Google reviews widget & Instagram feed for WordPress
Add your real Google reviews or your Instagram feed to a WordPress site with a Custom HTML block and one line of code. No plugin to install, nothing to keep updated, and no theme files to edit. This guide is the whole install, start to finish.
The steps are the same for both widgets. Everything below works unchanged whether you are adding your Google reviews or your Instagram feed to WordPress — the same block, the same one-line snippet, in the same place. Only the widget id differs, and that is generated for you when you save.
Works on any WordPress theme No plugin required About five minutes
Before you start: you need a TrustGetter account with a saved widget, which is where your embed code comes from, and edit access to the WordPress page you want the reviews on. Both are free.
How to add Google reviews or an Instagram feed to WordPress
Five steps. Steps 1 to 3 happen in TrustGetter, and only the last two touch your website.
Connect your Google listing or your Instagram account
Create a free account and search for your business by name, the way a customer would find you on Google Maps. Pick it from the results and we fetch your reviews once and keep them, so your WordPress pages never wait on Google to load.
For an Instagram feed it is the same step with a different button: you connect the account on Instagram’s own sign-in screen and approve read access there. We never see your password, and we cannot post, comment or change anything. From there on the two widgets are built and installed identically.
Choose a layout and make it match your theme
Pick one of 17 templates across 7 layouts — grid, list, carousel, a scrolling marquee, a rating badge, a compact slider and a floating panel. Set your colours, font, corner radius and spacing, and watch the live preview at true desktop and phone widths.
A grid with two or three columns suits a full-width WordPress homepage section. A list suits a sidebar or a narrow column.
An Instagram feed is the same panel with a different list: 10 layouts instead of templates, from a plain grid to a gapless wall to a scrolling row of reels. The colour, font and spacing controls are the ones you have just used.
Save the widget and copy the embed code
Saving publishes the widget and generates its embed code. Copy it — it is two short lines and looks like this, with your own widget id in place of the example:
Add a Custom HTML block to your page
In WordPress, open the page or post where the reviews should appear and click the + button at the point you want them. Search the block list for Custom HTML and add it.
For a sidebar or footer instead of a page, go to Appearance → Widgets and add a Custom HTML widget there. On a block theme, use Appearance → Editor and add the same Custom HTML block to the template.
Paste the code and publish
Paste the embed code into the block and click Update or Publish. Then view the live page — the block editor shows the raw code rather than the rendered widget, so the reviews only appear on the published page, not in the editor.
One WordPress.com limitation to know about. On WordPress.com — the hosted service, not a self-hosted site — scripts are stripped out of Custom HTML blocks unless you are on the Business plan or higher. The block saves, the page publishes, and the widget simply never appears. Self-hosted WordPress.org sites have no such limit. If you are not sure which you have, check whether your dashboard offers Plugins: if it does, you are fine.
Running both widgets on WordPress
The steps above already cover the Instagram feed — it is the same one-line snippet, pasted into the same block, in the same place. What follows is the only part that differs, and what happens when you want both on one page.
The one difference is step 1. A Google listing is found by searching for it; an Instagram account is connected by signing in on Instagram's own screen and approving read access there. Everything after that — choosing a look, saving, copying the snippet, pasting it into WordPress — is identical.
You can run both on one page: your reviews in a grid partway down, your latest posts in a row nearer the foot. On WordPress that is two blocks and two snippets. See the Instagram feed widget for the 10 layouts and what connecting an account gives us access to.
Common WordPress questions
Do I need a Google reviews plugin for WordPress?
No, and that is deliberate. This is a Custom HTML block with one line of code in it, so there is no plugin to install, no plugin to update, and nothing that can conflict with your theme or break at the next WordPress release. Changing the design later happens in TrustGetter — the code on your site stays exactly as it is.
The widget does not appear on my page. What now?
Three things cause almost all of it. First, check the published page rather than the editor — the block editor never renders the widget. Second, on WordPress.com below the Business plan the script is stripped, as above. Third, a caching or optimisation plugin may be deferring or minifying the script; clear the cache and, if it persists, exclude trustgetter.com/widget.js from JavaScript optimisation.
Will it slow my WordPress site down?
The widget is about 21 kB over the wire with no libraries behind it and loads asynchronously, so it never blocks your page from rendering. The reviews come from our cache rather than a live call to Google, which is why it stays fast no matter how much traffic the page gets.
Can I put the same widget on more than one page?
Yes. The embed code is the same everywhere, so paste it into as many pages, posts or templates as you like at no extra cost. You only need a second widget when you want a second, different design.
Using something else?
The same widget and the same embed code work anywhere you can paste HTML. These guides give the exact menu names for each platform.
Put your Google reviews and your Instagram feed on your WordPress site.
Start free with one widget on one business. Connect your listing and see your real reviews in every template before you decide anything.