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How to Make a Review Website – a Comprehensive Guide for Beginners

Allison Reed 18 September, 2018

Perhaps, it’s not a secret that nowadays, there are plenty of ways to make a fortune online. Thousands of business owners have already turned the web into their main marketplace. They are successfully selling their products and services, getting a stable income. However, can you earn online if you produce no goods of your own? Believe us, there is an effective way. It’s a review website. Are you eager to know what it is and how to create one? Then, this article is especially for you. It will throw light on the subject and offer useful tips on how to make a review website. What’s more, you’ll find an example of a gorgeous review website template capable of satisfying all your needs.

how to make a review website main image

What Is a Review Website?

To tell the truth, the answer to this question is quite simple. A review website is a site that provides reviews of various brands, their products, and services. As a rule, it specializes in a certain category of goods. Have you ever visited TripAdvisor or Yelp? They are the typical representatives of powerful review websites.

A review website is a middleman between a buyer and a seller. It sends buyers off to the seller’s website via affiliate links. As a result, a review website owner earns a commission every time a buyer purchases.  The success of a review website lies in posting qualitative articles that let you earn through affiliate links.

Have you already realized the benefits you’ll get with a review website? Then you may skip the next section and focus on the tips on making a review website. In case you still hesitate that the game is worth the candle, let’s examine the advantages a review website gives.

3 Reasons to Learn How to Make a Review Website

Before diving into how to make a review website, let’s look at the opportunities it grants.

Great Demand among the Internet Users

What do the majority of people do before buying a new product? Of course, they start searching for product reviews on the web. According to the University of Twente research, 98% of respondents check online reviews before product purchase. The best thing is that they are ready to buy. This means that there are crowds of prospects online. So, you’ll have no traffic problems if you write the reviews they are interested in.

Moreover, BrightLocal Consumer Review Survey shows that 85% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Consequently, if you gain their trust, they’ll come again and again for your reviews. The more often they return, the stronger the possibility of your high income is.

Several Revenue Sources

money image

First and foremost, a review website lets you generate income without producing your goods. There are at least three proven ways to get revenue with it.

  • Affiliate Programs (you get a commission for every visitor you redirect to other websites if he purchases their products);
  • Transactions (you get a commission from other businesses’ goods or services purchased directly on your website);
  • Advertisements (an income comes from displaying third-party businesses’ banner ads).

Strong Possibility of High Ranking in SERPs

Google ranking image

Believe it or not, there are still a lot of niche markets with almost no competition. Strangely, some products that sell well sometimes have less than ten reviews on the first page of Google. Thus, if you write their reviews, your website can get ranked on the first page.

The same is with the low-competition keywords. You’ll get a chance to rank high as soon as you find someone to review a product.

Hope you now understand the benefits and are willing to learn how to make a review website.

How to Make a Review Website: The Preparatory Stage

Building a successful review website requires careful preparation. Here are several important steps you shouldn’t miss.

Find Your Niche

Perhaps, you’ve already heard a collocation, “a market niche”. If you still don’t know what it means, we’ll briefly explain. A niche is a specific segment of the market you can identify and target. To put it simply, it’s the specific category of products you’re going to review. Choosing the right niche will ensure that your review website will make money.

Your niche should be something you’re passionate about. Hardly will you be able to write exciting, trustworthy reviews of the products you’re not interested in. At the same time, it should be potentially profitable.

To check the profit potential of the topic, use a simple Google search. For instance, we decide to go for preschool toys.

niche queries in Google

We type “preschool toys” in the search line and examine the results. As you see, our search term has brought the results from such giants as Amazon and Walmart. This means that our topic definitely has some commercial value. Another indicator of the potential profitability is the ads appearing above and to the side of the search results.

Focus on the Keywords

It’s a common fact that keywords are highly important for any website. They increase the chances of top rankings in search engines. Of course, a review website isn’t an exception. Therefore, the next step our How to Make a Review Website Guide suggests is a careful search of specific keywords.

