Learn/Boost-Conversions-and-SEO-with-Contact-Info
Revision as of 23:39, 11 August 2010 by KristinaWeis (talk | contribs)
By [[User:{{{Writer}}}|Kristina Weis]] on August __, 2010
Kristina Weis is a community manager for AboutUs.org who talks with a lot of website owners who are trying to promote their business online. read more
Putting your contact information out there and freely offering customer service can feel unimportant and scary. But I'm here to suggest that a lack of contact info can mean a lack in conversions or sales.
Why is Contact Information so Important?
#1 - Trust and Security
Contact information can provide a sense of security to potential customers. They know that if they buy that widget from your company and it breaks, they can get in touch with you.
Whatever you want visitors to do on your website (e.g. how you want them to convert), their decision to do that or not will -- subconsciously, if not outright -- take into account how much they trust the website and company. Trust is even more important if you're asking them to pull out their credit card.
Aside from having a professional-looking website, contact information is the most important thing you can do on your website to make it feel trustworthy.
Plus, a website with no contact information -- or contact information that is hidden or hard to find -- makes me wonder why that website is trying to hide, and I often assume the worst.
#2 - "I Just Have One Question"
It's common for someone to be 99% ready to purchase, but they just want to ask one quick question to double-check one detail. If they don't see an easy way to contact the company, they will probably just vanish and take their business with them.
#3 - Let People Help You!
Wouldn't it be great if a friendly person could alert you that a link on your website is broken, there's a typo, or something is broken in the web browser they're using?
#4 - SEO?
While this is not a certainty, it's possible (and logical to me) that contact information is used by search engines as an indication of trust and that websites and web pages with full contact info may see a bump in their search engine ranking. Here is an article and poll about possible on-page trust ranking factors.
What Kind of Contact Info?
I suggest including at least one (all is best) of the staples that everyone should know how to deal with:
- Phone number
- Listing your business hours and time zone beside your phone number is a good idea for saving frustration. If you have a toll-free number, still list your local number for international callers and people that want to save you some money.
- Email address
- I personally prefer the actual email address to an form, but a contact form with the actual email address listed is great.
- Physical address
- While people probably aren't going to write you a letter, seeing a company's address can be reassuring and make it feel more legitimate.
And an alternative (or two) can be an added bonus:
- Link to your company's Twitter or Facebook
- Feedback tab, like GetSatisfaction
- Live chat
- FAQ, Help or Support page that offers people do-it-yourself help
Where?
Your placement of contact information will help determine how many people notice or can find it, and thus, how much benefit and contact you will receive.
I suggest choosing one or more of these options:
- Contact info directly in footer of website
- If there is in fact an SEO benefit to listing contact information, this placement would make it most clear to search engines that it's there.
- Example: Your email address, phone number and address are right there.
- Contact link in footer
- A "Contact" link at the bottom of a website is pretty standard and something that people will probably look for. If you only choose one, this is it.
- Tip: Preferably, make the link say something obvious like "Contact Us".
- Contact info directly above the fold somewhere on the website
- This provides a lot of visibility and is common on websites that are really trying to sell something.
If you want the reputation benefits of having contact information, don't bury or hide it.
If someone has to click "About Us" and then "Support" and then find it at the bottom of that page, they probably won't. And now you've probably turned them into a frustrated, non-customer.
Tips
If you provide contact information, make sure you provide decent customer service to all the contact channels you offer.
Want to know how much having contact information matters? Compare your important metrics and sales numbers before and after you give visitors a way to get in touch with you.