Bonus Episode: Boosting Credibility With Verified Reviews with DJ Sprague

DJ Sprague is a pioneer in Ecommerce reputation management, helping brands turn trust into a competitive advantage. As the CMO of Shopper Approved and co-author of Reputation King, he has spent decades refining strategies that boost online credibility, improve search rankings, and drive revenue growth.

Before joining Shopper Approved, DJ built his career across marketing, advertising, sales, and PR, leading companies to exponential growth—including scaling revenue from $7M to $54M in just four years. With over 35 years of experience and nearly 70 professional certifications, he applies behavioral science principles and ethical influence strategies to help Ecommerce brands win more customers through trust.

Today, DJ is on a mission to redefine reputation management for online sellers. Under his leadership, Shopper Approved has become a Google review partner and the world’s first Diamond Cialdini Certified Marketing Agency, setting new standards in verified reviews, social proof, and search engine dominance. As the digital landscape evolves, DJ is proving that trust isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s the foundation of ecommerce success.

In This Conversation We Discuss:

• [00:42] Intro
• [01:08] Displaying social proof to boost conversions
• [02:47] Dominating search results with positive reviews
• [03:45] Getting more credibility in Google Shopping
• [05:48] Why trust is the key to first-time buyers
• [09:25] The limits of review distribution
• [10:50] Balancing review collection across platforms
• [12:50] Common mistakes killing your online reputation
• [19:39] Real data on how reviews boost conversions

Resources:

• Subscribe to Honest Ecommerce on Youtube
• More reviews, traffic, and conversions shopperapproved.com/
• YOUR REPUTATION. NEXT LEVEL reputationking.com/
• Follow DJ Sprague linkedin.com/in/duanesprague

If you’re enjoying the show, we’d love it if you left Honest Ecommerce a review on Apple Podcasts. It makes a huge impact on the success of the podcast, and we love reading every one of your reviews!

 

Transcript

DJ Sprague

So we believe that every website's  reputation needs to be driven from the top down because it's that important. Because again, people buy from the brands they trust.  

Chase Clymer

Welcome to Honest Ecommerce, a podcast dedicated to cutting through the BS and finding actionable advice for online store owners. I'm your host, Chase Clymer. And I believe running a direct-to-consumer brand does not have to be complicated or a guessing game. 

On this podcast, we interview founders and experts who are putting in the work and creating  real results. 

I also share my own insights from running our top Shopify consultancy, Electric Eye. We cut the fluff in favor of facts to help you grow your Ecommerce business.

Let's get on with the show.

Chase Clymer

Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of Honest Ecommerce. I'm your host, Chase Clymer. Today, I'm welcoming to the show the co-author of Reputation King, the CMO of Shopper Approved, DJ Sprague. He applies his extensive experience in reputation management to help online brands achieve their highest revenue potential. DJ, welcome to the show. 

DJ Sprague

Hey, Chase. Great to be here. 

Chase Clymer

I'm excited. DJ and I have chatted a few times before this. But we're finally getting some time set aside here to have this podcast. So I guess quickly at the top, or people that don't know,  could you quickly introduce Shopper Approved and what you guys are up to in the market? 

DJ Sprague

Yeah. Shopper Approved has been around since 2010. One of the oldest and largest review collection syndication platforms in the world. We are one of just a handful in the US that are actual Google review partners, which means the reviews we collect for both the store or seller ratings and the product reviews get syndicated to Google. 

So they appear in your Google ads, Google shopping, etc., as well as your organic search results. We're also one of two in the whole world. There's also a Bing review partner for both seller and product reviews. And we also have a search optimized AI driven Q and A tool.  

We have all kinds of cool seals and widgets  that appear on your home category product pages to display your social proof, reviews,  etc.  And we're also the only review platform in the world that owns our own website security seal called Trust Guard. So we're very robust. 

We've been around for 15 years now. And we've served tens of thousands of Ecommerce websites. And we've collected millions of reviews. And we only collect, by the way, reviews from actual customers. So they're verified customer reviews. We don't have an open review platform that allows anybody to leave a review. 

Chase Clymer

That's amazing. And we are absolutely going to get into the rabbit hole of syndication because I think a lot of younger merchants don't even understand what that is. And I know that you will do a great job of explaining it. But let's set the hook here at the beginning of the episode. Why should I listen to this? What am I going to learn? 

DJ Sprague

You learn how to dominate your online reputation. And as you said, we wrote the book Reputation King, which is the first and only book ever written about online reputation management for the Ecommerce industry.

And like I said, we've been in this for 15 years. I think we are the preeminent experts in space.  And what you're going to learn is how to dominate the search results with positive reviews,  and then dominate the social proof and the user generated content on your website to increase your conversion rate. 

