Here, we will cover some of the most common contact page mistakes people make on their business website.
If your business has a website, it needs to have a good contact page so that your potential customers can reach you easily, and find your store, if you have a physical location. It is imperative that you have a good contact page that is easy to find, so your customers can contact you more easily; if the page is too hard to find, you could lose out on potential sales.
Not Having a Contact Page
One of the biggest mistakes you can make with your contact page is not having one at all. Every website needs a contact page that is clear and easy to find. Even if your website is designed to interact with your customer as they navigate through shopping for your products, they might have additional questions that they cannot find the answer to on their own. By giving them a quick way to contact you, you are keeping that line open, so the customer will not get frustrated and choose one of your competitors over you. Ensure that they can get in touch with you virtually, and if you have a physical location, clearly include your address and hours.
Only Having a Form
While having a contact form on your contact page is standard these days, making that the only thing on the page can be a huge mistake. No matter how straightforward you make the form, there is always going to be someone who does not understand it; with privacy being a significant concern these days, there will also be people who do not want to give you their name, phone number, and email address. Therefore, including other options like a phone number and an email address are a good idea; you can even include links to your social media, which many people seem to prefer these days to reach customer service.
Why a Form Might be too Hard to Understand.
There are a few reasons why someone might not understand or simply dislike your contact form. It might be that the form is too long, so someone might get lost or decide they do not feel like taking the time to fill out everything that is required to submit the form. You can fix this by keeping it short and simple.
If the form is unresponsive, especially on mobile, it can be hard for someone to use; you want your form to be easy to use on whatever device your customer is on. Forms can also get broken, making them unusable; one common reason for this is because the plugin you are using needs to be updated.
Using an Unclear, Unique Name for the Contact Page
It is always frustrating when you are on a website, and you cannot find the contact page because it is not labeled as the contact page. The site might have named it “support” or “help,” which is not at all the same thing; they may have put it in their “about” page, or it might have some cutesy brand-specific name for the page that you have no idea that is what it is until you click on it or find it in an internal search.
You can use self-explanatory alternatives to “contact us,” like “get in touch,” but using something like “let’s talk business” can be misleading and confuse customers. Make it clear that this is what someone needs to click on to reach you.
Location, Location, Location!
Where is your contact page currently sitting on your website? It should be in your main header and footer menu. Keeping it above the fold is essential because the customer does not have to look for it; it is exactly where they expect it to be. While you might want to make the layout of your site more unique than others, when it comes to the location of your contact page, you need to stick with the standard, obvious locations for it.
Not Updating Information
Another big mistake that shows up on contact pages is not having current information. If you recently moved your location or changed your hours, you need to get that information updated on your site as soon as it happens. If you have different contacts based on the different departments in your business, make sure that the contact’s name and information are updated if you hire a new person in that department.
This is not something that you can afford to procrastinate and leave sitting on your to-do list for days, weeks, months, or even years. It has to be at the top of your list, and you must stay on top of it. Also, when this information changes, make sure you update the information in Google and on all of your social media profiles.
Not Giving the Option to Contact Privately
If someone is visiting your website, it is because they want to talk to you. You cannot simply say that they can reach out on your social media profiles; it is imperative that you give your customers at least two ways to contact you privately.
Your contact form with space for their question does count as one of these contact methods, but it cannot be the only one. In addition to this, include a phone number and/or an email address as well. If you want customers to contact you through social media, include those profiles as well; however, if you are using a profile as a primary method of contact for your customers, you must check that profile daily.
Yes, including an email address or contact form can lead to you being spammed, but there are spam filters in email settings for a reason. One easy way around this is to instead of giving a hyperlink to your email writing it out as (name) at (something) dot com. Yes, it can be a little irritating sometimes having it written out like that, but it does help in spam prevention. There are also plugins that can help with this. However, even if this is a bit inconvenient for you, it is more inconvenient for your customers not to be able to reach you through these means.
Conclusion
The contact page on a website is the thing that helps your customers reach you if they have questions or comments. Therefore, you must have a good contact page to make things as easy for your customers as possible. If you need help with your contact page, consider Seattle Advertising for our Content Writing services.