So you want calls from your website?
It may seem an obvious question, but do you want your website visitors to be able to phone you? If you don’t, that’s cool… we all our our preferences when it comes to client communication, and I’m not here to judge. If you do, then let’s make sure it’s as easy as possible for them.
Show your phone number
The starting point then, is that the phone number needs to be on your website, and it needs to be clearly visible. It sounds obvious, but there’s a few sites I’ve seen recently that haven’t quite got the hang of this. Very often the phone number might show ‘below the fold’ – not on the main part of the screen, meaning the visitor has to scroll to find it.
You need to assume that your website visitors are lazy at best. Make sure the phone number is always clearly visible, preferably at the top of the page. You may even want to add it in the navigation menu across the top of the page if you have one, or add a bar above the menu with the key contact details in.
Link your phone number
Secondly, and assuming they’re lazy again, make it easy for your prospective customers to use that phone number by making it a hyperlink. This is particularly helpful if someone is visiting your website on their phone, but can often help desktop visitors too. By making the number a clickable link, your website visitor can literally click and call you. We recommend using the tel protocol and entering the number in international format with no breaks. If you’re using a visual builder interface you would type something like this in as the link (no http or similar):
tel:+441618060616
If you are coding the link in manually then it would look something like this:
<a href="tel:+443333403380">Call us on 033 3340 3380</a>
Check your phone number
Oh, and let’s not forget the third tip. You may think this would never happen, but we’ve seen it. Not only that, we’ve seen it and let the site owner know, who has let his web guys know, and it’s still there…
Use the right phone number!
If you’re not going to have the right phone number on your website, then how are your customers actually going to find you in the first place? Let’s be honest, it’s easy to hit the wrong key and mistype something, but it’s also easy to check it and fix it.
How we can help
When we’re building a new website or refreshing an existing one we’ll always make sure that the number is clearly visible at the top of the page (unless we’re asked not to) as well as on the contact page, or besides the contact form. We check it twice, and when making it a link will also click that link to make sure it works 100%.
We’ve sometimes added the phone number into the navigation menu. This helps keep it visible, and often we’ll apply a little bit of extra css code so that it looks like a button and stands out from the rest of the menu, or even make it shake to get attention. Adding it in this way also means it will show on the mobile menu, which usually shows as an overlay,
If you need help getting your phone number (or other preferred contact methods) visible and attracting clicks, then get in touch and we’ll help make it happen.
Recent Comments