Chase Clymer

Absolutely. So I guess at the top, online reputation is  basically like your reviews not only on your website, but on Google, as you said earlier, and what folks are saying about you on the internet. And so online reputation management and the tools that you guys have over at Shopper approved. How is that critical to my success? Why can't I just do it myself? 

DJ Sprague

Yeah. Good question. So syndication. We are a Google review partner. And that means that the reviews we collect on your behalf get automatically syndicated

to Google as if it were Google collecting their views themselves.  So there's two kinds of reviews. There are store reviews, used to be called seller ratings, but then Google recently changed them to store reviews  to coincide with their trusted store badge that I'm sure you're aware of that shows up in your Google Shopping.  

And then your product reviews, and they're very different. The product reviews are obviously for the products and the store reviews are for the website, the merchant, the seller, or the store.

And the consumer wants to see both. They want to see that they can trust the store and the product. And so it's critical that you collect both. And both need to be from a Google review partner. Some review platforms are not Google review partners, which means those reviews don't get syndicated to Google,  which means you're basically an island. Nobody will see your reviews unless they actually go to your website. But if they don't see reviews and search, they're not going to go to your website.  

And some are just seller partners and some are store partners and some are just product partners. You need both. Because as you know, you want to see trust in the store and the product. And these days, Google recently started to integrate the store ratings with the product reviews in Google Shopping. So by having both of those reviews show up in your Google Shopping results, you've got a lot more trust, a lot more social proof, a lot more credibility.

Chase Clymer

Absolutely. And I think that one of the things that customers are looking for these days  is that credibility. It's not by any stretch of imagination. It's not difficult to set up a store. But what they want to know is that it's not some fly-by-night operation where they're going to get their information stolen. 

So they are looking for these reviews, these social proof elements to give that trust if it's the first time that they're going to buy from you. Now, I know that Google will organically, with almost any review platform, think they'll pick up those ratings on products with rich results. But those ratings aren't being pushed back to Google. And it's not the same reviews everywhere. 

DJ Sprague

Right. That's right. And that's why it's so important to work with a Google review partner to make sure that those reviews are being syndicated to Google. Now, there's some other nuances and you kind of opened up a few things here. One is we like to say that shoppers buy from companies they know, like and trust. Well, it's not just us, but we all know that saying, right?  

And trust is the most important part. The other thing is that  our research has found that consumers are looking for three points of trust. One, can I trust this website or store or merchant? Two, can I trust the product? And three, can I trust the transaction? And we can get into that later, but you really have to show trust from a third party  resource  that says, I can trust the site and the product and the transaction. 

Now, going back to the syndication, we also have a tool called Review Destinations that is very unique in the industry. This is one of our unique selling propositions. What it allows us to do is send a portion of your reviews to other review platforms. 

So for example, you can say, I want 10% of my reviews to go to Trustpilot. I want 10% to go to the Better Business Bureau or BBB. I want 10% to go to Sitejabber. And I want the rest to go to Shopper Approved. So what that does is it creates this trifecta of trust.

So when you do a search for abc.com reviews or is abc.com legit or trustworthy, and those are very popular search terms, look at your Google search console  and you'll see that people are looking for those types of searches very commonly. In fact, they're typically some of the top search results. So you want to make sure that you show up on page one in your Shopper Approved certificate, your Trustpilot certificate, Sitejabber, Better Business Bureau, etc., and your own website. 

And if you can actually send those reviews  vis-a-vis Shopper Approved to all of those platforms, you're going to be seen as a more trusted website. And we actually did our own  survey of U.S. consumers, and we found that 64% are looking at multiple review sites to see if they trust the company.

If you're not showing up in multiple review sites with positive reviews, a 4.1 or better, then  they're not going to trust you. They want to see that you're trusted across the web, not just on one website. Does that make sense? Does that ring true to how you shop? 

Chase Clymer

Oh, it rings true to me. But I'm going to ask a bunch of follow-ups and  more specifically try to have you dumb it down for me, not the listeners. They're way smarter than me. So let's just talk about syndication. Does it mean that you're  pushing a review one for one on my store to also Google or does syndication mean that I can choose where that one review ends up? Explain a little bit more. Can I put one review everywhere or is one review just one review? 

DJ Sprague

Great question. So one review from the seller rating or the store rating perspective always goes to Google. So when we collect a store review, 100% goes to Google every time. Now, when you want to send a percentage of your store reviews to say another review platform like Trustpilot, then you can only send a percent to there and not duplicate those on Shopper Approved or Site Jabber or Better Business Bureau or Reseller Ratings, etc.

In other words, you can't have the same review duplicated across multiple review platforms. However, that review you collect always goes to Google  and to whatever review platform you choose. 

Chase Clymer

Absolutely. For a more mature brand where these are issues that they're experiencing, where they want to make sure that  they are pushing these reviews around and at least playing ball with some of the powers that be in the industry.  

