Overview
Once you have collected customer reviews through post-purchase invitations and other channels, you need to display them where potential buyers will see them. Vendably provides two primary display surfaces: an embeddable JavaScript widget for your own storefront, and a Vendably-hosted public profile page for your brand.
This article covers how to configure and use both surfaces, where to find the settings in your dashboard, and what milestones indicate success.
The two review display surfaces
Your collected reviews appear in two distinct places:
The Trust widget is a JavaScript snippet you embed on your own storefront. It displays customer reviews, ratings, and review counts in a format you control. The widget only appears on domains you explicitly allow, protecting your review data from unauthorised use.
The public profile page is a Vendably-hosted page at a locale-prefixed URL that showcases your brand's reviews, aggregate rating, and review list. This page is designed for search engine visibility and social sharing. It becomes discoverable to search engines only once you reach a minimum threshold of published reviews.
Both surfaces pull from the same review dataset, so every review you collect appears on both once configured.
Trust widget configuration
The Trust widget lives in the Trust area of your dashboard under Widget settings. You control three key aspects of the widget: whether it is enabled, which domains can embed it, and how it displays on your storefront.
Enabling or disabling the widget
Toggle the widget on or off from the Widget settings panel. When enabled, the widget code becomes available for you to copy and paste into your storefront. When disabled, the widget will not render on any domain, even if the code is still present in your HTML.
Disabling the widget is useful if you need to pause review display temporarily, such as during site maintenance or while you address review quality issues.
Restricting domains with CORS allowed origins
The widget uses CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing) to load review data securely. By default, the widget will not load on any domain. You must explicitly add each domain where you want the widget to appear to your allowed-origins list.
Add your storefront domain to this list. If you operate multiple storefronts or regional variants, add each domain separately. The allowed-origins configuration prevents competitors or bad actors from embedding your reviews on their own sites.
When you add a domain, use the full domain name without the protocol. For example, add www.example.com and example.com as separate entries if both versions serve traffic. Mobile apps and progressive web apps use different origins; check your deployment documentation for the correct origin value.
Once a domain is in your allowed-origins list, the widget will load and display reviews on pages served from that domain. Requests from domains not in the list receive a CORS error and the widget will not render.
The public profile page
Your public profile is a Vendably-hosted page that displays your brand's reviews and aggregate rating to the public. Every merchant receives a public profile URL automatically. The URL follows this format: https://[locale].vendably.com/profiles/[your-brand-slug].
The locale prefix depends on your market. For example, merchants in the UK use the en-gb locale, so a profile might be https://en-gb.vendably.com/profiles/acme-widgets.
What the public profile displays
The public profile shows:
- Your brand name and logo
- Aggregate rating (star rating out of 5)
- Total count of published reviews
- A chronological list of individual customer reviews with ratings, dates, and reviewer names
- Review text and any seller responses
The public profile is a standalone page optimised for both desktop and mobile viewing. Customers can share the URL directly, and search engines can index it to improve your brand's online visibility.
Search engine indexing threshold
The public profile page is marked with noindex metadata until you publish at least 5 reviews. This prevents search engines from indexing a profile with too few reviews to be credible.
Once you reach 5 published reviews, the noindex tag is automatically removed and search engines will begin to crawl and index your public profile. This means your profile can appear in search results for your brand name and related queries, driving discovery and trust.
Keep publishing reviews to maintain and grow your search visibility. Profiles with more reviews tend to rank higher for brand-related searches.
Trust score display threshold
The aggregate trust score (your overall star rating) is suppressed from display on the public profile until you have at least 20 published reviews. Below this threshold, the profile shows the review count and individual reviews, but not the calculated star rating.
This threshold protects your reputation by avoiding the appearance of a rating based on too small a sample size. A 5-star rating from 3 customers is less meaningful than a 4.2-star rating from 150 customers. Once you reach 20 reviews, the aggregate rating appears alongside the review list.
JSON-LD structured data and search engine integration
Vendably publishes your review data as JSON-LD structured data. This allows search engines, AI systems, and other automated tools to read and understand your verified ratings directly from your storefront pages.
When the Trust widget is embedded on your storefront, it injects JSON-LD markup into the page. This markup includes:
- Your aggregate rating
- Total review count
- Individual review details (rating, date, reviewer name, review text)
- Your brand name and product information
Search engines use this structured data to display review snippets in search results, knowledge panels, and other rich features. AI systems use it to verify that your ratings are from a trusted source. This improves your visibility and credibility across search and AI-powered discovery channels.
You do not need to configure JSON-LD separately. It is generated automatically once the widget is active on your pages.
Where to find these settings
Both widget and public profile settings are located in the Trust area of your dashboard.
- Log in to your Vendably dashboard.
- Navigate to Trust.
- Select Widget and Public Profile.
- You will see:
- Widget enable/disable toggle
- Widget code snippet to copy
- Allowed-origins list (add or remove domains here)
- Your public profile URL
- Public profile visibility status
Make changes to the allowed-origins list and save. Changes take effect immediately.
Practical setup and configuration
To get reviews displaying on both surfaces, follow these steps:
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Collect reviews first. Ensure you have set up collecting-reviews-via-post-purchase-email-invitations or other review collection methods. You need at least one published review before the widget will display anything.
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Enable the widget. Go to Trust > Widget and Public Profile. Toggle the widget on.
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Add your domain to allowed origins. Copy your storefront domain (for example,
www.example.com) into the allowed-origins field. Save the change. -
Install the widget code. Copy the widget code snippet from the Widget settings. Paste it into your storefront HTML, typically in the product page template or footer. The exact placement depends on your storefront platform. Most merchants place it near the product description or in a dedicated reviews section.
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Test the widget. Visit your storefront and verify the widget loads and displays reviews. Check that the aggregate rating, review count, and individual reviews are visible. If the widget does not appear, verify that your domain is in the allowed-origins list and that you have at least one published review.
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Monitor the public profile. Share your public profile URL with customers and in marketing materials. Once you reach 5 published reviews, the page will become indexable and search engines will begin to crawl it.
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Track the trust score threshold. Once you reach 20 published reviews, the aggregate star rating will appear on the public profile. This is a key milestone for credibility.
Success indicators
You will know your review display is working correctly when:
- The widget appears on your storefront pages without errors.
- The widget displays your aggregate rating, review count, and individual reviews accurately.
- Clicking on a review shows the full text and reviewer name.
- Your public profile URL is accessible and displays the same reviews.
- Search engines begin to index your public profile once you reach 5 reviews (check Google Search Console).
- Your aggregate star rating appears on the public profile once you reach 20 reviews.
- Review snippets start to appear in Google search results for your brand name and products.
Integration with other review channels
Your reviews also appear on other channels where your products are sold. If you use the-google-product-review-feed-and-google-seller-ratings, your reviews feed into Google's rating system and can appear as seller ratings on Google Shopping and Google Search.
The Trust widget and public profile are your owned channels for review display. They work alongside marketplace and search engine integrations to build trust across all touchpoints where customers discover your products.
Summary
The Trust widget and public profile are the two primary surfaces for displaying collected customer reviews. The widget is embeddable on your own storefront via JavaScript and protected by CORS domain restrictions. The public profile is a Vendably-hosted page that becomes searchable once you reach 5 reviews and displays your aggregate rating once you reach 20 reviews.
Configure both by adding your domain to the allowed-origins list and installing the widget code on your storefront. Monitor your progress towards the 5-review indexing threshold and the 20-review trust score threshold. Once both surfaces are live and displaying reviews correctly, you have established a strong foundation for building buyer trust and improving your visibility in search results.