As the search is impossible without a keyword tool, we recommend you try Jaaxy. Its starter plan allows you to make 30 searches for free.

keyword research tool

Type the name of your product + reviews, for example, preschool toys reviews. The results will depict several crucial metrics. You’ll see the number of average searches, estimated traffic, QSR, and SEO score. Moreover, there’s the keyword quality indicator. Surely, you need to pick the keywords with the highest number of searches and the lowest QSR. In case you’re not satisfied with the results, you’ll find a list of the related long-tail keywords you can try.

Select the Sources of Your Future Income

Everyone who’s learning how to make a review website should also know the possible sources of the planned revenue.

income image

As you’ll be acting as a middleman, it’s high time to define the sellers. Fortunately, there are a lot of websites eager to cooperate. Here is a list of top 5 for a successful start:

Whatever website you choose, you should sign up as a publisher. As soon as you get approval, place links and banner ads on your review website. After your visitors click through them and make a purchase, you’ll get your commission.

Certainly, affiliate marketing isn’t the only way of earning revenue. However, they are the most proven and long-term income source.

Pick a Reliable Hosting Provider

Our next step is to obtain a proper hosting provider. It’s a company that will house, serve, and maintains files for your review website. Thus, the future performance of your website will depend on the quality of their services.

You should choose hosting in accordance with your CMS requirements. Actually, the best practice is to pick a provider whose servers are situated close to your location. In such a case, the server will respond faster saving both your and your visitors’ time.

Buy Hosting

Decide on a Domain Name

It’s quite obvious that your website’s existence is impossible without a domain name. That’s why we couldn’t omit this point while teaching you how to make a review website.

As your domain is your identity on the web, it should be catchy, memorable, and evoke trust. Besides, it should be short and easy to spell and pronounce. As a rule, too long and complex domains may result in mistyping. Thus, your potential customers can find themselves on a different website than yours.

Moreover, your domain can affect SEO. Therefore, it shouldn’t be something generic. The best idea is to include a keyword from your niche. It will help you rank higher in Google.

domain name choice procedure

Have you failed to contrive a great domain by yourself? Then use free domain name generators such as LeanDomainSearch. They will help you turn your ideas into unique and available domains.

Choose a Proper Template

Finally, the preparation stage is coming to an end. The only thing left is choosing an appropriate review website template. Though it’s the last preparatory step, it’s definitely of vital importance. Honestly, all your knowledge on how to make a review website is quite useless until you have a great template.

To begin with, your website template should be completely responsive. It will prevent your visitors from annoying side-scrolling and zooming while browsing your review website.

responsive review design

Next, the template should enable you to add various types of content. Evidently, you don’t want to limit yourself to the text messages. You’ll need audio and video content as well.

Then, your template should be easily customized. Unquestionably, you don’t want to spend a life on editing your future website.

Finally, a good template should be well-documented and guarantee professional customer support services. It may so happen that one day you’ll need it badly.

Are you afraid that you won’t be able to find an ideal template by yourself? Don’t worry. Here is a great review website template that meets all the requirements mentioned above.

Techguide Review Website Template

techguide review website template

TRY FOR FREE

Techguide is a stunning theme from MotoCMS. It’s visually appealing and tech-savvy at the same time. This amazing template has everything to put your knowledge on how to make a review website into practice.

To start with, Techguide is 100% responsive and cross-browser compatible. Whatever modern device and browser your visitors use your website will look great and perform well.

product video review website

The template comes with each and every pre-made page you need to build an appealing review website. Frankly speaking, it’s almost a ready-to-go website waiting for its happy owner. The best thing is that you don’t have to possess any special tech skills to make it work. Thanks to the convenient drag-and-drop website creator you’ll fill your website with content in no time.

product review website design

Moreover, the process of customization is as easy as a pie. You can effortlessly edit any element of your future website. Furthermore, a wide range of widgets lets you add any desired functionality. This means that you need no additional plugins. Besides, you get a free 14-day trial and 24/7 professional customer support.

tech guide review website

To sum up, Techguide is an excellent solution for anyone who wants to build a review website.

