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Site Search Facility - This provides your visitors with a facility to search your website for a particular word or phrase. The list of results will then link them to the relevant pages within your website. The larger your website the more important a search facility is. The search area can be on one specific page of your website, on a number of key pages or on every page of your website
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Forms - Feedback, Questionnaire, Information and Competitions - Online forms can be used for gathering various types of information from your website visitors. The more detailed or personal information you require the more you need to provide incentives, such as entering visitors into a competition. Competitions can also be useful for getting visitors to browse around more of your website than they may normally do if the answers to your competition questions are revealed elsewhere in your website
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Communication and Interaction - Website visitors may want to communicate with you, leave comments for you, receive communication from you or even have a discussion with other website visitors about your products and services. This can be achieved through a variety of facilities including:
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Guestbooks - Visitors can leave comments which will be displayed on your website. All entries can be read by other visitors thereby creating a constantly changing page. A guestbook differs from an Online Forum in that no responses can be made to comments
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Discussion Forums - Rather than leaving a message that other visitors can only read, visitors to your website can post a question or statement that starts a discussion with other visitors who post their own responses. Some responses will start off new mini-discussion or even create a new discussion subject altogether
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Newsletters - An excellent way of keeping your customers and website visitors informed of the latest relevant industry news is to send out a regular newsletter. Visitors can subscribe via a dedicated box on your website that as with the search facility, can be on one, multiple or all of your web pages
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Buzz Button - This facility helps you make your website seem that much more "live". On clicking on the "Buzz" button a website visitor is asked to enter their phone number. This triggers the software to dial your number. Once you answer your call, the visitor's number is automatically dialled and you have personal contact with an interested potential customer without any effort |
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Events Calendar - This allows you to post details of upcoming events. A useful tool for if your company hosts or wants to advertise conferences or exhibitions relevant to your products or services
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New Features and Latest News - Being able to say what and where the latest changes to your website are, what the latest advances in your products and services are or even presenting subjects of topical interest that relate to your industry will keep visitors interested and coming back. There are also products that provide live feeds on your selected news topics directly to your website keeping your news current. A facility that allows you to do all this yourself will save time and expenses with very little effort
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Affiliate Pages - Many companies and websites offer the facilities for website owners to become "Affiliates" to help sell their products and services while at the same time making a commission on all sales. None are as well known for this as Amazon who provides a facility to sell books, videos, DVDs, CDs, games and many other things in an ever-growing list. Affiliate programs can all be set up as dedicated pages or incorporated into parts of other existing pages
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Help and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) Pages - Website visitors will usually look for an FAQ page if they are not sure about something so it is worth the time investment to set up a list of Questions and Answers to help your visitors. You can also include some of the legalities or technicalities relating to your industry as an "added extra" for your website visitors along with links to appropriate reference pages. Gaining a reputation as a good reference website will keep visitors coming back and telling others about your website
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Press - If your company is often in the press or releases press articles, a page dedicated to the needs of the Press while at the same time promoting your business can be very useful. This page can vary from a basic page containing press releases to a sophisticated series of pages containing downloadable files, images and all other necessary information
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Location and Facilities Page - It can be useful to show your website visitors pictures of your offices or products to better explain your products or services and the facilities you work from or can offer. This can also include directions, maps and links to public transport providers to make finding and getting to you as easy as possible for your customers
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