To create a website is one thing, to create it the right way is another. When building a website you can face the task of the preparation of a nice meal. Meaning, that there are a number of ingredients that are a must, and everything additional depends on the personal taste and beliefs.
This is not a blog for recipes, thus we’ll skip the best way to prepare a pizza. However, we’ll discuss the ‘ingredients’ that you absolutely need to add in order to make a website the way it should be.
Most of them, we’ll cover in future articles, since this one is devoted to the contact page. However, here is a list of the pages that will make your website look well-built, professional, and trustworthy:
- Home Page – makes it easy for the users, that have never been to your online property, to understand what it is all about and why they should care to dedicate their time to this exact website.
- About Page – Clear and swift explanation of who you are, and what you are trying to achieve. What drives you (or your company) to do what you are doing.
- Main Page/Product Page – Here is where the magic happens. Selling a product? Dedicate a whole page to it. That will make it easier for the users to comprehend what you are selling (or creating if it is content of some kind). You can have one or more pages of this kind, depending on how big your website and business are. For instance, we have quite a lot of product pages since our company has a wide set of services to offer. For a small blog, the blog itself would be the Main Page.
- Contact Page – You need the feedback of your customers. But believe us, the feedback, although important is not the only reason to create a Contact Page. Here are some of the most relevant reasons to do so:
1. Contact Page Builds Trust
As in common human relations, when building something new (be it a website or any other initiative), you need to build trust in the people that you are trying to reach. That’s, in fact, common sense.
Who would you trust more, a website built yesterday or one that has already published hundreds or even thousands of posts and has a huge audience?
Even if you are just starting, you can start building trust by adding a contact page. It symbolizes openness, willingness to communicate, and essentially trustworthiness.
2. Reliable Source of Content Ideas
Any content creator has reached at least once the point where they feel like there is nothing more to say or compose. Even if you are in such a mental state, the audience will still expect you to give them what they are here for. Namely, your content. And yes, you’ve guessed it, you can directly or indirectly ask your audience to help you. People are helpful. If you are a content creator of some kind, they’ll tell you what they want or need you to create for them. Whether you are going to listen to them or not is up to you, but still, that could be a reliable source of content ideas.
People would gladly tell you what they are interested in, what they want you to cover, what they didn’t understand from any of the previous articles, and even what they didn’t like about them.
Of course, you can add a poll of some kind but the feeling of the user being able to communicate directly with you is far more different than voting. Voting, although important, doesn’t allow the voters to feel heard and understood. Direct contact does.
Allow people to contact you directly.
3. Mistake Correction
Mistakes happen. I can make a mistake as much as you can. If you’ve already built trust and a fan base, some of these fans could see a mistake that you’ve made and inform you before it is too late. You know, before you lose any new visitor that could get the idea that you are incompetent, when in fact you are not. You just made a mistake.
Let the ones that already believe in you help with building and keeping the trust of the new visitors.
4. Feedback
Say, you’ve created the ultimate website. Say that, the only one feeling this way is you. Even if people love what you do, if it is hard for them to understand the structure of your website, they’ll most likely skip the opportunity to go through the web labyrinth that you’ve created. You need your people’s feedback.
Also, it is possible for them to experience glitches or bugs. How can you find out the reason why they are leaving the website, never to come back, if they are unable to tell you? You need your people’s feedback.
5. Website Monetization
Yes, this is a rare event. To directly receive an offer from an advertiser through the contact form is not a common way to monetize your website. Still, it is a hypothesis that you can’t neglect.
Even if an advertiser really wants to use your online property to promote his or her product, how could they accomplish that if you didn’t add a contact page? They can’t.
Allow advertisers to reach you.
6. Bonus: Adding a Contact Page is Amazingly Easy
If you are using WordPress to build your website, adding a contact page is so easy that it should be considered a crime not to do it. If you are not familiar with the CMS, here is a tutorial on How to Add a Contact Form in WordPress.
Proposal: Try the AtSpace’s Free Hosting
In conclusion
In the short run, having a contact page is not a game-changer. Still, don’t miss the opportunity to create relations with your customers or users, especially when making a difference is so easy to achieve. In the long run, you’ll be happy that you’ve given your users the opportunity to connect with you.
Having a contact page is really important. What is more important though is to answer the question that your fan base might have. Thus, don’t overlook the importance of the emails you receive. All the people that are trying to reach you are important.
Read: 8 Reasons Why You Should Use WordPress For Your Next Website