At last, we are through with the preparatory stage. This means that you are ready to find out how to create a review website design and content.

How to Make a Review Website: Helpful Tips on Design and Content

It’s not a secret that both overall design and content can make or break your future website. That’s why we offer you several useful hints on how to make a review website visually appealing and effective.

Bet on Clear Structure and Availability

Hardly there are many people who enjoy mess when they’re trying to find something quickly. As usual, the web page without clear structure and logic irritates visitors. On the contrary, a well-organized one pleases the eye and enables your audience to perceive information with ease.

First of all, think of the simplest layout that will be enough to highlight the content. Avoid unnecessary distractive information. Keep your messages short and up to the point. Organize your reviews under specific categories available through the menu items.

Next, choose the right proportion of content and space. Keep in mind that white space is highly important. It grants your web page a necessary balance and contrast. Consequently, it makes things clearer for your visitors.

Finally, use simple navigation. Pick not more than six main menu items. Besides, don’t try to be too innovative. Implement horizontal and vertical menus the majority of people are used to. In a word, ensure that even your grandmother will be able to move from section to section without an effort.

Write Qualitative Product Reviews

Actually, there are three ways of generating content for a review website. Firstly, you can use Web 2.0 techniques to gather reviews from the website visitors. Secondly, you can hire professional writers. Thirdly, you can author the reviews yourself. Surely, the last way is more reliable than the first and cheaper than the second. That’s why it’s a good idea to learn writing qualitative product reviews.

writing a copy

First and foremost, make an in-depth research. Of course, the best way is to buy a product and test it yourself. Unfortunately, it’s not always possible. In such a case, read everything about the product and watch videos not to miss any important detail. Read reviews of other people to learn about strong and weak sides. After you obtain all the necessary information, follow a proven simple scheme:

  • Product overview
  • Whom it is for
  • Main features
  • Pros and cons
  • Price
  • Verdict and rank

Bear in mind that the best strategy for reviews is honesty. If your reviews are truthful, you’ll build trust with your visitors. As a result, they will come back for your reviews again and again.

Use Miscellaneous Types of Content

Although thought-out honest text reviews are great, they are definitely not enough for a successful review website. So, it’s time to learn how to make a review website content more varied and engaging.

To begin with, use clickable images of every product you review. Firstly, they will help your visitors have a better idea of the product. Secondly, users are more likely to click on the image than on the text link. There’s only one thing to remember. All images should be of high quality. Low-quality images will either leave your visitors indifferent or even make them abandon your website.

how to add video to review website

Next, employ audio and video reviews. They will enliven your review website and engage your audience. Like images, your multimedia content should be top-quality. It’s also a good idea to submit it with captions, transcripts, and audio descriptions. This will make your content accessible for users with disabilities and non-native speakers.

Then, add comparison tables. This type of content will enable your visitors to compare multiple products at a glance. You can compare products based on key features, price, performance, positive and negative ratings, etc.

Double Check All the Links

Probably, no one will deny that the right links are vitally important for a review website. Broken links will have a negative impact both on usability and search rankings. That’s why before launching your website it’s so necessary to carefully test every link.

Make use of free online tools such as Check My Links or Dead Link Checker. Believe it, it’s won’t take much of your time and effort. The only thing you have to do is just enter the URL of your review website. A link checker will crawl through your web pages very fast. It will check all the links and identify those which are broken. Thus, you’ll have an opportunity to correct them before they redirect your visitors to error pages.

Hope, now you know how to make a review website. So, don’t waste precious time. Use your new knowledge on practice. Build an effective website with reviews of your favorite products and start earning a fortune without further delay.

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Author: Allison Reed
Allison is a professional content marketer and an inspired author. Marketing manager by day and a writer by night, she is creating many articles on business, marketing, design and web development. She loves working with website builders and CMS, and sharing her experience with the readers. Follow her on LinkedIn and Facebook.