The best chatbots for websites

June 1, 2024 Roberto Magalhães

Chatbots have become extremely popular tools for websites and other media, allowing consumers to interact with brands efficiently.

We all interact with chatbots occasionally. They are a constant presence on many companies' website or Facebook page. You see them on WhatsApp. They exist all over media, popping up to encourage us to interact with them every time we visit that page.

The ever-growing chatbot market is expected to reach approximately $1.25 billion by 2025. And this is no surprise, given their global presence in the commercial world – and even beyond. Chatbots for websites are a crucial part of marketing, ecommerce, customer relationship management, customer experience, sales, and more.

Benefits of chatbots

Chatbots bring a range of benefits to organizations, including:

24 hour service
Fewer language barriers for companies serving internationally and globally
Greater productivity for your team
Less tedious and repetitive work for human customer service agents
More streamlined and efficient customer service responses
Reduced response time
Sophisticated, human-like responses
Superior customer engagement

Chatbots are also cost-effective. In fact, they can cut operating expenses by almost a third.

Types of chatbots

There are several different types of chatbots for websites and other platforms, involving a range of technologies and leveraged for different purposes. Some of the most popular are:

Menu or button-based chatbots

Menu- and button-based chatbots are the simplest form of bot. They essentially use a slightly more complex decision tree to give users choice answers, presented as buttons. They are not the most efficient or the most complete chatbots, but they are useful as rudimentary tools for resolving simple queries.

Keyword recognition-based chatbots

Using chatbots based on keyword recognition natural language processing (NLP) to essentially “listen” to consumers and decide how to respond in kind. They are more sophisticated than menu chatbots, but they can get confused and provide inaccurate answers when faced with keywords repeated across multiple similar questions.

Rules-based chatbots

Also called language-based chatbots or click bots, these tools are a little more sophisticated in some aspects and more rudimentary in others. They establish a conversational flow, directing the interaction based on if/then logic. In other words, they are able to predict the types of questions a user will ask and provide an appropriate response.

Developers need to establish the language conditions first. This takes a long time. Additionally, you will need to be very specific when crafting your answers. Conversational paths must be highly defined and bots must be carefully designed.

AI Robots

An AI chatbot for websites is perhaps what we most commonly think of when we hear the word “chatbot”. As you can probably imagine, it uses artificial intelligence to have a real – seemingly intelligent – conversation with a human being, despite being a piece of technology. Perhaps this is why they are also sometimes called conversational chatbots .

These sophisticated platforms use AI and machine learning algorithms to learn from data inputs and make an “educated” guess about how to best respond. As they receive more data, they become more knowledgeable and capable. This lends itself to a personalized experience.

Voice bots

By now, we are all familiar with voice bots . They are the fuel behind innovations like Siri and Alexa. These tools leverage speech recognition technology, including NLP, to “understand” the user’s vocal cues and resolve and respond to questions, requests, and queries. It's almost as if you're actually talking to the chatbot – almost.

While there are some limitations to voice bots, they have the ability to be surprisingly accurate as long as they are well built and developed.

Free vs. Free Chatbots paid chatbots

The best chatbot platform for website optimization is not necessarily the one you have to pay for. That said, there are some notable limitations to free chatbots.

For example, they can only accommodate a certain number of users. Additionally, they cannot be customized in the same way as paid chatbots, and you will likely receive less support than you would with a paid platform. Interactions and conversations may also be of lower quality and you may need to sacrifice features like push notifications. Still, they can be effective solutions for companies with tight budgets.

Free platforms or platforms with free plans include:

API.ai
BotUp
Dialog flow
SnatchBot
Earth robot
ManyChat
SendPulse

Meanwhile, popular paid chatbot options for websites include:

Acobot
Chat bot
Drift
Fresh chat
HubSpot
Instabot
Tidio
Zendesk Chat

How do you develop a chatbot for your website?

Do you want to develop your own chatbot for your company website? These are the simple steps to follow.

Establish the purpose of the chatbot, considering how it will serve you.
Choose the most appropriate type of chatbot .
Consider where you will place it.
Make a list of the features you need to have in your chatbot.
Choose the best chatbot platform for your website, as well as the tools and software needed to complete the project.
Design the conversation, complete with welcome messages and prompts. Keep the dialog simple to avoid confusion and establish user input.
Add buttons as appropriate.
Test the chatbot with a rigorous quality assurance (QA) process.
Integrate the chatbot with your website.
Track analytics and consumer data.

If you are looking for a more comprehensive and complex chatbot for your website, consider choosing the best chatbot development company to work on a customized solution that meets your needs. There are numerous vendor options that will work with you to provide a unique platform to improve your marketing and customer service efforts.

If you liked this, be sure to check out our other articles on web development.