I know a lot of people just set up drip campaigns. They ask for one and then they ask for another one a little bit later and then they ask for another one a little bit later.  Do you have any data or insights or just  thoughts around  that  strategy versus something a little more robust with automation and API integrations and true partnership? 

DJ Sprague

Yeah. So are you referring, Chase, to sending a review or asking for a review to go to one platform and then three days later for another platform? 

Chase Clymer

Yeah. Mostly through email is what people are doing. 

DJ Sprague

Yeah. Right. Well, the consumer gets burned out  sending reviews or creating reviews for multiple platforms. So we found that that really doesn't work because it's like, look, I did just solid once.

Don't ask me to do it again and again and again. So if you want to send reviews to multiple platforms, you need to basically throttle and say, okay, again, 10% are going to go here, 10% here, 10% here, and the remaining 70 % say to Shopper Approved. 

Now, why say shopper approved should get the majority is because you've got to make sure that you're getting at least 100 reviews on average every month for the Google ads to appear, because you want those  seller ratings or store ratings to show in your Google ads.  

So want to make sure that you're qualifying for that. Now, once you've qualified for that and you've got a lot more reviews to collect and send out, you can send a higher percentage to another review platform to make sure you're getting that trifecta and that you're dominating page one when people do a review search for your brand. 

Chase Clymer

Absolutely. Now, obviously talking about the power of the technology that you guys have over there. But let's take a step back here.  What are some of the common mistakes people are making  when it comes to  not only reviews, but their online reputation in general from an Ecommerce specific perspective? 

DJ Sprague

Man, great question. There's a lot. Obviously, organic search results. You want to make sure you're dominating the organic search results. And one of those easy ways to really own that is to have a search-optimized Q&A tool. As you know, as people get further down the purchasing funnel, they're looking for specific product or service-related questions. Does it flow? Is it waterproof? Does it fit with my 1987 Winnebago, etc? So those long-tail, low-funnel, high commercial intent search terms, you absolutely have to dominate the top three search results.  

Why? Because those are the questions that people are looking to get answered before they actually buy. So that's a really great way to dominate your reputation. 

Now we did another survey and we found that we asked people if the answer to your product related search term comes up at the top of the search results, will you trust that brand more?

80% said, yes, I will trust that brand more. Why? Because they assume since Google is serving it at the top of the search results, it must be the most popular, the most trusted brand, right? By default. 

Then we ask the next question. Would you be more likely to purchase from that brand if their search results for your product question appear at the top of the search results? 74% said highly or extremely likely they would buy from that brand.

So what does that tell us? That trust factor, your reputation is hindering where you appear in the search results, which is why the top search results get 69 % of the clicks, right? The top five get 69% of the clicks. Position zero gets 31% of the clicks. Why? It's the most trusted. People just naturally assume, oh, Google says this is the best answer.

I'm going to go with that. So that's one way to do it. Another way, obviously, is to dominate page one when people do a search for your brand. Again, abc.com legit, abc.com reviews. 

If you're not showing up on page one and multiple review platforms, as well as your own website with positive reviews and a 4.1 or higher average star rating, then people aren't going to trust you as much. You're not going to have as much traffic.

And then of course, the same goes for your product related review search terms. 

Now, once they get to your website, then it's really important, and this is overlooked, and a lot of people aren't doing this anymore.  And I think it's a crime. Put your phone number in the upper right-hand corner of your website, because people just want to see that you're a real company. They just want to know that if they have a question, they have a problem, they have a concern, they can go old school and call that number. It makes you look more legit, more solid. You know, you look more like a real company.  Number two, put your address in your contact us page  and in your footer. These are kind of standard UX layouts. 

If you remember the book, Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug, right? 

Chase Clymer

It's on my shelf. 

DJ Sprague

There you go. I love that book. 

Don't make people think. Don't make them struggle. Don't make them search and hunt and pack and multiple clicks. Just give them the user experience that they're used to. 

And going way back to the early 2000s, when Ecommerce sites really came into being at any large scale, it was very standard to put your phone number in the upper right corner and your address in the footer, typically in the lower right, left corner. And then of course your contact page, phone number, email, address, etc. Make it easy, don't make people fight. 

I can't tell you how many websites I've gone to and you click on their contact us page and all they have is an email address. How confident, how comfortable, how secure do you feel on that website when all they give you is info at email address, right? 

So those are simple things. If you've been in business for five plus years, also show it in business since 1997 or 2010.

Let people know that you've been around a long time. Other trust signals can include awards or memberships or accolades that you've received. You are a member of the Chamber of Commerce or Better Business Bureau or, you know, rated in the top five in our industry by, you know, some industry rating organization. As seen in this newspaper, this channel, this network, let people know that you are trusted, you're known, you're credible, you're an authority. 

