Reviews, social feeds, chat, forms, galleries, popups and other website features don't always require custom development. SiteWaves uses tools such as Elfsight to add polished functionality to existing websites quickly and efficiently.
See What You Can AddClients regularly ask us to add something new to an existing website: Google reviews, an Instagram feed, live chat, a popup, a photo gallery, a form, or another useful feature.
Years ago, many of those requests meant finding a CMS-specific add-on, installing another plugin, or building something from scratch.
Today, a hosted widget can often provide a simpler solution. When an existing service can do the job well, there's little reason to make a client pay to reinvent it.
That's where Elfsight can be particularly useful.
Elfsight offers ready-made widgets for a wide range of common website needs. Here are some of the features that can make sense for business and organization websites.
Display customer reviews directly on your website and help visitors see real feedback without leaving the page.
Bring Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and other social content into your website without manually duplicating every update.
Give visitors an easier way to start a conversation through chat and messaging options integrated with the website.
Add contact, feedback, request and other forms without necessarily building another custom form system.
Add galleries, sliders, portfolios and other visual content displays without extensive custom programming.
Promote an offer, make an announcement, collect a signup, or draw attention to important information when appropriate.
Elfsight provides a large collection of ready-made website widgets that can be configured visually and embedded into many existing websites with a small amount of code.
That gives us another option when a client needs a feature but doesn't need — or want to pay for — a custom application.
Because the widget is provided as a hosted service, it also avoids tying every feature to a particular content management system. That can make the solution easier to maintain and more portable if the website changes in the future.
Most importantly, we can choose it when it makes sense and skip it when it doesn't. The goal isn't to add more software. It's to solve the client's problem in the most practical way.
A widget isn't automatically the right solution. Sometimes custom development or functionality already built into your website is the better choice.
You don't need to research dozens of widget platforms before contacting us.
Tell us what you want the website to do.
We'll look at the site, see what functionality you already have, and determine whether Elfsight, another existing tool, or custom development is the better solution.
The technology comes after the problem we're trying to solve.
If you've been thinking, "I wish my website could do this," ask us before buying anything. There's a good chance we've already worked with a tool that can do it.
Ask About a Website FeatureYes. We can help choose the appropriate widget, configure it, integrate it into your existing website, and adjust its placement and appearance to fit the site.
For existing SiteWaves clients, this is often the easiest route. You tell us what you want to accomplish and we handle the website side of the implementation.
If you'd rather configure and install the widgets yourself, you can also use Elfsight directly.
One of the advantages of today's web is that businesses no longer have to custom-build every feature they want on their website.
Good third-party services can provide sophisticated functionality, ongoing development, updates, and support for far less than the cost of building and maintaining the same system independently.
But adding tools simply because they're available isn't good website management either.
SiteWaves looks for the balance: use established tools where they solve the problem well, customize where there's a reason to, and keep the overall website as manageable as possible.
Tell us what you're trying to accomplish. We'll help determine whether an existing widget, another service, or custom development is the best way to get there.
Ask SiteWaves