A slide-out review panel that sits on the edge of your website, showing visitors your latest reviews on every page — without taking up any space until they click it.
Why This Matters
Social proof works best when it’s visible. But you can’t put a reviews shortcode on every single page of your site — that would be messy and slow.
The floating widget solves this elegantly. It’s a small tab on the side of your screen (you’ve probably seen these on other websites). When a visitor clicks it, a panel slides out showing your reviews. When they’re done, it slides back. Zero clutter, maximum impact.
It’s especially effective on pages where people make decisions — product pages, pricing pages, contact pages — because it puts reassurance one click away.
What You’ll Need
Nothing extra! The floating widget is enabled by default when you install Trustie. If you’d rather turn it off or customise it, read on.
—
How It Works
Once Trustie is active, you’ll see a small tab fixed to the right side of your site (by default). It shows the word “Reviews” and your aggregate star rating.
When a visitor clicks the tab:
- A panel slides out showing your latest reviews
- Reviews are pulled from all enabled sources — product reviews, testimonials, Google reviews
- Visitors can scroll through reviews without leaving the page
- Clicking outside the panel (or a close button) slides it back
The widget is responsive — it works on mobile devices too, taking up the full width of smaller screens.
—
What Shows in the Widget
The widget automatically pulls reviews from whichever sources you have enabled:
- Product reviews (if WooCommerce is active and the Reviews feature is on)
- Google reviews (if you’ve connected your Google Place ID)
- Testimonials (if the Testimonials feature is on)
Each source can appear as its own tab within the widget. If you only have one source, there are no tabs — it shows your reviews directly.
The widget footer includes a link to your reviews page. If you’ve designated a reviews page in Trustie > Settings > Layout, it links there. Otherwise, it links to your shop page (if WooCommerce is active) or /reviews/.
—
Customising the Widget
Enabling or Disabling
The quickest way to turn the widget on or off:
- Go to Tracksies > Settings > Features (or Trustie > Settings > Features)
- Find Floating Widget in the Trustie section
- Toggle it on or off
You can also control it from Trustie > Settings > Widget.
Position
The widget tab sits on the right side of the screen by default. You can move it to the left side in Trustie > Settings > Widget > Position.
Colours
The widget uses your brand colours from the Designer:
- Tab background uses your primary colour
- Tab text uses white (or your configured widget text colour)
- Panel styling matches your surface, text, and border colours
To change these, go to Trustie > Designer > Colours. The widget picks up your brand colours automatically.
If you’re using Trustie Pro, you get additional widget-specific colour controls (separate tab background, header background, etc.).
Which Pages Show the Widget
By default, the widget appears on every page of your site. This is usually what you want — social proof everywhere.
If you need to hide it on specific pages, a developer can add a small piece of CSS (styling code) to your theme. If you’re not comfortable with code, most page builder plugins let you add custom CSS per page — or just ask your developer to help.
—
Accessibility
The floating widget is fully accessible:
- Keyboard navigable — the tab and all controls work with Tab and Enter keys
- Screen reader friendly — screen readers (software that reads web pages aloud for visually impaired users) properly announce the tab and all panel content
- Focus trapping — when the panel is open, pressing Tab keeps you inside the panel instead of jumping to content behind it
- Escape to close — pressing Escape closes the panel and returns focus to the tab
- Reduced motion — animations are toned down for users who prefer reduced motion
—
Common Questions
Can I change the text on the tab?
The tab shows “Reviews” and your star rating by default. You can customise the text in Trustie > Settings > Widget.
Does the widget slow down my site?
The widget loads after the rest of your page content, so it doesn’t affect perceived load time. Review content is loaded when the visitor clicks the tab, not when the page first loads.
Why don’t I see Google reviews in the widget?
Check that the Google Reviews feature is enabled in Tracksies > Settings > Features, and that your Google Place ID and API key are configured in Trustie > Settings > Google Reviews.
The widget overlaps my chat widget / cookie banner:
If the widget tab conflicts with another floating element on your site, try moving it to the opposite side (left instead of right) in Trustie > Settings > Widget > Position.
—
If Something Goes Wrong
Widget doesn’t appear at all:
- Check that the feature is enabled in Tracksies > Settings > Features > Floating Widget
- Clear your caching plugin
- If it still doesn’t appear, a theme conflict could be preventing it from loading — try switching to a default theme (like Twenty Twenty-Four) temporarily to test
Widget appears but shows no reviews:
There might not be any reviews to show yet. The widget pulls from your enabled sources — if you haven’t added any product reviews, testimonials, or connected Google Reviews, the widget won’t have anything to display.
Widget styling looks wrong:
Try clearing your cache and doing a hard refresh (Ctrl+Shift+R on Windows, Cmd+Shift+R on Mac). If styling is still off, check Trustie > Designer — your widget colours inherit from your brand settings, and adjusting those should fix visual issues.
Widget appears in the admin area:
It shouldn’t — the widget only loads on the frontend. If you’re seeing it in wp-admin, clear your caching plugin. Some aggressive caching plugins can cache the widget HTML into admin pages.