What are client feedback rounds? Allow clients to add comments to a website design

On-page feedback: Get client feedback in-context, in rounds

This guide walks you through everything you need to know about on-page feedback, from setting up your first review to wrapping up after the final round. Keep it handy as your go-to reference.

In a nutshell

• Your client comments straight on the design, exactly where they mean it.
• No login required for your client.
• Feedback comes back to you as a to-do list inside the editor.
• You reply, resolve, and send back for as many rounds as you need.

Contents:

• What is on-page feedback? 
• Before you start 
• Full end-to-end demo of the feature
• Step 1: Setting up a review
• Step 2: sharing the link with your client
• Step 3: What your client sees
• Step 4: Working through your client’s feedback
• Frequently asked questions

What is on-page feedback?

We all know the drill. You send a design over to your client, and back comes an email saying something like “can you make the image bigger and add a bit more text.” But which image? Which section? Which page? So you’re left scrolling back and forth, second-guessing what they actually meant, firing off emails just to get a bit of clarity.

On-page feedback takes away the guesswork.

It lets your clients leave comments directly on their live website design, pinned to the exact spot they’re talking about. They don’t need a login. They just open a link, click where they mean, and type. Every comment then lands in your editor as a tidy to-do list, linked to the precise place they pinned. You work through them, reply where you need to, tick them off, and send the design back for another look. It all happens in rounds, so the conversation stays organised from first draft to final sign-off.
 

Before you start

A few quick things worth knowing up front.

• It’s for partners. On-page feedback is a partner-only feature to set-up, you need to log into a client website within the Rocketspark design studio.
• Desktop for clients. Your clients should leave their comments on a desktop browser. Commenting on a phone isn’t supported just yet.
• Works on live and draft sites. You can get feedback on a site that’s already live, or on a draft you’re still building. Pages just need to be online for your client to see them.
• The website does not need to be turned on within the dashboard. The review link uses a different preview link from the preview link found in the dashboard, so it does not matter if the website is turned online or offline.
• If a website gets moved from one design studio to another, then any active feedback reviews will be cancelled due to security. 
• Legacy templates: On-page feedback works best with the dynamic template. If a website is using an older legacy header, the commenting may not behave properly in the header area, so it’s worth upgrading the header template first.

Full end-to-end demo of the feature

Step 1: Setting up a review

Here’s how to get a review up and running. It only takes a moment.

1. Open the feedback panel: In the Rocketspark editor, look for the feedback icon in the top right. Click it, then click Get feedback to open the setup.
    
2. Step 2: Choose what you’d like reviewed. You’ve got two options here.

3. Option	What your client sees
   Full website	Every page that’s currently online on the website. Great for a full design review where you want eyes across the whole site. If you choose this option, any page that you turn online during an active review will become visible to your client to review. Any page that you turn offline during an active review will no longer be visible to your client - even if they left comments on it. If that page still has open comments, don’t worry, you’ll still see them in your panel so you can finish sorting them.
   Homepage only	Just a single page, captured as a snapshot at the moment you create the review. Handy when you only want feedback on one page rather than the whole site. “Homepage only” captures whichever page is sitting at the top of your Manage Pages list at the moment you create the review. So if you want a single-page review of, say, your About page, just pop it to the top of Manage Pages first, create the review in homepage-only mode, and you can shuffle your pages back afterwards. The review stays locked to that page, so toggling other pages on or off won’t change what your client sees.  All other pages can not be accessed, even if they appear in the menu.

4. Step 3: Set a due date (optional). If you’d like to give your client a gentle nudge, you can set a due date. A few things worth knowing:

   It’s a soft reminder, not a hard cut-off. Your client can still send their feedback after the date passes, it’ll just show as overdue.

   The countdown runs in the website’s timezone, not yours. So if you’re in New Zealand building a site for a UK business, the deadline lands at the end of that day in the UK. You can find the websites timezone within the "My Account" settings. 

   You can set a fresh due date for every new round.
    

5. Step 4: Generate and copy the link. Click Generate link and your shareable link appears right there in the panel. Copy it and send it to your client however you like, by email, text, or however you usually chat.

• No login needed. The best bit, your client won’t need to log in to view the design. They just click the link, and they’re in.
• The link lives in the panel. It stays in the feedback panel for the whole review, so you can pop back and copy it again any time your client misplaces it.
• It lasts 90 days. Each round’s link is valid for 90 days, which keeps things secure.
• The link begins with the website's short name. The link uses your Rocketspark shortname address (like yourname.rocketspark.co.nz), not the website’s custom domain. That’s by design, so the review can run without a login. If you would like to change the shortname, contact support@rocketspark.com 

Step 2: sharing the link with your client

How you send the link is up to you, but a friendly message that sets expectations goes a long way. Your client may never have done an online review like this before, so a little context helps them feel confident.

Here is a simple email template you’re welcome to copy, paste, and make your own. Just swap in the bits in square brackets.

