A while back I wrote about the importance of the headline on your home page.

To recap, a headline is an essential element because it has to capture the attention of your visitor from the moment they arrive at your site. Not only that, it has to let the person know in a few words exactly what you website is about. Nothing worse than landing on a website and going, “So what exactly do these people do?

The next essential element I would like to look at are contact details. It sounds obvious doesn’t it? Unfortunately I still come across client sites that don’t have what I would consider to be a complete no brainer on their front page.

It’s simple really. I approach my clients needs in a two step process. 1. Get found. 2. Have a site that is worth finding.

When we address concern number two, having a site worth finding, the approach taken is to make it easy for potential customers.

Firstly, as already mentioned you don’t want customers wondering what you do. The headline and subheadline (more on the subheadline in another post) take care of that.

Next contact details should be easily accessible. If you can, phone numbers and email address should be at the top of the page. I say if you can, because sometimes it doesn’t fit the design. Designing web pages is full of trade offs. Certainly if not at the top of the page, then on the page somewhere. What a fundamental error to make.. not having a phone number and email address prominent on your page. You are after all trying to remove barriers to the the visitor becoming a customer. Of course if they have a hard time finding your contact details, that is clearly a barrier.

If you conduct business from a physical premises once again, this is essential information. Don’t make the client have to work at all to find out about your business. You may have a dedicated contact page where you have all your details in one place, including a map of where you are located, but there is never any harm repeating the information on several pages on your site.

You can also have a contact form on your home page as well. Once again it doesn’t matter if you have a contact form on a dedicated contact page. You can never have too many ways on you website for a potential customer to communicate with you. In fact, nothing wrong with having contact forms all over your site.

Your website is a sales tool. The ability of the client to contact you is an essential part of your conversion funnel. Remove all friction from that funnel.

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Shaun

A computer specialist who has had a long and varied career in IT, starting with the days of Novell, progressing through Microsoft on the way to Cisco and network security. Now running Revolution Web Design, to provide customers with great Web Design, SEO and digital strategy advice.

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