoppers to see, their platform is designed for that. If you want reviews working for your domain’s SEO, rendering in your brand styling, and operating without an ongoing platform cost, Trustie’s site reviews cover that ground.
Some shops run both: Trustpilot for the external third-party signal, Trustie for the on-site experience and SEO. They don’t conflict — different surfaces, different purposes.
Why site reviews matter for SEO
Product reviews help individual product pages rank. Site reviews help your brand-level searches rank. When someone searches for your shop name directly (“best skincare australia”, “your shop name reviews”), the reviews page with rolled-up site reviews is what Google can show with a star rating. That’s a different search intent and a different visibility lift than product-level reviews give you.