Free Tools that Add Value to Your Website
Guest Maps
This neat, interactive tool allows visitors to pin their place on a guest map. Choose from a number of highly customizable maps, pose a question to your users if you like then let them play.
Site Searches
Having a site search box on your website is one of the best features you can add. Site search is so commonplace now that it’s more unusual to see sites without them. Give your users basic features that they expect, especially the ones that help save users time and effort.
Calculators
There are a plethora of different kinds of calculators for the web, and many of them are free. You can find everything from standard add and subtract calculators to complex mortgage calculators, some that even allow you to customize the look.
Google really started the trend of open source, free tools and still sticks by that business model today. Those just beginning to create websites will be surprised at just how much Google gives away for free. Here are a few:
Google Sites: allows you to create and share web pages with others, perfect for groups working to build a website together.
Google Analytics: if you have a website you should have a Google Analytics account. It will tell you more about your site’s performance than you ever knew possible.
Google Sitemaps: this tool is more for speaking to search engines than to users. As the name suggests, Sitemaps is a layout of your web pages which updates to show new pages and changed pages, making it easier for search engines to crawl your site.
