RETech South – Widgets, Plug-Ins, and Tools
Participants:
- Kevin Boer, Moderator, 3OceansRealEstate.com
- Mark Warner, RealEspace.com
- Micheal Simonsen, AltosResearch.com
- Dustin Luther, 4realz.net
Discussion:
Widgets are easy to install is the opening salvo of the discussion. As Dustin said, if your webmaster is telling you that adding the widget is expensive, you probably need to get a new webmaster.
Business Benefits of Widgets:
Michael says the widgets will answer questions that people visiting your site are asking without you having to be an expert in it. Talks about the Meebo widget to allow chat. This will improve conversions dramatically.
Mark talks to the relationship benefits of widgets. Depending on what your focus is will be the toolkit of widgets that mesh with your business.
Kevin talks about the chat widget as online floor time. It may not convert often but it does allow you to interact and be available for potential customers. Interesting analogy.
Dustin talks about the cousin of the widget, the Google Analytics code, which allows you to see who is coming your site for what reasons.
Do the Widgets hurt SEO?
Because most widgets use javascript they do not affect SEO according to Dustin, but Michael says that they may make the site stickier, or use text to draw people in via SEO to see the benefits of the widget.
Talk About Your Favorite Widget:
Mark talks about his Rate Window Widget and allows people to see the rates that will affect the purchase and get the information that they need for getting the best loans available.
Michael is talking about the Altos Widget, telling people how the market is doing right now. The widget shows the trends in the market they care about. He also uses a chat widget that is revenue positive.
Dustins favorite widgets include takes people into a home search. Make things as simple as possible for users. YouTube is a great widget that he uses on Rain City Guide.
Michael is talking about a new site by Trulia called housingwidgets.com. Interesting.
Dustin has a very good point, that you have to go to the source for the widgets.
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Comment by Rogan McGillis on 28 March 2008:
I use a chat feature on my blog and I really like it. It’s not a widget but is easy to put into the site. I find it gives people an easier and faster way of contacting you than writing an email and it’s less “invasive” for them to chat rather than call…
Rogan McGillis
http://www.reversemortgagecity.com
Pingback by Love’n, just love’n, the linklove from… « 4realz.net on 28 March 2008:
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Comment by Matt@Realespace on 28 March 2008:
Dustin made a good point that many widgets are not actually visible, like the G-analytics plugin.
other widgets in this category:
SEO plugins, Google sitemaps plugins, Anti-Spam (spam Karma)…these are all a must
I don’t have time to get all the links to these plugins so just Google them…If you have never heard of Google, go to Yahoo and search for Google!
Comment by stan on 29 March 2008:
You’re gonna see a lot more cooler widgets off that new Adobe platform.
Comment by Tom on 29 March 2008:
Stan, are you talking about the AIR platform or another one. I am using Twirl for Twitter using AIR and it is sweet.
I did not know that AIR was going to be over the web or via the blog also, that is cool if it is.
Comment by holli boyd on 29 March 2008:
I noticed classifiedflyerads.com had some new widgets as well – including a click to call one that was FREE. Not related just wanted to share
Pingback by Developing Atlanta on 30 March 2008:
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Comment by Russell Fair on 10 January 2009:
I think that there may be a difference in terms here. Widgets are typically something placed in a website sidebar, and are visible to both users and robots, whereas plug-ins are not always visible to users or robots.
Widgets and Plug-ins certainly do effect SEO. Sometimes, big time. For instance, many of the plug-ins and widgets used on popular blogs break W3C compliance, which hurts your SEO scores quite a bit.
If you webmaster tells you that it is going to be hard to add a particular widget, because that webmaster is SEO savvy, and knows that it is garbage that is going to adversely affect your search placement, perhaps you should give him or her a bonus!