Step 3: What your client sees

Here’s the experience from your client’s side, so you know exactly what they’re looking at when they open the link.

1. Opening the link. Your client clicks the link and lands straight on the design, looking just like the real website. No login, no sign up, no fuss.
    
2. The welcome pop-up. On their first visit, a friendly pop-up welcomes them, tells them how many pages are in the review, and shows them how to leave a comment. They click “Let’s get started” and they’re away. The pop-up pops up again if they open the link on a different device or when a new round begins.
    
3. Leaving a comment. This is the heart of it. Your client clicks anywhere on the design, and a little pin drops exactly where they clicked, carrying their initials. A box opens up for them to type their comment. Once they pop it in, it’s saved straight away, so nothing gets lost even if they close the tab.
   
   One thing to note: comments can’t be edited or deleted once they’re placed. If your client wants to clarify something, they can add a reply to the same comment when you send the design back.
    
4. Preview comments made. You can preview any comment made by hovering over the comment pin to quickly see what was left without needing to click to view more. 
   
   You can also use the arrow navigation arrows at the bottom of the toolbar to tour the comments made on a page - this will take you to the exact comment.
   
   Where your client’s name comes from: The name on your client’s comments comes from the website’s My Account details (first and last name). If several people from your client’s team review using the same link, their comments all come through under that one name. A handy trick: before sharing the link, you can change the My Account first and last name to the business name, so all the comments come from the company. Or coordinate with your client so each person updates the name before they comment. If you change the name partway through, older comments use the new name you have set.
    
5. Clicking around the design. Your client can interact with the design much like a real website. Here’s how the clickable bits behave: 

6. Element	What happens
   Accordions	Clicking gives the choice to leave a comment, or open the accordion to look inside. A comment pin sits on the header line so it’s easy to spot.
   Galleries	Same idea, click to comment, or open the gallery to view the images.
   Carousels / sliders	Your client can slide through and comment on a slide. Just so you know, a slider comment currently shows on every slide, so it’s worth a quick double-check on your end before making the change.
   Hamburger menu	Can be commented on.
   Header and footer	Logo, navigation, buttons and footer can all be commented on. A comment on a shared element only shows on the page where it was placed.
   Links in the design	Links don’t navigate while commenting, this keeps your client inside the review. They move between pages using the menu along the bottom instead.

7. Moving between pages. For a full-website review, your client moves between pages using the menu along the bottom of the screen. A little progress circle keeps track of which pages they’ve looked at and turns green once they’ve seen them all.
    
8. Sending feedback back to you. When your client is done, they click “Send to designer.” Before it sends, they get a quick summary showing how many comments they’ve left on each page, with a gentle nudge for any pages they haven’t commented on yet. There’s also room for an overall note if they’ve got something to add that doesn’t belong on a specific spot. One click, and it all comes back to you in one go.
   
   If a client hasn't left any comments on a page, they’ll need to either add a comment on the page or pop something in the overall note before they can send. That way, nobody’s forced to add pins if all they’ve got is a general thought, and they can continue as they please.
    
9. After they’ve sent. Once your client sends their feedback, they can still browse the website in a view-only state, but they can’t add new comments or review their past comments until you send the design back for the next round.
   
   If you have chosen for the website to be offline within the manage pages, the review link that shows the website preview straight after the review is finished will eventually disappear (the next time they visit the link). This means you can edit the website without worrying that your client is watching the design progress. 

Step 4: Working through your client’s feedback

This is where it all comes together. Once your client sends a round, the magic happens back in your editor.

1. You’ll get an email. As soon as your client sends their feedback, you’ll get an email letting you know. It includes your client’s overall note, if they left one, a link to jump straight back into the editor and a handy CSV file with every comment, so you’ve got a record to keep.
    
2. The feedback sidebar. Back in the editor, open the feedback sidebar, and you’ll find every comment waiting as a tidy to-do list. 
   
   If you are in preview mode, the comment pins will overlap the design, sitting exactly where your client left them. If you are in the editor mode, the pins do not overlap the design so that the editing functions can still be used without issues. If you click a comment while in editor mode, you can still view the comment, but as soon as you click to edit, the comment disappears. 
   
   Tip: Use the keyboard shortcut "c" to quickly show and hide the commenting sidebar.
    
3. Click any comment and the editor will scroll straight to the exact spot your client pinned, and highlight it. No more guessing which image they meant.
    
4. Replying to a comment. Want to talk something through? Click Reply on any comment and type your response. Your client will see your reply when you send the design back. You can go back and forth as many times as you need on a single comment.
    
5. Resolving a comment. Once you’ve actioned a comment, tick it off. It gets a nice green tick so you can see at a glance what’s done.
   
   Every comment needs to be either replied to or resolved before you can send the design back or finish the review. This makes sure nothing slips through the cracks, so your client always knows you’ve seen everything they’ve said.If you delete part of the design
    
6. If you remove a section that had a comment on it, the pin disappears from the design, but the comment stays in your panel so you can still read, reply to, and resolve it. If you undo the deletion, the pin pops right back where it was.
    
