Useful widgets for websites

Many websites have limited functionality for one reason or another, with the main one being the use of templates that require you to do additional research and work if you want to customize them to your liking. 

But if you want to be successful online, you must offer services that your competitors don’t—you know, that extra something that makes you stand out. So, how can you add value and make your website more functional for clients? 

In this blog post, we’ll go over website widgets, what makes them useful, and our top recommendations for widgets.

What is a widget?

A widget is a small functional block displayed on all pages of a website. It is always in the users’ field of view, making it perfect for posting important information and notifications. Typically, widgets are pieces of HTML code that need to be inserted into web pages. Doing so presents clients and users with all the necessary functions.

Why websites need widgets

Widgets help expand a website’s functionality and add features that visitors benefit from.

For example, widgets can:

• Collect statistics on users
• Check their activity
• Increase website conversions

Widgets allow website owners to collect important data and adjust their marketing campaigns accordingly.

These small pieces of HTML code help tremendously in improving your website’s overall functionality and aesthetic.

Top 17 widgets for your website

Now let’s look at 17 of the most popular widgets for improving site functionality and convenience for various client types. Each widget belongs to a separate category and offers top functionality for users and website owners for comfort and ease-of-use.

Lead Generator

SE Ranking’s Lead Generator widget automatically generates qualified SEO leads for your business. Choose from 5 widget styles with live preview (button, pop-up, push notification, webform, and modal window) and customize their shape, on-screen location, color, and text to match your website’s branded look.

The process is simple: website ​​visitors fill in the form with their contact information, target keyword, and the URL of the webpage they want to evaluate. They receive a thorough On-Page SEO report on the technical health of a web page and any issues preventing it from ranking high in search. You will receive both the visitor’s contact information and the report. This enables you to contact leads and offer solutions for identified website issues.

HelpCrunch

This widget is interesting for its versatility. It is a stylish multichannel chat for communicating with clients. Your managers can communicate with visitors and help them solve various problems. It’s a useful tool for increasing conversions and website engagement.

The widget also helps with organizing email marketing and personalized emails. Another interesting option is the Help Desk. Having multi-channel communications in one account makes it a reliable tool for website owners who want to offer various commercial options.

Mailchimp

Mailchimp is a handy email subscription widget that you can embed on any website. This widget option allows you to add newsletters, contact forms, and lead generation popups. You can also use it to manage contacts, set up automation, and track analytics. It’s an overall good email marketing tool for increasing conversions and brand awareness. The widget has a simple interface but offers comprehensive features like audience management, segmentation, and even AI marketing solutions.

Flipsnack

If you need interactivity and a way to engage website visitors, then digital flipbooks can make a huge difference. Digital flipbook makers such as Flipsnack make it possible to turn any PDF document or other document type into beautiful, flippable, and embeddable pieces. Use this converter to create online magazines, digital flyers, and e-commerce product catalogs. Quickly feature them on your website to improve user experiences.

Reservio

This widget is associated with online booking options and allows you to interact with customers in a few clicks. For example, you can schedule business meetings with clients or negotiate various deliveries of goods. This is a good option when managing your work schedule because you can synchronize the calendar and various CMS platforms.

RafflePress

This widget is good for giveaway or contest options. You can customize the display of the distribution of prizes and various events on your website and attract an additional audience. The main advantage is that all these actions can be automated and less time is spent on marketing activities.

Simple Social Icons

This is a good option for creating social media icons. For example, these simple, clickable icons make it easy for users to like or share your post on Facebook, Twitter, or other social media platforms. You can customize the widget’s buttons and panels, including their size, color, and alignment.

Google Maps Widget

This widget can be placed anywhere on your website, including posts, pages, sidebars, or menus. You can also pinpoint your location on the map to help users find you. This format is especially relevant if your office is in a dense area that might otherwise make it difficult for clients to find you. The map can also be styled to match your website’s look.

WP Call Button

This is a great option if you want users to have quick call access to your company. You can customize the widget to match your website’s brand and color schemes. This simplifies the communication process with clients.

Calendly

Calendly is a convenient website widget that enables seamless scheduling of appointments, meetings, and sessions. Website visitors can select from available time slots and book meetings directly on the website. The widget integrates with popular calendars like Google Calendar and Office 365, sends reminders, and offers customization options, saving everyone time.

Countdown Timer

This widget creates a sense of urgency by displaying countdowns for sales, limited-time offers, or product launches, motivating visitors to take action. You can customize the countdown clock to run for any length of time, specifying days, hours, minutes, and seconds. What’s more, with its responsive design options, you can create eye-catching sale bars with holiday themed designs. It’s perfect for occassions like New Year, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and more.

The Events Calendar

With this widget, you can showcase upcoming conferences, webinars, workshops, and other events on your website. It also allows you to display a range of events (from 1 to 10) and you can give it a custom title. Website visitors can view event details directly through the widget. The widget can be set to appear only when there are upcoming events. This prompts it to automatically hide when there are none.

