How to Use the Review Block in UniLink (Show Testimonials and Star Ratings on Your Page)

A step-by-step guide to adding the Review block to your UniLink page so visitors see real testimonials with star ratings, photos, and names before they decide whether to buy or book.

Every time a potential client or customer lands on your UniLink page, they are asking one question before they ask anything else: can I trust this person? They may not phrase it that way. They may not even be conscious of it. But the decision about whether to book a session, buy a course, or hire a freelancer is fundamentally a trust decision, and that decision happens in the first fifteen seconds of looking at your page. The Review block exists to answer that question before it becomes an obstacle. When someone sees a photograph of a real person next to a detailed, specific testimonial with a name and a title attached, the trust calculation shifts immediately. You stop being a stranger with a link and start being someone whose work has already helped people who look and sound like them.

What the Review block does

The Review block renders your testimonials as individual cards on your UniLink page. Each card contains a reviewer photo (avatar), the reviewer's full name, their role or title, a star rating displayed as filled stars (one through five), the review text itself, and the date of the review. You enter all of this manually in the Dashboard — there is no integration with Google Reviews, Trustpilot, or any external platform. That means you curate exactly what appears, which is both the block's greatest strength and a responsibility you need to take seriously.

The block supports three layout styles. The grid layout arranges cards in rows, typically two to three per row on desktop and stacking single-column on mobile — it works well when you have four to eight reviews and want them all visible without interaction. The carousel layout displays one or a few cards at a time with navigation arrows and optional auto-play, making it ideal for pages where you want a compact testimonials section that does not dominate the design. The masonry layout arranges cards in a Pinterest-style grid where card heights vary based on review length, which looks natural when your reviews differ significantly in length. Each layout style has its place depending on how many reviews you have and how much vertical space you want to dedicate to the section.

Within each card, you can control several display details: the reviewer avatar size, whether the date is shown, whether the reviewer's role or title is shown, the background color of individual cards, and a review character limit that truncates long reviews with a "Read more" toggle so the card stays compact without losing the full text. For the carousel specifically, you can enable auto-play with a configurable interval so the cards advance automatically. You set a block title for the section and a maximum number of stars to display. All of these controls are in the block settings panel in the Dashboard editor.

Before you start

1. Collect real testimonials from real clients: Before you open the Dashboard, gather actual reviews from people you have worked with. Email past clients or customers, check your DMs for positive feedback you have already received, look at email replies to your course or product launches. The raw material you bring into the block determines its effectiveness more than any setting you configure.
2. Get permission to use each testimonial: If someone sent you feedback privately, ask before you post it publicly. Most people say yes immediately, but the ask matters — and it is also an opportunity to ask whether you can use their full name, their photo, and their job title, which dramatically increases the testimonial's credibility.
3. Prepare photos for each reviewer: A testimonial without a photo is weaker than one with a clear headshot or professional profile picture. Ask reviewers for a photo at the same time you ask permission. If they cannot provide one, a clean illustrated avatar is better than a blank placeholder — placeholders signal "this person may not exist."
4. Select your three to five best reviews, not all of them: The temptation is to add every positive thing anyone has ever said. Resist it. Pick the reviews that are specific, detailed, and from people whose titles or roles will resonate with your target audience. A testimonial from a "freelance photographer" hits differently on a page targeting photographers than a generic one from "John D., customer."

How to add the Review block to your page

1. Open your page in the Dashboard: Log in to UniLink, go to My Pages, and click Edit on the page where you want testimonials to appear.
2. Add a new block: Click + Add Block in the editor. In the block picker, locate Review — it is typically under the Social Proof or Marketing section — and select it.
3. Set the block title: Give the section a heading that your visitors will see, such as "What my clients say," "Client results," or simply "Reviews." Avoid generic titles like "Testimonials" — a more natural phrase reads less like a marketing widget and more like real conversation.
4. Choose a layout style: Select Grid, Carousel, or Masonry in the layout settings. If you are unsure, start with Carousel — it is the most versatile, works well at every review count, and gives you the auto-play option to keep the section dynamic without taking up too much page space.
5. Add your first review card: Click Add Review to open the card form. Enter the reviewer's full name, their role or title (job title, niche, or a short descriptor like "Online course creator" or "Fitness coach"), and upload their photo.
6. Set the star rating: Select the number of stars for this review. For genuine reviews, enter the rating the person gave or would give — do not inflate it. For manually curated testimonials, it is fine to show five stars if the sentiment is clearly five-star; just make sure the review text supports that rating.
7. Paste the review text: Enter the full testimonial. If it is long, the character limit setting will handle truncation automatically — do not shorten the text yourself, because the full version gives the block's "Read more" feature something meaningful to expand.
8. Add the date (optional): Enter the approximate date of the testimonial. Recent dates reinforce that your work is current and actively in demand. If you are not sure of the exact date, use the month and year — "March 2025" is better than leaving it blank or entering a date that is three years old.
9. Add more review cards: Click Add Review again and repeat for each additional testimonial. Three to five cards is the standard recommendation, though a tightly curated set of two outstanding reviews outperforms a block of seven mediocre ones every time.
10. Save and publish: Click Save and then Publish Page to push the block live. Open your page on a mobile device and check that the layout renders correctly, that photos load cleanly, and that the carousel navigation (if applicable) works as expected.

Key settings explained

How reviews actually drive conversions on your page

The psychology behind testimonials is not complicated: people make decisions based on what others like them have already done. This is called social proof, and it is one of the most reliable levers in conversion science. But there is a quality problem that most creators miss. A review that says "Great service, highly recommend!" from someone named "J.M." does nothing for conversion. There is no specific claim, no human face, no detail that allows a prospective buyer to mentally place themselves in J.M.'s situation. Compare that to a review from "Sarah K., independent music producer" that reads: "I booked a single strategy session and restructured my entire merch store based on it. Sold out my first limited run in 48 hours." The second review is doing conversion work. The first is placeholder text dressed up as social proof.

Specificity is the single most important quality in a testimonial. Specific results ("went from 0 to 3 clients in 6 weeks"), specific time frames, specific problems solved — these details allow a prospective buyer to run a mental simulation: "If it worked for her, could it work for me?" Without specifics, that mental simulation cannot run. The visitor has no evidence to work with. This is why you should actively work with your clients to produce useful testimonials rather than just waiting for whatever feedback arrives organically. When you follow up with a past client, ask them: "What specific result did you get? What was different after we worked together? What would you tell someone considering this before they decide?" Those questions produce usable copy. "Did you enjoy working with me?" produces "Yes, highly recommend!"

The role or title field on each card is doing more work than it appears to do. When a visitor who is a fitness coach sees a review from another fitness coach, the relevance signal is immediate. That review is not just evidence that you are good — it is evidence that you are good for someone in exactly their situation. If your audience is diverse, try to reflect that diversity across your selected testimonials. A coach who works with both corporate professionals and creative freelancers should have reviews from both segments, positioned where each audience is most likely to encounter them. On a page that serves a single niche, every testimonial should be from someone in or adjacent to that niche.

Reviews also compound over time in a way other page elements do not. The more your page is shared, the more potential clients see your testimonials, the more conversions happen, the more new clients you have, the more new testimonials you can collect. Treating your Review block as a rotating showcase — adding a new strong testimonial every month, retiring weaker or older ones — keeps the section feeling current and gives you a reason to reshare your page link periodically. A page that looks the same as it did eighteen months ago does not give existing followers a reason to visit again. A page that shows fresh results does.

Troubleshooting common issues

Frequently asked questions