These are all trust signals that really kind of go into this whole matrix, this whole ecosystem of painting a picture of you're credible, you're real, you're stable, you're not gonna take their money and run, you're gonna deliver on your promises, you're gonna deliver on the guarantee two years down the road, right? I mean, that's what people wanna know. And that's why people typically buy from the big Ecommerce platforms like Amazon.

They have a U.S. that they're used to. They love to see that,  you know, website security link right next to the buy now button. Amazon's been doing it for decades. Why? It works. In fact,  a CRO company out of Texas, Conversion Fanatics, tested our TrustGuard website security seal on their own clients' websites. And they found that when that TrustGuard security seal was placed next to the buy now button,  it increased conversion rates by 19%. 

It increased AOV, average order value, by 71% and repeat purchases by 28%. Why has Amazon been doing it forever? Because it works. It's just simple, these simple little things. But we forget. And so we get a new web designer or a new template and we drop the phone number, we drop the address, we drop the website security seals, etc. 

And all of sudden, all those little trust signals are gone and conversion rate goes down and everybody's looking around what happened.

Chase Clymer

I'm so glad you brought up conversion rate optimization. It was my next thought. It was like so many of the things you're mentioning would be amazing split tests to run on Ecommerce websites if you have that velocity and you can get statistically significant results. That is a mouthful result as quickly  as most people want.  

We don't have a lot of time left here. And so I have to pivot really quickly. We glossed over your book. Let's talk about the Reputation King. Who is it for? How do I get it? What's it about? 

DJ Sprague

Great. So Reputation King,  you can get it on Amazon. You can get it at reputationking.com, which is the website we created for the book where there's all kinds of bonus chapters and videos and interviews with Dr. Robert Cialdini, who is the godfather of behavioral science.  

He also wrote the cover quote for the book.  On the website, you can also download for free the audio and digital version of the book. So if you want an absolutely free audio version and digital version, just go to reputationking.com, knock yourself out, download it, it's all yours. 

You can also buy the book at reputationking.com for $20 and we'll send you  the entire reputation kit, which includes the book, the strategy guide, a cool pair of socks,  a really cool and very coveted gold million dollar bill, and some other cool little  gifts. So we call it the Reputation King Kit. And that's yours delivered  for $20. 

Chase Clymer

Absolutely. I got  the kit delivered and it was a great unboxing experience. You can actually track me opening it  on DJ's LinkedIn.  I probably posted it back in December of 2024.

I like scrolling. But you can find me unboxing that on his LinkedIn. If I'm listening to this and I want to track you down and get a hold of you, or obviously want to learn more about Shopper Approved, where should I go on the internet? What should I do? 

DJ Sprague

Go to shopperapproved.com. You go to reputationking.com. And you can also find me on LinkedIn, Duane Sprague or DJ Sprague on LinkedIn.

And by the way, I want to make sure I answered the question, Chase, who's it written for? The book was written for Ecommerce executives, e-commerce owners, Ecommerce leaders, because we believe that too often the reputation of the brand is put in the hands of a frontline digital marketer or website designer, and they really don't understand the value and the implications and the potentiality of creating a super powerful online reputation. 

So we believe that every website's reputation needs to be driven from the top down because it's that important. Because again, people buy from the brands they trust. 

Chase Clymer

Oh, I couldn't agree anymore. And it's often not out of malice that these things aren't important. It's because their jobs are more tied to  return on ad spend or sales. And a review doesn't necessarily help them  get the  metrics they need to keep their job or improve their job in the short term. So it often gets overlooked. 

DJ Sprague

And we've got a lot of data. It's in the book. 

Chase Clymer

Oh, yeah. Absolutely. 

DJ Sprague

Lots of studies, lots of research.  And we have clients that have increased their conversion rate by 360%, 272%, 100%, 180%, on and on.

Not only that, but increase organic traffic. By 2%, 3%, 4%, 500%, we have one client. There's increased organic traffic by 4,000 % by doing the things we talked about. The search optimized Q &A, the product reviews showing up in search results, the seller ratings showing up in search results, drive that online dominance, the trusted credibility, the clicks, the traffic. And of course, once they get there, the conversions. 

Chase Clymer

Absolutely. DJ, thank you so much for coming on the show today and sharing all that amazing insight.

DJ Sprague

Thank you, Chase. It's been a real pleasure and I look forward to talking again. 

Chase Clymer

Absolutely. Take care. 

DJ Sprague

Bye bye.

Chase Clymer

We can't thank our guests enough for coming on the show and sharing their knowledge and journey with us. We've got a lot to think about and potentially add into our own business. You can find all the links in the show notes. 

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Lastly, if you're a store owner looking for an amazing partner to help get your Shopify store to the next level, reach out to Electric Eye at electriceye.io/connect.

Until next time!