Platforms
Google reviews on GoDaddy: the HTML section, measured
To put Google reviews on a GoDaddy Website Builder site you add a section of custom code, usually listed as HTML in the section picker, and paste three things into it: a stylesheet link, the widget script, and one init call with your account key. No app, no plugin, no theme file. The part no tutorial mentions is that GoDaddy does not paste your code into the page. It wraps it in a sandboxed iframe with its own document and then guesses how tall that document is, and that guess is what decides whether your widget looks right or ends up in a 150 pixel box.
We took the measurements below on 6 August 2026, on a live GoDaddy site running our widget and on a copy of GoDaddy’s own section markup, so the numbers are from the builder as it ships today.
What GoDaddy actually does with the code you paste
Here is the wrapper GoDaddy generates around a custom code section, taken from the page source of a live site:
<section data-aid="HTML_SECTION_RENDERED">
<iframe frameBorder="0"
sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-popups allow-presentation allow-top-navigation"
src="javascript: window.frameElement.getAttribute("srcdoc");"
srcDoc="<script>window.onmessage = function(event) {
event.source.postMessage({
iframeId: event.data,
scrollHeight: document.body.getBoundingClientRect().height || document.body.scrollHeight
}, event.origin);
};</script>
<body style='margin: 0'>
...your pasted code goes here...
</body>"
style="width:100%;height:undefinedpx;transition:height 1.5s ease"></iframe>
</section>Three things in that markup matter more than they look.
Your code lives in a separate document. The srcdoc attribute means the section has its own
<html>, its own <body> and its own viewport. Anything your widget measures against the window is
measuring the section, not the page.
GoDaddy sizes the section by asking. It injects a postMessage listener above your code, the parent
page asks for a height, and the answer is document.body.getBoundingClientRect().height || document.body.scrollHeight. Whatever number comes back becomes the iframe height, animated over 1.5
seconds.
And the starting height is a bug you can read in the source. height:undefinedpx is not valid CSS,
so the browser throws it away and the iframe keeps the HTML default, which is exactly 150 pixels.
That default is what you get whenever the height answer never arrives or comes back as zero.
Two widget types, one section, very different results
We ran both widget types through GoDaddy’s own section markup at a desktop width of 940 pixels and a phone width of 342 pixels, and read the height the section settled on.
| Widget type | Height the section reported | Final section height | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Review list, desktop 940px | 826.89px | 827px | fits, nothing cut off |
| Review list, phone 342px | 901.89px | 902px | fits, nothing cut off |
| Floating badge, desktop | 0 | 150px (default) | badge trapped in a 150px box |
| Floating badge, phone | 0 | 150px (default) | badge ends at exactly 150px, no margin |
The review list works because it is ordinary content in the document flow, so the body has a real height and GoDaddy’s question gets a real answer. The section grows to fit it, on a phone as well as on a desktop.
The badge reports zero for a reason worth knowing, because it explains a whole class of widget
problems on builders. A floating badge is position: fixed. Fixed elements are taken out of the
document flow, so they add nothing to the height of the body. On the live GoDaddy page we measured
document.body.getBoundingClientRect().height at 0 and document.body.scrollHeight at 0, with a
fully rendered badge inside that same document. GoDaddy asks a fair question, the badge honestly
answers zero, and the section falls back to 150 pixels.
What that costs you on a real page
The badge is not broken inside a GoDaddy section. It renders, it shows the rating, it is clickable. It just stops doing the one thing a badge is for. We measured the same widget, 161 by 106 pixels, in two places on the same afternoon.
| Measurement | Our own page, badge in the page | GoDaddy site, badge in an HTML section |
|---|---|---|
| Badge size | 161 x 106px | 161 x 106px |
| CSS position | fixed, relative to the window | fixed, relative to the section |
| Page height | 4549px | 7207px |
| On screen at scroll top | yes | no |
| On screen at half the page | yes | no |
| On screen at the bottom | yes | no |
| Scroll range where it is visible | the whole page | 1050px out of 6307px, about 17% |
On the GoDaddy page the section sits 1641 pixels down a 7207 pixel page and is 150 pixels tall, so the badge can only be on screen while the visitor is scrolled between roughly 741 and 1791 pixels. Past that it scrolls away like any other block. A badge you paid attention to for its permanence is visible for about a sixth of the page.
The phone result shows how little room is left. At a 390 pixel viewport the badge rendered 73 pixels tall starting 77 pixels down its 150 pixel section, which adds up to exactly 150. Nothing spare.
That matters because a badge is meant to be clicked, and clicking it expands it to show the rating per source. We measured that too. On our own page the badge went from 161 x 106 to 350 x 204 pixels and stayed fully on screen, because it is anchored to its bottom edge and grows upward. Inside the GoDaddy section the same click produced a 260 x 206 pixel panel anchored to the top of a 150 pixel frame, so 56 pixels of it finished up outside the section. The widget is not confused about its own size. It simply has less room than it needs, and the section will not grow, because the height was settled by an answer of zero long before anyone clicked anything.
