Yesterday, we covered registering our .reviews domain name and setting up our hosting account so we can build our ‘Reviews Engine’.

If you need to take care of those, you can read the article here for complete instructions: https://www.superb.net/blog/google-reviews-more-sales-and-how-to-get-them-part-1

I’m going to assume you have taken care of both and all we need to do now is build the website.

Please don’t get overwhelmed. I’ll walk you through step-by-step so you can see exactly how to build this website.

All told, you maybe will spend an hour or two building this. The installation takes most of the time… while editing the templates is super easy to do.

Let’s start by installing WordPress…

Step 3: Install WordPress

The main engine behind the scenes is WordPress.

WordPress makes everything work…it creates the website we will use to let customers post reviews and read reviews. In turn, this website will be submitted to Google for indexing.

I’ve created a demo site to show you how to setup WordPress.

So let’s start building the website… first, you will need WordPress in order to use the review system I am recommending.

You will also need a basic template and a plugin that will handle reviews that are ‘Rich Snippets’ friendly.

First, install WordPress.

The myCP portal (https://mycp.superb.net/index.php) makes this incredibly easy:

Click the ‘One-Click Install’ link. Then click ‘Configure WordPress’.

Very simple.

Now, let’s move on to the template you need. WordPress comes with pre-configured templates so you don’t need to spend a penny.

However, they aren’t great aesthetically. Let’s work on our template now.

Step 4: Install WordPress Template

Next, install a template that you like. Here are a few good free ones I have located for you:

https://wordpress.org/themes/auberge
http://justfreethemes.com/italian-restaurant
http://justfreethemes.com/demo?theme=Italian%20Restaurant

Alternatively, you can go the paid route which includes everything you need for your Review Engine.

Here’s the one I used to create the demo site for you: http://restaurant-sample.reviews

And here’s the Theme Author page so you can see how versatile this template truly is: http://theme.co/x/

This is a very versatile theme… that comes with a lot of pre-built site designs. Installing a restaurant, church, and many other sites. It really is as simple as changing the logo and the text on the templates.

Further, the template comes with a point-and-click website builder. You can drag things around and click on text boxes to update.

The cost was just $64. Compare that to a web designer who is going to charge at least $2000 for a similar result.

Again, this is very easy… as easy as using a word processor. It may take you an hour to learn how to use the web building tool and WordPress. The advantage is being able to edit this site at any time, easily.

Of course, if you need help installing a theme – don’t hesitate to contact the support gurus at Superb Internet. In fact, I needed some help getting a few things taken care of. I opened a ticket and was on my way in just a few minutes.

Now, here’s the secret sauce… the reviews plugin.

Step 5: Install Reviews WordPress Plugin

To qualify for Google’s Rich Snippets (https://developers.google.com/structured- data/rich-snippets) inclusion, your plugin must follow Google’s structured data that is relevant to your type and content.

Your plugin should adhere to the Google standards so that the algorithm will index and understand the content.

Here’s one that is highly rated from WordPress.org: http://plugins.nuancedmedia.com/wordpress-reviews-plugin

I used this on the demo site at http://restaurant-sample.reviews

Here’s a look at the control panel where you can manage the reviews:

Once you have downloaded the plugin, installed and activated it inside WordPress, you just need to add a page where the reviews will be listed.

Step 6: Create Your Reviews Page

You’ll go inside WordPress and create a new ‘page’. In the content area, you’ll add the smart code you need and save the page. That’s it.

Here’s what that looks like on the new ‘page’ I created:

Now, we just need to make the reviews pop on our home page.

Depending on your template, you may need to edit your new reviews page from the visual editor for that template.

Next, we need to set the reviews page so it is the first page on our website (home page).

Let’s do that now…

Step 7: Set Reviews Page as Home Page

This will make your reviews page the first thing visitors see… which is what you want.

The way we are setting up the website – we are positioning to deliver and receive reviews for our business – in the format Google prefers for indexing.

Go to the ‘Settings’ column on the left-hand pane of your WordPress section.

Click ‘Reading’. From here, you’ll select your new Reviews page you created as the home page.

Now test this by going to your main domain URL. In our case, we are using: http://restaurant-sample.reviews

The home page now shows the reviews as well as a review form.

Perfect… now we need to make sure Google can read these reviews properly. Let’s take care of that now…

Step 8: Add Test Reviews and Test Integration

Go to the left-hand pane of WordPress and click ‘Rich Reviews’. Then click ‘Add New Review’:

From here, you’ll be able to add a test review. Click submit once you have entered all of the required fields:

Now, that gives us enough information to test our integration.

Test your integration here:

Find the URL where your reviews are listed (on the page you created and inserted the shortcode on):

For me, I used the main URL for http://restaurant-sample.reviews to list my reviews.

You can go below and enter your URL to test your feed: https://search.google.com/structured-data/testing-tool

Here are the results from my test for http://restaurant-sample.reviews

There were no errors and it clearly listed all 9 reviews.

Success!

Now, we need to print business cards, make flyers, add notes to receipts, and tell our servers to let customers know about the reviews site and how it will help us.

Most people are good natured and want you to succeed… especially if they love your service.

The more reviews you can get, the better!

Chris

PS. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think of this series… or if you have a question! I would love to help you.