How to get your first client reviews (without faking a single one)

Every new freelancer and small business hits the same loop. Prospects want to see what other clients have said before they hire you. You can’t get clients to say anything until someone hires you. The testimonials section on your site sits empty, or gets quietly deleted, and you wonder whether you should just ask a friend.

You don’t need dozens of reviews to break the loop. You need three or four genuine, specific ones — and more of those are within reach than it feels like right now.

First, the shortcuts to skip

When the page is empty, three shortcuts start to look reasonable. They aren’t.

• Writing them yourself. Invented testimonials are easy to spot — they’re vague, they all sound alike, and nobody attached to them can be found. One sceptical prospect is enough to sink your credibility for good.
• Friends and family posing as clients. Same problem, plus the awkwardness of someone asking your “client” a follow-up question.
• Buying them, or trading discounts for five stars. In the US, the FTC’s rule on consumer reviews and testimonials, which took effect in 2024, explicitly bans fake reviews, reviews bought on condition of a particular sentiment, and undisclosed reviews from insiders such as employees and close relatives. The UK and EU have their own rules against fake reviews. This isn’t a grey area any more.

The good news is that the honest route isn’t much slower, and it produces reviews that actually persuade.

Five honest sources of your first reviews

1. People you’ve already helped and never asked

This is the biggest one, and most people overlook it. If you’ve done any paid work at all — side projects, one-off jobs, a small business you’ve been running for a year without a website — there are people who were happy with it and simply never got asked. Make a list of every client you can remember. Remove the ones who weren’t happy. Everyone left gets a short, personal message this week.

2. Small, fixed-scope starter projects

A tightly scoped offer — an audit, a one-page site, a two-week sprint at a fixed price — is easier to say yes to than an open-ended engagement. It finishes quickly, which means you reach the review moment quickly. Build the ask into the finish: when you deliver, you send the link.

3. Reduced-rate or pro bono work — done carefully

Doing a first project for a local charity or a friend’s new business at a reduced rate is a legitimate way to get real work in your portfolio. The rule that keeps it honest: the discount must never be conditional on a review, and certainly not on a positive one. Do the work, then ask for an honest review the same way you would ask anyone. If the relationship is close — a friend’s business, say — it’s good practice to say so where you show the review.

4. Colleagues and managers from previous jobs

If you went freelance after years in-house, the people who worked with you can speak to exactly what a buyer wants to know: whether you’re reliable and good to work with. Just label it truthfully. A recommendation from a former manager is a recommendation from a former manager, not a client review — present it on LinkedIn or as a “what colleagues say” quote, and keep client reviews for clients.

5. Marketplace projects

Freelance platforms are a real way to get your first paid projects and reviews. Just know that those reviews live on the platform’s profile, not on your own site. There’s more on that in your marketplace reviews aren’t yours.

The ask, when it’s your first time

Early on, it’s tempting to over-explain — to apologise for asking, or to mention that you’re just starting out. You don’t need to. Keep it personal, specific and short.

Hi Aisha,

I really enjoyed working on the bakery’s new logo and menu — thanks for trusting me with it.

Would you be willing to leave a short, honest review of how it went? It would help a lot as I build up my business.

Here’s the link: [your review link]

Two or three sentences is perfect — what you needed, what it was like working together, and how the result has landed with customers. No account needed, it takes about a minute.

If you’d rather not, that’s completely fine.

Thanks again,
Leo

“It would help a lot as I build up my business” is honest and it works. People like helping someone at the start — as long as you’re asking for their real opinion, not a favour dressed up as one.

Make every future client a review

The real fix for the empty testimonials page isn’t a one-off push. It’s making sure the ask goes out on every single project from now on, so reviews accumulate without you having to remember.

• Decide the moment. Handover, final invoice, or the day the site goes live. Always the same one.
• Send one link. No account for the client to create, nothing to install.
• Nudge once. About a week later, then let it go. See when to ask a client for a review for the full cadence.

Why this matters more when you’re new

An established firm can survive a thin testimonials page because it has a brand, a client list and a reputation. A newcomer doesn’t. Your first few reviews are doing the job a brand would do — which is why they need to be obviously real.

That’s the idea behind Reviewee. Every review arrives through a single-use link you issued to a specific client, so what you show is tied to real work, with the client’s name and job title attached. Your client doesn’t sign up for anything; the form takes a minute, and there’s an AI helper for anyone who freezes at the comment box — it drafts from their own rough notes, and they edit before sending.

You approve each review before it appears anywhere, then show it on your site with an embeddable widget or on a published reviews page. The free plan covers your first ten review links, with no credit card — which is enough to get your first handful of real reviews on the page.