What to do instead
Use a review list in the HTML section, and treat the badge as a separate decision.
For the section itself, paste the stylesheet link, the script tag, the container div and the init call as one block. Because the section is its own document, the script tag has to be inside the same section as the container. Splitting them across two sections puts them in two different iframes that cannot see each other, which produces a silent nothing: no reviews, no console error. Our step by step GoDaddy embed instructions have the exact block to copy.
Then check it on the published site, not in the editor. The builder preview renders sections differently and the 1.5 second height animation means the section is briefly the wrong size on every load. Give the published page a few seconds before deciding anything is broken.
If you want the badge as well, put it where a badge belongs, which is site wide rather than in one section. In GoDaddy that means the site wide code injection settings rather than an HTML section. Same snippet, different home, and the badge is then positioned against the window like it is designed to be.
How common is this, honestly
We looked at every domain that called our widget API over fourteen days, 632 hosts across 314
accounts, and exactly one of them was a godaddysites.com address. That number understates GoDaddy,
because a GoDaddy site on its own custom domain is indistinguishable from any other site by hostname
alone, and our wider platform scan on 4 August put GoDaddy in a group of six small platforms
totalling nine sites. Either way, GoDaddy is a small share of the sites running our widget, which is
also why this specific trap goes unreported: not many people hit it, and the ones who do see a widget
that renders, so they assume it is fine.
It is worth saying plainly that none of this is GoDaddy doing something wrong. Sandboxing pasted code is a sensible thing for a website builder to do, and asking the code how tall it is, is the only way to size a box you cannot see into. The mismatch is between that mechanism and any widget that deliberately floats above the page.
Why our widget on a builder like this
The reason to use JustReview here is that everything above is measurable at all. The widget is a stylesheet and a script from our domain plus one init call, so it works in any box that runs JavaScript, including a GoDaddy section, a Wix HTML block or a Webflow embed, and you can open dev tools and see exactly what it did. There is no app to install and nothing to update when GoDaddy changes its builder, because there is no integration to break.
It also does not care where the reviews come from. Google is the usual first source, but the same snippet shows Facebook, marketplace seller feedback and software review sites in one list, which matters more than it sounds when Google is not where your reviews actually are. You can see the list widget running live further down this page, and embedding it on your own site is the same three lines you just read about.
Two honest caveats, and the second one is about our own pricing. A review list is taller than people expect, 827 pixels on desktop in our measurement, so give it a section of its own rather than squeezing it next to something else. And the list widget starts on our paid Plus plan, not the free one: free gives you the badge, up to 100 stored reviews from Google and Facebook, no card. Which means that on GoDaddy specifically, the free plan and the HTML section are the wrong pairing, since the free plan’s widget is exactly the one that does not belong in a section.
So the honest route in is this. Create an account, connect Google, and put the badge snippet in GoDaddy’s site wide code injection rather than in an HTML section. That costs nothing and the badge behaves the way it is designed to, floating against the window on every page. If you want the review list sitting in a section on the page, the one this whole article measured at 827 pixels, that is the Plus plan and up. Still choosing a tool? Our comparison of Google reviews widgets covers what to check before you commit to any of them.
FAQ
Can I add Google reviews to GoDaddy Website Builder without an app?
Yes. GoDaddy has a section type for custom code, usually listed as HTML, and a reviews widget is a stylesheet link, a script tag and one init call. There is nothing to install. The catch is that the section is not part of your page in the normal sense: GoDaddy puts your code inside a sandboxed iframe with its own document, which is what makes some widget types behave differently there than on a hand built site.
Why is my reviews widget cut off at 150 pixels on GoDaddy?
Because 150 pixels is the default height of an iframe in HTML, and the section fell back to it. GoDaddy sizes the section by asking your code how tall it is, through a postMessage listener it injects into your snippet. If the content is positioned so that the document body measures zero, and a floating badge is exactly that, the answer is 0 and the builder writes an invalid height, so the browser keeps the default. On 6 August 2026 we measured this on a live GoDaddy site: 150 pixels, with a badge sitting inside it.
Should I use a floating badge or a review list on GoDaddy?
In a section, a list. In the same GoDaddy style section, on the same day, a review list reported its own height correctly and the section grew to 827 pixels on desktop and 902 pixels on a phone width, while the badge stayed inside a 150 pixel box. A badge is designed to hover over the whole page, and inside a section it can only hover over that section. The badge is not the problem, its home is: put it in GoDaddy's site wide code injection instead and it works normally.
Does the badge still work at all inside a GoDaddy section?
It renders and it is clickable, it just stops being a floating badge. We measured the same badge, 161 by 106 pixels, in both places. On a normal page it stayed in the corner of the window at every scroll position we tested. On the GoDaddy page it was on screen for 1050 pixels out of 6307 pixels of scrolling, about 17 percent of the page, because it can only travel as far as its own section.