Platforms
Google reviews widget on Squarespace (and why the editor looks empty)
Squarespace has no plugin directory, so every review widget arrives the same way: as a script you paste yourself. The mechanics take about three minutes. What takes people an afternoon is the part nobody warns them about, which is that a correctly installed widget renders nothing in the Squarespace editor and looks broken until you check the live site.
Here is the whole thing, in the order you will actually do it.
Two places code can go, and they are not interchangeable
| Code Injection (Settings) | Code block (on a page) | |
|---|---|---|
| Applies to | the whole site | one page |
| Squarespace plan needed | Business or higher | available on lower plans |
| Good for | the library and widget configuration | the container where reviews appear |
| Survives page duplication | yes | no, it is copied with the page |
The clean setup uses both: the heavy part once site-wide, the light part where the reviews should show. If you are on a plan without Code Injection, everything has to live in the Code block instead, repeated on every page that shows reviews.
The three parts of the snippet
When you generate the embed code in your dashboard you get three pieces, and they are not interchangeable either.
Part 1, the library. One script tag that loads the widget engine. It belongs in the Footer field of Code Injection, and it goes there once even if you plan to show four different widgets.
Part 2, the configuration. A small block that describes one widget: which sources, how many reviews, which colours, slider or list. One part 2 per widget, all of them in the same Footer field.
Part 3, the container. A single empty div that marks the place on the page where reviews will
be drawn. This is the piece that goes into a Code block, on the page where you want the widget.
<!-- part 3: the only piece that goes on the page itself -->
<div id="justreview-testimonials"></div>Concretely: Settings, Advanced, Code Injection, paste part 1 and part 2 into Footer, save. Then open
the page, add a Code block with the </> icon, paste part 3, save. The
step-by-step version with screenshots is in our docs.
Why the editor shows nothing
This is the single most common support message we get about Squarespace, and the answer is not a bug.
Our widget only renders on domains that are on the whitelist in your account settings. The Squarespace editor previews your site on a Squarespace preview address, not on your domain, so the widget refuses to draw. It is the same protection that stops somebody copying your snippet into their own site and showing your reviews as theirs.
So the sequence is: paste, save, open the live URL in a normal tab. If reviews appear there, you are done, whatever the editor showed you a minute earlier.
Two related traps worth checking at the same time:
- The whitelist entry has to match the address people actually visit. If your site answers on
www.example.comand the whitelist saysexample.com, add both. - A brand new Squarespace site on a
.squarespace.comtrial address is not your domain either. Test after connecting the real domain, or whitelist the trial address temporarily.
The other three reasons nothing appears
The Code block is still in draft. Squarespace saves page edits separately from publishing them. An unpublished Code block exists for you and for nobody else.
Part 3 is missing on that particular page. Code Injection is site-wide, the container is not. Reviews will only draw where the container exists, so duplicating a page that has it, and forgetting it on a new page, produces exactly this symptom.
The source has not finished importing. On a first connection, a profile with a long history takes a while to pull in. The widget draws nothing rather than an empty frame, which looks identical to a broken install. Check the dashboard: if the source shows zero reviews, the problem is upstream of Squarespace.
What this costs your page
Two static files, both cached at the CDN edge. Measured on production on 26 July 2026 with Brotli enabled: 128 KB of JavaScript and 15 KB of CSS over the wire, plus one request for the review data. Nothing runs on Squarespace’s side, so page rendering is untouched and the widget draws after the page is interactive.
That number matters more on Squarespace than on most platforms, because Squarespace templates are already heavy and you cannot strip much out of them. If you are adding several third-party widgets, add them one at a time and check your Core Web Vitals after each.
Where to put reviews on a Squarespace site
Three placements earn their keep, in this order:
- On the page where the decision happens, next to the price, the booking button or the contact form. Reviews work as an objection handler and belong next to the objection.
- Just above the contact form. On service sites this is usually the highest-value spot on the whole site.
- On a dedicated reviews page in the main navigation, which also gives you a URL you can link from quotes, emails and your Google Business Profile.
What we would avoid is the site-wide footer. It feels efficient, it is one container and it appears everywhere, but reviews stop being read the moment they become furniture on every page.
Which widget type fits a Squarespace layout
Squarespace sections are full-width blocks with generous padding, which rules some widget shapes in and others out. From what people actually install, three work well.
A slider of testimonials is the safest default. It fits a full-width section, it does not fight the template’s vertical rhythm, and it shows several reviews without a wall of text. Set it to two or three visible slides, not five: Squarespace content columns are wide, and squeezing five cards into one row makes each review unreadable on a laptop.
A compact rating summary works where a slider would be too much: in a sidebar-like column next to a booking form, or directly under a page title. One number, the star row and the review count carry most of the trust signal, and they take 80 pixels of height instead of 500.
A full reviews page belongs on its own page in the main navigation. It is the only placement where visitors arrived to read reviews, so give them all of them, sorted by date, rather than a carousel that hides most of the content behind arrows. All six widget shapes are on the Google reviews widget page if you want to see them side by side before choosing.
One Squarespace-specific detail: whatever you pick, the container div in part 3 inherits the width
of the section it sits in. If the widget looks cramped, the fix is usually the Squarespace section
width setting, not the widget configuration.
One thing to decide before you install anything
Whichever tool you pick, check how it bills. Several widget vendors count monthly views, meaning the number of times the widget loads, and switch the widget off when you pass the limit. On a Squarespace site with a review widget in a template area, that meter runs on every page view of your entire site. We compared the seven main tools on exactly this in best Google reviews widget in 2026, and the numbers are on our pricing page too: JustReview never counts views, on any plan, including the free one.
FAQ
Can I add a Google reviews widget on the Squarespace Personal plan?
Not with the Code Injection method, because Squarespace gates site-wide Code Injection behind the Business plan and above. A Code block on a single page is the workaround on lower plans: it needs all three parts of the snippet in the same block, on every page where you want the widget.
Why is the widget invisible in the Squarespace editor?
Because the widget only renders on domains you have whitelisted in your account settings, and the editor preview runs on a Squarespace preview address that is not your domain. This is by design: it stops someone copying your snippet onto their own site. Save, then check the live URL.
Where exactly do the three parts of the snippet go?
Part 1 (the library) and part 2 (the widget configuration) go into Settings, Advanced, Code Injection, in the Footer field. Part 3 is the container div and goes into a Code block on the page where the widget should appear. Part 1 belongs there once even if you have several widgets; part 2 is repeated per widget.
Do I have to update the code when I restyle the widget?
Yes. The widget settings live inside part 2 of the snippet, not on our server, so after changing colours or layout in the dashboard you regenerate the code and replace part 2 in Code Injection. Part 1 and part 3 stay as they are.