The 8 Things You Should Have On Your Contact Page

Many bloggers and small business owners overlook the importance of their contact page. I can’t blame anyone; it’s easy to do!

Only visitors who know exactly what they want will go to my Contact page and all they need is to fill out this little form, right?

Well, not so much.

It turns out if you spend a little extra time on your Contact page that you may see some good returns. By making a few additions and modifications you can increase your Contact page’s effectiveness in terms of:

• Gaining new clients
• New collaboration opportunities (that you’re interested in)
• Avoiding having to answer the same questions, and
• Keeping visitors from reaching out before they’ve seen all the information available to them

Something else that may surprise you? A lot of people visit your contact page when they’re trying to learn more about you. I know I do. If I find a new blogger I really like I’m going to find out everything I can about them. Stalker-ish? Possibly. But it’s surprising how much you can learn on a Contact page! And based on my site analytics I’m not the only one that does this.

Your contact page can say a lot about you. Others can get an idea of how welcoming you are, how willing you are to interact with your audience, your experience, and your openness to collaborations. You want to make sure that you’re giving off the right vibe so no opportunities are missed. Below are the 8, yes 8, things that should be on your Contact page.

1. A Warm Welcome

This one is nice and easy. In fact, you could go add it right now!

Make sure that when a new visitor views your Contact page that they feel welcome. Say “hey”, quickly thank them for viewing your site, and encourage them to reach out.

Just this quick change will put your visitors at ease. Remember that nervous feeling you got last time you reached out to someone you wanted to collaborate with or hire? Yeah, your visitors have that too!

2. A Picture

Not everyone agrees with me on this one, but I like having a welcoming picture on my Contact page. It fits right in with our last point in making your visitors feel at ease and more likely to reach out to you.

I know that I feel more connected with someone if I know what they look like. And if I’m already nervous about reaching out a smiling face can chase some of those nerves away.

3. Your Availability

Your Contact page is also a great place to display your availability. If you have a lot of people reaching out for a service you provide or the opening date for a course, you can save yourself some time by including that right on your contact page.

This way, people who are willing to wait will still reach out, but already have the correct expectations set. And those who aren’t willing to wait save both of you a little time.

4. Collaboration Details

Reaching out for collaborations can be intimidating, even if it’s just a simple guest post.

If you’re open to collaborations let your fellow bloggers and business owners know more. Include few quick words about what you’re open to as far as topics and types of collaborations go.

If you accept guest posts this is also a great place to include your posting guidelines. You can either link to a shared document (like I do) or create a guest-posting page on your blog with the guidelines listed out. This is a great way to save yourself some back and forth emails with your guest posters!

5. Frequently Asked Questions

If you’re someone who gets similar questions over and over again, your Contact page is a great place for a quick FAQ. You can include it either right underneath your contact form or create a new page for it.

Again, you’re saving time for both yourself and those reaching out to you!

6. Social Media Links

I like to include social media links on my Contact page for a couple of reasons.

First, the people just poking around, not really looking to reach out will run across them and may follow you on your favorite platforms. And second, it’s a great way to let potential clients, customers, and collaborators know if you answer simple questions more quickly on a platform like Twitter or Facebook. This is a great way to cut down on the quick and simple questions that clutter your inbox.

7. Your Email Address

Sometimes a contact form just doesn’t seem quite right. If I’m reaching out to collaborate with someone I know, I don’t want to use the contact form, I’d rather just write an email. I know that others simply dislike contact forms altogether.

Because of that, it’s a good idea to include your email address above your contact form to catch those people who may not want to use it.

8. Office Hours / Expected Response Time

This one is important, especially if you work non-regular hours or take more than 24 hours to respond to emails.

For myself, I generally answer within 24 hours, but I don’t work regular business hours. Instead I’m working around the hours of 5pm-8:30pm on weeknights and all day on weekends.

If you take more than a day to respond and someone doesn’t know to expect that, they may give up over the course of a couple of days. This can lose you a client or great collaboration opportunity.

To avoid this include a quick line explaining how long someone can expect to wait before hearing back from you.

What Did I Miss?

Is there anything you like to see on Contact pages that I missed? How many of these things did you have on your Contact page?