How To Write A Product Review In 5 Steps

It’s important to have reviews on your affiliate website. Not only do consumers depend on reviews to help inform their buying choices, it’s also a great way to generate sales. It doesn’t matter what your niche is, there are hundreds of products you can potentially review, including household items, supplements, beauty care products, travel deals, or pet accessories. In this post I’ll outline how to write a product review in 5 steps.

How To Write a Product Review - Finger on Star

What Is A Product Review?


Product reviews are invaluable for helping consumers familiarize themselves with the features and specifications of a product before purchasing. Reviews also alert them to any possible cons they should be aware of, along with the positive aspects of a product.

Reading about others’ opinions and experiences with a particular item is extremely helpful to buyers, helping them to make an informed decision before they pull out their credit card. Reviews are also a great way for marketers to increase their sales, while driving traffic to their website.  

Benefits Of Writing Reviews


Including reviews on your blog can advantageous in many ways, including:

  • Driving more traffic
  • Making more sales
  • Getting better rankings in Google
  • Building trust with your audience
  • Gaining credibility
  • Drawing more customers to your blog
  • Building your brand

This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission, with no cost to you, if you make a purchase through one of my links.

How To Write A Product Review Step-By-Step


1. Choose A Product Or Program To Review


Reviews can include programs or services, as well as products. To simplify, I’ll be using the word “product,” but realize that it also encompasses any type of service or program. You can review products you have used personally or ones you don’t have hands-on experience with.

Make sure that whatever it is that you’re reviewing, it’s relevant to your niche. Reviewing the best crockpots of 2020 isn’t likely to cause a stir if you have a photography site. Consider writing a review on the best fisheye lenses or the most user-friendly tripods.

You can write single product reviews or list reviews where you review up to 7 to 10 products. For example, you could review 10 different dog carriers that have the best reviews, along with details about each one, also including how they compare to each other. A great place to spur your imagination is Amazon.

In the screenshot below, you can see the different category options that are accessible on the left-hand side of any Amazon page, under the hamburger icon. Click on a category that applies to your niche and see what comes up.

How To Write A Product Review - Categories Screenshot

I clicked on Beauty & Health” and here’s what came up:

How To Write A Product Review - Beauty and Health Screenshot

I can further narrow my search by clicking on “Men’s Grooming.” Now I can see an entire page of men’s products I could review. The screenshot below is a small sampling of my options:

How To Write A Product Review - Men's Grooming Screenshot

Do this for your particular niche if you don’t own a specific product you’d like to review.

2. Outline The Features Of The Product


Readers want to learn everything they can about an item before they buy. List all pertinent information that you would want to know before making a purchase. Visit the manufacturer’s website to see what information you can glean, and read any customer reviews if they’re available.

Amazon is a shining star when it comes to reviews, enabling you to gain insight into other buyers’ experiences with a product. This is especially true if you don’t personally own the product. You can also gather relevant details from Amazon. Scour forums for additional information and user experiences with the product.

Many times, reading reviews can give you knowledge about the product you wouldn’t otherwise have known. If you own the product yourself, give an honest review of your experience with it. What do you like about it? What features could be improved upon? Would you buy it again? Be sure and include details you would have liked to have been aware of before you bought the product, but weren’t.

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3. List Both The Pros And The Cons


A list of the pros and cons is an important component of any review. Give an unbiased opinion if you don’t own the product or share your personal experience with it if you do.

Try not to give a glowing review of all the favorable aspects of the product, without weighing in on the drawbacks. Include at least one or two cons. People will value your opinion more if they can sense that you’re being honest.

If the pros outweigh the cons, and you’ve done your due diligence in detailing the features of the product, a couple cons shouldn’t derail a sale.

4. Include An FAQ Section


A FAQ, or “frequently asked questions” section, can be very helpful for people reading your review. This section will be easier to create if you own the product because you can go off your own experience and better anticipate questions. An FAQ section doesn’t have to be lengthy, maybe just four or five questions, along with their answers.

Amazon has a question and answer section below each product, and it’s very informative to read other people’s questions paired with the manufacturer’s answers. I wouldn’t have even thought to ask many of the questions buyers asked. You can provide this same service on your review and your readers will appreciate it.

5. Use A Review Plugin


Review plugins add a bit of class and sophistication to your review. I use WP Product Review Lite, but there are other free plugins that work well. I like Product Review Lite because it’s easy to use, and the interface is intuitive, rather than clunky and complicated.

You can customize certain features of the plugin, such as the rating colors, style, typography, position of the review box, and whether you want to enable user comments. You can see what it looks like below:

product review lite review box

You can also opt to add either an image or an affiliate button. And since the plugin is free, new bloggers can use it right out of the gate for highlighting their reviews. A review plugin is a great way to summarize your review and to make it look more professional. The plugin lists the features of the product, along with the pros and cons, and allows you to customize how many options in each category you’ll include.

Another significant benefit of the plugin is in regard to SEO. Because it adds Rich Snippets to your review, which are those little stars you see in Google between the URL and the description, it improves ranking.  WP Product Review Lite also has a premium version with additional features.

Here’s a list of other free review plugins for WordPress:

  • WP Customer Reviews
  • Reviews Plus
  • WP Google Review Slider
  • Customer Reviews for WooCommerce
  • WP Review

If you’d like to learn additional skills, such as writing product reviews, read my REVIEW of my #1 Recommended Resource or click on the banner below to learn more. You can also create a FREE account here. There’s absolutely no risk to get started building your very own online business that will serve you for years to come.

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Key Points

 


Products reviews are a great way to generate sales on your blog, while helping your readers make informed decisions.

Begin by choosing a product to review you think your target market will like, then share either your own experience or others’ opinions of the product.

Include both the pros and the cons, along with an FAQ section to answer any questions you think your readers might have. Using a plugin is a good way to provide a summary of your review and to get it noticed in the search engines. Don’t be intimidated by reviews if you haven’t written one yet. They’re easier to write than you think.

Have you written a product review? Let me know in the comments):

 

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4 thoughts on “How To Write A Product Review In 5 Steps”

  1. Thanks for these tips on writing reviews. For making money online, writing reviews has been a good option as well and I find them quite easy. Although, I have seen some poor reviews. These tips will make it so much easier for those who are into writing reviews. Honesty plays a really big role as well. Cheers.

    Reply
    • Hi Benson,

      Thanks for reading my review. Reviews are an important aspect of any affiliate website, and they’re actually pretty easy to write if you follow a formula. I appreciate your comment:) 

      Reply
  2. Thank you for sharing the tips on how to write a good product review 🙂 My mind is always scattered every time when I get excited about the products and I will just keep going on and on and not straight to the point. Your guide is very constructive, I will book mark your post and start outlining my product review from now on. 

    Cheers! 

    Reply
    • You’re welcome. Thanks for reading my review. I find that following an outline makes writing reviews more user-friendly. Thank you for bookmarking my post:)

      Reply

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