Website 'Contact Us' Pages

Importance of ‘Contact us’ Link at the Home Page of a Website

Jan 21, 2009 Preetam Kaushik

Contact us page is an integral part of any website project management system and quite often acts as the best tool to convert visitors into customers

Of the many pages featured in a website the most indispensable page is the “Contact Us” page. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a business, government, or a purely personal one; each website intends to connect with visitors and readers. The ‘contact’ page, therefore, is an integral part of a website facilitating quick response from visitors.

Visitors find it convenient to get back to the people owning or managing the affairs of the website through the ‘Contact Us’ page. In a fast paced world capturing the attention of website visitors is difficult. Even more difficult is to elicit responses from them.

Some websites have contact information at the bottom of their home page. This is a sure way of dissuading visitors to give feed back. Even if they are keen on leaving a message sometimes they wouldn’t bother to scroll down or they may not find the contact info.

The best solution is to have a separate ‘Contact’ link set at the head of the home page with complete visibility and easy accessibility.

What is Included in a Contact Us Page

A business website will typically have several contact details in its Contact Us page including: the phone numbers of the sales, customer service, and administration departments. In addition to this the physical addresses of the offices, factories, and business premises are also mentioned in the contact page. Department specific contact email IDs and fax numbers figure prominently in the Contact Us page.

It is also a common practice to have a feedback form in the contact page making it very simple for visitors to leave comments or queries. The idea is that people should be able to contact a business through postal mail, email, telephone (including mobile phone), and fax. They should also find it easy to drop in to the office personally using the info provided in the Contact Us page.

Many websites have the facility of live chat in the Contact Us page. This is another unbeatable feature in converting visitors in to customers.

Utility of the Contact Page

Government websites have contact pages. The Whitehouse has one, the IRS has many, and all the states as well as local governments have contact pages. While the websites of the Governors try to seek public response and opinion through the contact pages the IRS does for it for allowing people to claim refunds and know their refund status.

The Court of Records in various states can be contacted through their website contact pages to obtain birth and death certificates. The impact of a personal website can be gauged from the responses that it generates through its contact page.

If it is a business website then there is no need to emphasize the need for a contact page. Customers love to have easy and quick accessibility as well as attention. When that happens they are more likely to get associated with online purchasing. Online ordering can happen at a very fast pace and in a 24X7 environment through the Contact Us page. Will people buy from someone that they cannot contact?

Utmost care and thinking should go in to designing the Contact Us page in a website. A well maintained Contact Us page makes a website really alive. Though it is often the smallest page in a website, it is the most potent one.

The copyright of the article Website 'Contact Us' Pages in Webmaster Resources is owned by Preetam Kaushik. Permission to republish Website 'Contact Us' Pages in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
Website Contact Us Page, www.freeimages.co.uk Website Contact Us Page
   
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Comments

May 5, 2009 2:06 AM
Guest :
Some organizations make it difficult for people to contact them. They actually do it on purpose. Another trick they use is to limit the options or reasons to contact them (by limiting the selection of reasons) - All they have to do is to add a link for 'OTHER'. Just investigate and one would see that this is common occurence.
May 24, 2009 10:04 AM
Guest :
I concur with the previous writers comment; I too find no way to contact the writer of an article or even the organization itself without, first, having to JOIN.

It's their website. However, I'm not going to be one of those who falls prey to having to JOIN, just so I can send an email.

G. Mertz
2 Comments