If your business website’s goal is to get in touch with (potential) customers, you should avoid contact page mistakes. It’s detrimental to UX if your visitors end up struggling to contact you. And believe me, that’s not good for you either! Here, we’ll mention five contact pages mistakes you should definitely try to avoid.
Before we dive in, if you want to learn more about user experience (UX) and other essential SEO skills, you should check out our All-around SEO training! It doesn’t just tell you about SEO: it makes sure you know how to put these skills into actual practice!
In my other post about contact pages, I already mentioned that the right content on this page can improve both user experience and SEO. In the comments on that post, someone asked: “What do you think are the 5 most common mistakes on a website contact page?” A good question! I gave it some thought and ended up with this list of common mistakes that I find most annoying :-) Let’s dive straight in with number one.
#1 Not having a contact page at all
If only I got a penny for every website I came across that lacks a (clear) contact page… I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: every website should have a contact page. Most websites are set up to interact with the visitor, get them to buy products or provide information. But visitors could always have extra questions or interesting business opportunities for you. Make sure it’s clear how they can get in touch.
It’s probably the most obvious of all the contact page mistakes listed here, but I just felt the need to mention it.
#2 Just a form
If your contact page consists of a form and nothing but a form, you are not serving all of your visitors. Naturally, there will always be people that don’t understand the form. Provide a fallback option, like an email address or a phone number. Here are some reasons why people might dislike/do not understand your form:
- Your form is too long. People get lost or simply won’t take the time to fill out all the things you want to know. Keep forms short and clear.
- Your form isn’t responsive. This ruins the mobile experience on your contact page. Labels might get lost, as a mobile browser will focus on the form fields.
- Your form can get broken. Perhaps you missed an update of your favorite contact plugin, just to name one reason.
#3 Unclear, fancy names for your contact page
Don’t you just hate it when you have to do an internal search on a website just to find their contact page? In my opinion, there are two options:
- Add the menu item “Contact” to your main and/or footer menu.
- Add your contact page at example.com/contact/.
I won’t look in any other spots. It’s straight to your search or back to Google to find the next company that’s going to answer my question. Preferably, you want that link to your contact page to be above the fold. But I have to say that a footer link is common as well, both as an extra and as the main link.
Just like the link in the URL, I’d like the title of that page to be “Contact” or a variation of that, like “Contact us” or “Get in touch”. Don’t use “Let’s talk business” or whatever strange sentence that won’t cover the immediate goal of the page. It will confuse people, even in Google already. Make it clear that this is the page where they can get in contact with you.
#4 Outdated information
Like all your other pages, your contact page needs some tender love and care from time to time. Moving offices? Adjust your website. New sales rep? Change profile picture and email address. Make sure your information is accurate at all times.
Don’t take this lightly, I think outdated information is one of those contact page mistakes that we choose to ignore sometimes. “I’ll get to that one of these days”. “It’s on my to-do list”. No, update it when it changes. And if your address changes, let Google know in the process.
#5 No option to contact you privately
Only the option to “Reach out to me on the WordPress Slack”, “Talk to me on Twitter”, or even “Drop a comment below” isn’t enough. And yes, contact pages that use a comment form as a contact form do exist. People that want to talk to you probably just want to talk to you. Make sure they can.
Is it wise to display links to social profiles on a contact page? I believe that only makes sense if you want people to contact you on, for instance, Twitter and you monitor these social profiles for questions. If you mention Instagram on your contact page and don’t check Instagram at least every other day, it’s probably not the preferred way to contact you. In that case, that link shouldn’t be on your contact page.
Best case scenario: two options to contact you privately (form and email address or phone number would be a nice start), so if one fails, visitors can use the other.
More contact page mistakes
While the five mistakes in the list take the cake, these deserve a (not so) honorable mention:
- No clear confirmation that a form is sent. So I’ll send it again. Just in case.
- Crappy captchas. “Is that a ‘7’, ‘T’ or ‘I’? The horror!” Need I say more?
- Contact pages that are flooded with distractions. I just want to contact you!
- Forms that demand too much personal information. I’m not ready to share my age, home address and shoe size yet, and why would someone need that info anyway?
Now over to you
Feel free to spill your guts in the comments. Let me know which contact page mistake annoys you the most! Or maybe you can add a mistake to the list?
Read more: What makes a great contact page? With lots of examples! »
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