7. Staying organised on bigger reviews. On a multi-page review, you can filter the panel by page. Each page shows its name and comment count, so you can work through one page at a time and switch the editor to that page as you go.
   
   You will know if a page has a comment on it by seeing within the brackets beside the page name. If it has (0), this means your client left no comments on that page. 
    
8. Sending back to your client, and running more rounds. Once you’ve worked through everything, you’ve got two choices. 

9. Choice	What happens
   Send back to client	Opens up another round. You can set a fresh due date, your client gets an email, and they can see what you’ve sorted plus add anything new. There’s no limit on how many rounds you can run, so take as many passes as you need to get things just right.
   Finish feedback	Closes the review for good. The client’s link stops working, and the panel goes back to its starting state.

    

10. What your client sees in round two and beyond. When you send the design back (copy the new link found in the sidebar), your client opens the link and sees their previous comments marked with a green tick where you’ve resolved them. Aswell as any comments that you replied to, so they can read what you’ve had to say. 
    
    If they’d like to revisit something that was marked as resolved, they can reply to a resolved comment to reopen it. And of course, they can add brand new comments anywhere they like. When they’re happy, they send it back to you again, and round you go.
     
11. Wrapping up. When everything’s sorted and you’re both happy, click Finish feedback to close off the review. The link stops working, and you’re all done. No more guessing, no more endless email chains, just a clean, clear record of the whole conversation.

Frequently asked questions

Setting up and sharing

Do my clients need a Rocketspark account or login?

Nope, not at all. That’s the whole point. They just open the link and they’re in. No account, no password, no sign up.

Can I run reviews on more than one website at once?

Yes. Each website has its own review, and there’s no limit on how many you can have going across your different websites.

Can I run two reviews on the same website at the same time?

No, just one active review per website at a time. Finish the current one before starting another on that same site.

Can my client share the link with a colleague?

Yes, anyone with the link can open the review. Just keep in mind that comments from everyone come through under the one name (see “Where your client’s name comes from” above).

What if my client loses the link?

Easy fix, just copy it again from the feedback panel. The same link sits there for the whole review.

Can I lock the link to one email address or add a password?

Not in this version. For now, anyone with the link can access the review, much like a shared document. 
 

During the review

How do I cancel a website review?

There isn’t a Cancel button just yet. To stop a review early, open your client link as if you were the client, add a quick placeholder comment, send it, then click Finish feedback in the panel. A proper Cancel button is on our list. If you’d rather not do this yourself, our support team can help.

Can my client comment on a draft that isn’t live yet?

Absolutely, that’s one of the most popular ways to use it. The site doesn’t need to be live. The pages just need to be online so your client can see them.

Can I see what my client is up to while the review is open?

Yes. Open your client link in a private browser tab and you’ll see their comments appear as they type them, since everything saves straight away.

What happens if my client misses the due date?

Nothing dramatic. The countdown just flips to overdue, and your client can still send their feedback. There’s no automatic chase email, so a friendly nudge is still down to you.

Can I add my own notes to the design before sending it to my client?

Not directly on the design just yet. For now, pop any context in your share message (like “ignore the placeholder images”). A designer welcome message and designer notes functionality is on our list for the future.

What if I duplicate or transfer a website?

A duplicated website starts fresh with no review data carried over. If a website moves to a different partner, the comments become invisible to the new partner (they’re kept private to you), and any existing review links stop working. If it comes back to you later, your comments are still there waiting.

Comments and replies

Can my client edit or delete a comment after sending?

No. Once a round is sent, comments are locked in. To clarify something, your client can reply to it when you send the design back. If they need another go before then, you can simply send the design back to them with no changes, which opens a fresh round for them.

Can I delete a comment my client left that’s off-base?

Not at the moment. You can resolve it or leave a reply explaining your thinking, but you can’t delete it. Delete options are on our list for the future.

Can my client attach images or files to a comment?

Not yet, comments are text only for now. You can paste a link into a comment, though it’ll show as plain text rather than a clickable link.

Is there a limit on how long a comment can be?

Yes, up to 10,000 characters per comment, reply, and overall note, which is plenty for most things.

Devices and technical

Can my client comment on their phone?

Not in this version. Comments should be left on a desktop browser. Mobile is on our list for future improvements.

Why is the link on a rocketspark.co.nz address and not the custom domain?

That’s by design. The review runs without a login, so it lives on your Rocketspark shortname address rather than the website’s custom domain. It doesn’t affect what your client sees, they still view the design exactly as it’ll look live.

I want to delete a page that has comments on it. What happens?

The page comes out of the review and its pins disappear from your client’s view. You’ll still see the submitted comments in your panel unless you fully delete the page.

Need a hand?

Stuck on something or have a question this guide didn’t cover? Our support team at support@rocketspark.com is always happy to help. Just reach out, and we’ll get you sorted.