Free Web Site Tools

There are many sites that offer free tools for your website. These tools can be a great way to add interest to your web site and drive up traffic. Many sites offer these tools for free because it generates traffic for their sites as well. Many web hosts will also offer these tools as part of your web hosting service.

These tools are easy to install in your web site. All you have to do is answer a few preference questions and they will generate the necessary code. Take the code and place it into your html file and it's that easy. Below is an explanation of some of the free web site goodies that can be added to your site.

Web Counters

These tools display the number of times your web site has been visited. This can give your site credibility if it shows that your site has a lot of visitors. The downside is that your site may not initially have enough traffic to drive up that number. Though web counters will allow you to start at any number you want to start at, if the number isn't going up fast enough it won't give the credibility that you want. It will give you an idea of how many visitors you are receiving, but this can be done in a number of easier ways.

Guest Books and Message Forums

Guest books and message forums are very similar as they allow users to post comments. However, message forums are more in depth. In addition to allowing your users to interact with your site, they can interact with each other. Message forums can be very powerful tools in attracting visitors to your site. In fact, an effective message forum can keep visitors coming back to your site. It ensures that there is always something new to look at when they visit your site.

The only drawback is that it does take constant monitoring. You don't want to allow visitors to fill your forum with spam. You also don't want dominate visitors intimidating others or creating an environment where visitors don't feel free to voice their opinions. This is why constant monitoring is needed to keep your message board effective.

Web Polls

These tools allow you to create your own poll. You type in the question and the possible answers and they will create the poll. You just copy and paste the code into your web site and there you have it. This can add a little humor to your site. On the other hand, you can also use it as a method for gaining insight into what type of visitors are viewing your site. It also makes your site a little more interactive. In fact, there is an example of a free web poll on my site.

Meta Tags

Meta tags contain valuable information directed towards search engine spiders. These spiders patrol the internet to exam web pages and decide what place they will take in the search engine ranks. This is decided on a number of factors including your Meta tags. If you don't know much about writing your own Meta tags, you can find a free service that will write them for free. All you do is specify certain information such as a description and keywords and they provide the code. This information will reside inside your tags.

Chat Rooms

Chat rooms allow your visitors the same interaction as message forums. The difference is that the interaction is real time. This also keeps your page interactive and can draw visitors. However, in my opinion message forums are more effective at least in the beginning. This is because if you do not have enough traffic than visitors may not have anyone to chat with. This can frustrate visitors and ensure that they don't return. However, if you have enough traffic to ensure that there is always someone willing to chat, it can be a valuable tool.