Wufoo

This widget lets you create registration forms, application forms, surveys, contact forms, payment forms, and more. With its simple drag-and-drop interface, customizing forms with your organization’s logo and brand elements takes just a few minutes. The widget offers a wide range of form field options, including multiple-choice questions, text boxes, checkboxes, dropdown menus, and file upload fields.

Trustpilot Reviews Widget

The Trustpilot reviews widget displays real-time customer reviews and ratings from Trustpilot, a popular review platform. To seamlessly integrate with your website’s design, the widget comes in a variety of formats, including carousel, grid, horizontal line, drop-down, list, and more. You have full control over how client reviews are shown on your website, with options to filter reviews by star rating, language, and specific keywords. Using this widget can help your business establish credibility and trust by showcasing authentic feedback popups from satisfied customers.

Yelp reviews

The Yelp Reviews widget also lets you display your business reviews directly on your website in just 2 minutes. Using pre-made, responsive widgets, you can showcase customer feedback in an eye-catching way. The widget is easy to customize; you can filter which reviews to display and how they appear on your site. This helps you convert visitors into customers by letting them see genuine feedback without leaving your website. 

Widg.io

This is a simple FAQ widget that makes it easy to answer your visitors’ most common questions. Just add your Q&As, and they’ll appear in a neat, clickable format. When users click a question, the answer pops up right below it. You can group similar questions and make the widget match your website’s color scheme and appearance.

It’s especially useful if you’re frequently answering the same questions. Instead of having customers contact support, they can quickly find answers themselves. Plus, the clean, expandable format keeps everything tidy and easy to read.

Hotjar feedback widget 

This useful feedback widget appears as a simple button on the edge of your webpage. Visitors can click on it to rate their experience and share detailed feedback. Users can even attach screenshots to highlight the elements they like or dislike on your page. You can customize when and where the feedback form appears, what questions to ask, and how it looks on your site. It’s a great way to learn what works on your site and what needs improvement.

The most useful types of website widgets

Each widget has various levels of importance and usefulness for different websites. What is good for one website may be completely useless to another. Nevertheless, there is a list of universal widgets that are equally useful for most online businesses. They can be broken down into several categories. Let’s look at the most popular and convenient ones.

Customer service

This category is one of the most important for most websites. If you sell goods or certain services, you must help your users understand everything you offer. Many users may encounter technical problems or unsuccessful payments. HTML widgets like the ones below can be a go-to for your business. Here are the top three widgets:

• Whatfix
• Testimonial
• Q2W3 Fixed Widget for WordPress

Online chats

Chats are ideal for commercial websites. Through chat widgets, users can ask questions and get answers. Some live chats are automated, where part of the dialogue is reserved for special robot algorithms. 

The top three online chat widgets are:

• SnapEngage
• Olark
• Userlike

For example, users can get answers to FAQs and start communicating with a real person once it has become clear that their problem cannot be solved in other ways.

Lead generation

Lead generation widgets are perfect if you need to use a lead generator. This automates many processes and creates a widget icon for activating services. You could, for example, add a widget that offers a free on-page SEO audit in exchange for an email. Then you can email the lead and move them down your sales funnel. Here are the 4 most popular options:

• HelpCrunch
• Envybox
• Facebook Leads Ads
• SE Ranking’s Lead Generator

Email marketing & signups

This category of widgets is especially popular for email marketing and subscription enthusiasts. It uses conversions to drive product sales and overall brand awareness. Marketing campaigns often provide widgets like these. Using a block of HTML code is only necessary when putting it on the website and activating the subscription form, among other similar actions.

The top three widgets are:

• Mailchimp
• GetResponse
• GoDaddy

This category of HTML code widgets allows you to automate various functions, such as contact management and analytical aspects. So, it is convenient for email marketing and subscription options management. As a rule of thumb, many companies that provide similar products have clear instructions for activation and use cases.

Images

Image widgets are especially useful for people who create photographs, infographics, graphic illustrations, and other types of visual content. Specialized widgets help you upload photos to your website or post your work to social media networks. They’re also convenient for creating graphic portfolios for working with clients. 

The top three image widgets are:

• PhotoSnack
• Magix
• Smilebox

Special widgets can add social media slideshows, showcase certain products, or advertise services. Thanks to the graphical interface, users can see all the successful works and make choices based on the visual concept. Such widgets for websites are best for increasing the audience base.

Social media

All businesses should use social platforms. These tools are effective at promoting brands and boosting conversions and sales. Social media widgets can be placed in any part of the page where it will be convenient for customers to activate them. They allow website visitors to either go to your brand page on social networks or other sites. Users can also share/repost your content on their social media pages. Social platforms also feature buttons that allow people to like your posts.

Here are the top three social media widgets:

• Curator
• Sassy Social Share

Booking widgets & calendars

You can perform multiple actions at once with these widget types. One example is the ability to place a calendar to remind your client of various activities and events. You can also install an online widget to book certain actions or order services. This is a good option for restaurants to book tables or make food orders. 

