Making live chat available on your website is a strategy that has been shown to dramatically increase sales. Customers appreciate the ability to get in touch with you instantly.

Google Talk is a great tool for getting chat support added to your website in a matter of minutes. The visitor doesn’t have to have a Google account themselves to chat with you. Users not signed into their Google accounts will appear as unidentified users. Here’s how you can add the chat badge to your WordPress site.

Step 1: Create a Google Talk chatback badge.

You must have a Google account in order to make use of the Google Talk chatback badge.

Visit: http://www.google.com/talk/service/badge/New to create your chatback badge. You’ll need to be logged in to your Google account in order to get your code. It will automatically recognize you and you’ll be able to edit the chat style, whether or not it shows your recent status, and the name that appears to your visitors.

Step 2: Paste the Google Talk code into a Text Widget or other content area.

You’ll get a chatback link that looks something like this:

Step 3: Test the chat window.

Make sure that you’re signed in to your Google account before testing the chat window. Click on the chat link to launch the window. You’ll see a pop-up window that looks like this:

If you get the message through Google Talk, then you’ll know it’s working. You’re finished!

I saw a new plugin in the WordPress repository that claims to perform this same function, so you might try that out if you prefer chat in plugin form. The one I tried gave me an error, so I decided to complete the process using Google’s embed code. Copying and pasting that code is all you need to do to make yourself instantly available to your visitors and potential customers.