Testimonials on WordPress add credibility and a professional feel to your site. This guide will show you how to create and share positive comments from customers and clients on your website.
In this guide
There are two ways to activate testimonials, depending on what type of theme your site uses. Sites that use block themes will create a dedicated post category. In sites that use a classic theme, you will activate a custom post type.
Select the appropriate tab for the type of theme your site uses.
On sites using block themes, you’ll create a dedicated post category for your testimonials. Follow these steps to create the post category:
- Visit your site’s dashboard.
- Navigate to Posts → Categories.
- Under “Add New Category” name your category something like “Testimonials”
- Click the “Add New Category” button to create the new category.
Next, you will learn how to create your first testimonial.
Now that you have activated testimonials on your site, it’s time to create your first testimonial. Select the appropriate tab below based on which method you used to activate testimonials.
On sites using block themes, you will create your first testimonial as a “Post” and assign the post to the testimonial category you created in the first step.
Follow these steps to create your first testimonial:
- Visit your dashboard.
- Click on Posts on the left side.
- Click on the “Add new post” button to create your first testimonial.
- Give your testimonial a title by replacing “Add title” at the top of the post and add your customer’s testimonial in the editor.
- If you would like an author photo or logo displayed, add it as a featured image to each testimonial.
- Open the post settings sidebar.
If you do not have the sidebar on the right, click the Settings icon in the top right corner to bring up the settings. This icon looks like a square with two uneven columns:
- In the “Categories” section, check the testimonial category you created in the first step.
- Click the “Publish” button to publish your new testimonial.
Watch the video below to learn how to add a post to the Testimonials category.
When editing a testimonial, you can adjust settings, including setting a featured image, reviewing revisions, and more through the settings sidebar on the right side of your screen.
If you do not have the sidebar on the right, click the Settings icon in the top right corner to bring up the settings. This icon looks like a square with two uneven columns:
To learn more about the testimonial settings, select the appropriate tab below based on which method you used to activate testimonials.
Under Post settings, you can adjust any of the following options:
- Set a Featured Image: add an image of your customer or product to create a visually engaging testimonial
- Status: make the testimonial public, private, or protected behind a password.
- Publish: set the testimonial to go live immediately, or choose a date and time in the past or future.
- Slug: see and change the URL of the testimonial.
- Revisions: restore a previously saved version of the testimonial.
- AI Assistant: visualize issues and apply AI suggestions.
- Excerpt: write a short summary of the testimonial.
And more outlined in our guide for adjusting post settings.
By now, we recommend that you have created a few published testimonials. Next, we’ll look at the different ways you can show your testimonials on your website.
You can use the page that is created by default to display the testimonials on your website.
Select the appropriate tab for the type of theme your site uses.
After activating testimonials and publishing at least one, your site will automatically create a new page with your testimonials.
To view the new testimonials page, follow these steps:
- Visit your dashboard.
- Navigate to Posts → Categories.
- Hover over your testimonials category and click the “View” link.
Viewing the testimonial category this way allows you to see what your visitors will see. You’ll notice that the category URL is something like:
https://yourgroovysite.wordpress.com/category/testimonials
All of your testimonials will automatically appear on this page of your site in chronological order, with the most recent first. If you wish to change the order, you can adjust the date the testimonial was published in the testimonial settings.
Themes that support the Site Editor can edit the layout of this page. To edit the layout of the default testimonial page, edit the All Archives template.
You can design your own testimonial page from scratch. Take the following steps to create a new page for your testimonials:
- Visit your dashboard.
- Click on Pages on the left side.
- Click on the “Add new page” button.
- Optionally, choose a pre-defined page layout or click “Blank page” to create an empty page.
- Insert a Query Loop block
- If you’re using a testimonial category, select the testimonial category in the filters.
- If you’re using a custom post type, select “Testimonial” as the post type setting.
- This will automatically pull in the testimonials you created earlier.
- Click the “Publish” button in the upper right corner to make the page appear on your website.
You may add this page to your site’s menu for visitors to view your testimonials.
A less commonly used method for displaying testimonials on your site is through the use of shortcodes.
If you created a category for your site’s testimonials, you will use the shortcode. If you activated the custom post type for your site’s testimonials, you will use the [testimonials] shortcode.
Select the appropriate tab for the type of theme your site uses.
Add the shortcode to a post or page using the Shortcode Block. Use the category filter to display just the posts from your testimonial category.
In the following example, the category is set to testimonials, the content of the testimonial is included with the “true” value, and the image_size=”medium” will display the featured image in a medium size:
[display-posts category="testimonials" include_content="true" image_size="medium"]
It may be time to remove old testimonials or update the content of an existing testimonial. You can manage the testimonials you created following the steps below.
Select the appropriate tab for the type of theme your site uses.
By using a post category to categorize your testimonials, you can edit them through the same place in your dashboard where you edit all posts.
Follow these steps to filter the testimonials (posts) so you can manage them:
- Visit your dashboard.
- Click on Posts on the left side.
- Locate the “All Categories” drop-down menu and select your testimonial category.
- Click the “Filter” button to filter to the posts in your testimonial category.
- Click a testimonials title to edit the testimonial or use the quick actions below the testimonial.
- You can use bulk actions to edit multiple testimonials at once.
Watch the video below to learn how to filter the testimonials.
If any of the Testimonial page links result in a “Page Not Found” error, this can be fixed by disabling and re-enabling the Testimonial content type. This only applies to testimonials created through the custom post type. Go to Settings → Writing and scroll down to the “Content types” section, uncheck the Testimonials option, save your changes, and then re-check the Testimonials option and save your changes again.
