When I’m working with an author on their new website, often the author suggests a single place to put all the great blurbs and review snippets that they have and will gather for their book(s). While it’s undeniable that any author should be placing their greatest review excerpts / testimonials / blurbs on their site, I often recommend that they “sprinkle them around” on multiple pages rather than put them all on one page.

Here’s why: Often your best blurbs will focus on different things — some will be about you as an author, some will be specific to a particular book, and others will blend both. If you do any speaking, book readings or signings, you might also have blurbs about that kind of thing. Placing them strategically on your site in the locations in which they provide context gives them lots more power then just listing them all out on a single page.

Not only are your site visitors less likely to sit and read through a full page of review blurbs, but when they are looking at a page of your site that features a particular book, placing a featured review right there next to the book shot and the purchase link reinforces their decision to move forward with a purchase when they’re actually thinking about it. And the same is true if your site visitor is on your site to learn more about you — if they’re looking at your bio page and you place a blurb there that talks about you as a great writer, that can help tell your story. Or, if your site visitor is a journalist looking to write a story for which you’d be a great source, placing a blurb that talks about how you’re a dynamic speaker right where you mention that you’re available for events and for media correspondence (along with your contact info) helps make your case.

And, beyond all of that, just like images help break up the text on a page, website blurbs that have a specific pull-quote style can also help break up large blocks of text and bring focus to the content of a page. For even more bang for your buck, you can add logos or headshots to your blurb attributions which humanize them and can lend credibility and creative flare.

Finally, resist the urge to place every single positive quote you receive on your website. If you’re lucky enough to have loads of positive reviews / blurbs, be strategic about them and pick out a handful to feature. You can even change them out over time, but a few great blurbs can have lots more impact than lots and lots of pretty good ones.