August 19, 2011
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Ben Winegarden
Just about every small business owner you ask wants to improve their website—particularly if it has been live for more than a year. Although it is tough to find the funds or resources to continually make positive changes to a site, there are plenty of free tools that you can now use to add more interaction to your site quickly and easily. Most importantly, you don’t need to be highly technical in order to use these tools.
1. Make social content portable with embeddable code
Many social media sites offer embeddable code, which is essentially a bit programming text that you can cut and paste into your own Web page with a little technical know-how. It will also embed all kinds of functionality, like a small part of your Facebook page, a YouTube video or a feed from a Twitter account.
2. Add a Hello Bar to spotlight new products or services
There is a free service called a Hello Bar which can be a great way of spotlighting new information for first time visitors. Their site lets you sign up for a new account and create your own Hello Bar. Once you have configured it to the way you like, you can embed it onto your homepage and watch the clicks start rolling in.
3. Build a form to capture customer data
If you have a “1.0 style website” then chances are you are just listing your e-mail address but not taking advantage of the benefits of having an e-mail form. Wufoo is one of the many services that will allow you to create a form on a third party site, and then link directly to it from your own website—you can even share it on your own site. The best part is that you can allow people to share their details in a form, have it all stored in a database and e-mailed directly to your inbox.
4. Use polls and surveys to increase interaction
Sites like PollDaddy allow you to create and easily share polls or surveys. The nice thing about many of these tools is that you can not only add this information to your website, but also syndicate it to other services like Twitter and Facebook. The polls or surveys can create instant engagement and may also yield new ideas or insights to help you run your business better.
5. Create an interactive presentation to describe your business
There is a suite of great tools to help you go beyond a typical boring PowerPoint file to create an introduction to your business. Prezi, Animoto and Slideshare all offer tools to be able to create more interactive presentations. Each can help you to tell the story of your business and what you have to offer in a much more dynamic way than just using a static presentation.
Are there any I missed? What are your favorite tools for improving websites?
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Ben Winegarden 4 months ago
I can think of some better ones. Ben Winegarden