These widgets also work great for personal trainers, coaches, and beauty salons. You can rent out your home and schedule the arrival of new guests. It is also good for selling online tickets for various seminars and events. Many widgets perform several functions at once, allowing you to save space on your website and provide users with maximum functionality.

The top three booking and calendar widgets are:

• Booking Engine
• ParkingPro Booking
• JRNI

More types of website widgets to consider

The number of useful widgets can sometimes exceed how much free space you have on your web pages. However, some interesting ones deserve a shout-out. Check out the following website widgets:

• Linking articles
• RSS feed
• Callbacks
• Quizzes and polls
• Reviews and ratings
• Maps

Let’s look at the most significant items from this list. They can improve customer interactions, and increase conversions and overall user engagement.

Blogroll widget

The first one is blogroll, a simple and easy-to-use widget. It is useful for relinking website pages. You can customize the URL parameters, insert links, and customize website publications.

RSS feed widget

RSS feed widgets are great if you need to customize your RSS feed. These tools feature a simple installation and configuration process. You can customize all posting and technical options for your audience.

Callback widget

Callback widgets are vital for commercial websites. These tools can help whenever your potential clients want you to call them back. They ensure you get every request on time and make scheduled calls.

Quiz and poll widgets

BookWidgets is a great quiz and poll widget. It’s easy to set up and you can directly interact with your audience with it.

Reviews and ratings widget

Reviews and ratings are crucial for customers. Widgets like Yotpo can help you show off your review score and user reviews. This builds brand confidence and helps convey important information to consumers.

News feed

People tend to start their day with coffee and a little bit of news reading. News widgets can help you consolidate every new publication for website visitors so they can read it comfortably. The most popular options are:

• Press Release News Widget
• FeedWind
• Beamer

Search forms

The website search widget is ideal for your site if you have many articles and pages. Users should be able to enter a keyword and see the results immediately. Standard websites, which are generally made with free templates, do not always have this functionality. Here are the top 3 options available:

• Search Form Widget
• Customize Search Form
• Elementor Widgets

E-commerce widgets

With dedicated website widgets, you can simplify shopping for products, getting product information, and more. Here are our top three recommended widgets:

• Ecwid Widget Suite
• Yotpo
• Shopify

Are there any free website widgets available?

Yes, there are. Many services allow you to download a free HTML code to integrate into your website. Not only do most of them work perfectly, but you can test their functionality and find the best format for yourself.

But since commercial sites need the best technical solutions, you must always consider their overall quality, benefits, and sustainability. If you opt for a free solution, you’re in good company. Many free widgets are available for installation on your website.

• WP Call Button is a good example. It helps you set up an on-screen phone button for your customers. Now they don’t have to search for your company’s contact details.

• RafflePress Lite is a free widget for organizing giveaways or contest plugins. You can create a separate page for social media promotions and alert your audience about upcoming events. It also works as an anti-spam system. Once your website becomes popular, you have to face spammers. This widget helps you automate the system to filter negative and offensive comments.

How to install HTML widgets

1. Find a suitable module and download it. This can be done on special sites for webmasters. You can use an external program whose code is integrated into the website page or a special file with the .js extension. You must save the JS file on the computer device in the same directory or a separate folder relative to the page’s HTML file.

Note: Most CMS can disable or remove installed website widgets. As the administrator, you only need to click on a specific widget and select the required option. Alternatively, you can deactivate the widget in the code editor by writing the required commands.

2. Open the page where you plan to install it with an intuitive editor. Right-click on the page. Select the “Open with” option and select “Notepad” in the drop-down list.

3. Access the piece of code that you want to add the widget to. In the type field, specify the plug-in type. In the src section, write the URL address of the selected extension. When using a downloaded or generated JS file, you can write an absolute or relative path to a file with the .js extension in the src field.

4. Save changes to the edited file. 

5. Check how it works in real-time. If everything is okay, the module installation can be considered complete.

What to look for in website widgets

You must first decide on which functions you expect from a website widget. There are many collections online full of popular options and their features. Finding the best widgets can take a while, but it’s worth it when you find them. Here are some tips for finding the right ones for you:

• Decide on the functionality you expect to get from a widget.
• Read real reviews from website owners.
• Compare the functionality of paid and free options.
• See how competitors have implemented it.
• Test some of them on your website.

The last point is the most important one. Check the 5-10 most successful websites in your niche and analyze their widgets. Choose solutions that provide your customers with the best functionality and value. You should also test every selected option. What works well in one niche may not work well in another. After these steps, you’ll know which widgets are the most compatible with your website and can begin adding them.

Now over to you

We looked at the importance of widgets and how to install them on your website. Now you know there is no shortage of website widgets, each capable of helping you communicate with customers, group content, generate leads, or collect statistics.

We gave examples of each widget category to give you a rough idea of how they work. Remember to test widgets on your website until you find ones that resonate with your audience. Powerful widgets help expand the standard functionality of your website and better manage your audience or content.