The Importance of Guestbooks for Websites

Jan 2
23:15

2024

Richard Lowe

Richard Lowe

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The first impression of a website often determines whether a visitor will stay or leave. One feature that can significantly enhance a visitor's experience is a guestbook. It's not uncommon for visitors to feel frustrated when they can't find a guestbook on a website, especially when they want to leave positive feedback for the webmaster. This is true for both non-commercial and commercial websites.

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The Value of Guestbooks

Guestbooks serve as a platform for visitors to express their thoughts,The Importance of Guestbooks for Websites Articles compliments, and suggestions. Imagine the disappointment of a visitor who wants to commend a webmaster for their excellent work but can't find a way to do so. This could potentially discourage them from revisiting the site.

Over time, we have experimented with various guestbooks on our site. Initially, we used standard remotely hosted versions. As our site evolved, we tried different services to find one that met our needs. Eventually, we decided to manually maintain our guestbook, which was quite a task, until we discovered the best guestbook script - vizbook.

User-Installed Scripts vs. Remotely Hosted Services

User-installed guestbook scripts are generally preferable to remotely hosted versions. If your web host allows for user-installed CGI routines, then vizbook comes highly recommended.

Vizbook is an incredible guestbook script that I personally tested. It's fully customizable and has all the features you could need.

However, many sites still use remotely hosted guestbook services. These services have their advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages of Remotely Hosted Services

  • Minimal maintenance required, usually just reviewing entries.
  • Your bandwidth and disk quotas are not affected by the guestbook.

Disadvantages of Remotely Hosted Services

  • Supported by advertising, which can distract visitors from your site.
  • Limited configuration options, so the guestbook may not match your site's design.
  • You are limited to the features provided by the guestbook provider.
  • Vulnerable to the slowdown of internet advertising, which can lead to the service disappearing or becoming fee-driven.

Here are some remotely hosted guestbooks that you might consider:

Additional Resources

For more information on maintaining your guestbook, check out these resources:

  • Maintain Your Guestbook
  • Netiquette - Guestbook Entries
  • Graphics in Guestbooks
  • Using Photoloft for Your Images
  • Bandwidth Stealing
  • Sins of the Internet- Bandwidth Stealing