One of the features that I really like about Gitlab after moving some of my personal projects over to it is how there is a dedicated section under the title to display your badges, without having to put them into the README.

I think that a very important feature of a good README is that the most important information is at the top of the README. Badges going in at the top of the README as images dilutes that somewhat imo, especially since most of the badges are about the repo and not necessarily about the project itself.

Also Shields.io is a fantastic service, and was super helpful to me while I was setting up some badges recently - very well done UX that really switches the challenge from setting up the badges to attempting not to include too many of them due to how easy it is.