“What should I implement into my site?” is a common question that I am asked. Obviously this will vary by industry, but there’s a cost/benefit analysis that you will need to consider before jumping into anything. While social networking links are a must (if you actively socially market), there are many other items one can include on a website.
Website add-ons go by many names: widgets, plugins, components etc. Each of these add-ons involve some sort of script to enhance your website. Many of these items allow your website to have “Web 2.0” functionality (the fancy buzzword that describes interactive websites).
What can I add?
While links to social networking sites are pretty standard nowadays, dynamic feeds like RSS news feeds and blogs can add value and cohesiveness. You can now have your Twitter account post your tweets on your website, and show your Facebook status on your website – and even show thumbnails of your Facebook fans directly on your site. If you take photos or video, you can integrate your Flickr and YouTube (or Vimeo) accounts separately and stream your content to your website. If you have one of those cool pocket-sized Flip video cameras, you can record HD video, upload it to your YouTube account, and have that feed into your website – pretty cool, eh? When looking for web features to implement, it’s just like the iPhone phrase “there’s an app for that.” You can implement weather, stocks, forums, audio players, podcasts, multilingual translations, video feeds and the kitchen sink!
What should I add?
Determining what to add can be as simple as defining what your site is lacking. Bear in mind that you don’t have to work in a vacuum – check out your competition; ask your clients what they would like. Heck, you can even install Google Analytics and track what sections get the most traffic on your website, and beef up that content.
Where do these plugins come from?
Because necessity is truly the mother of invention, programmers around the world are developing plugins for their clients, many of which are being developed as open source projects. Other applications and components are developed by for-profit companies that are selling software. Many add-ons are developed for implementation via a content management system (CMS). In many cases, components are programmed for multiple CMS platforms, like WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal to name a few. This process keeps costs down on the development of a plugin, and allows programmers to edit and customize existing code instead of reinventing the wheel (at their client’s expense).
Trick it out with customizations
Custom add-ons like Flash animation can also add a real benefit to a website as well. While Flash is not search engine friendly (SEF), it does offer some unique multimedia features, such as animation, video, dynamic XML data feeding (think realtime charts & graphs).
With all add-ons, it is a good idea to make sure that you take search engines into consideration – if being found on the web is of importance to you. While an entire website can be created in Flash (and some are because it creates unparalleled interactivity) the Flash portion of a website is only viewed as a single object in the eyes of a web crawler. In other words, a web crawler will see the flash object and say “Oh – here’s a big box of stuff. I can read the label on the box, but I can’t look inside to see what is really inside.” If a web crawler can’t read the content of your website, it can’t index all of your website’s information, and therefore cannot report it and get you higher on a web search. In order to make sure that your website is able to be indexed, (in most cases) we recommend using Flash sparingly as a part of your website. Flash used well can be really effective when done properly. Another SEF recommendation that we make is to have descriptive titles and descriptions for all videos and images – this also makes it more cross-platform and handicap accessible.
The possibilities are endless, and can have a serious impact on your website’s ROI, so if you are interested in a multimedia upgrade, talk to your web professional to see what meets your needs and budget.
