Small Business Website Tips: Adding Contact Information

There are a handful of pertinent pieces of information that should always be easily viewed on your website. Your brand name, logo, and an About page are a few that quickly come to mind. But what about your direct contact information? Aside from the usual contact form commonly found on every and any website, you should also be adding contact information to your small business website.

According to Entrepreneur, displaying information like your phone number, email address, and postal/physical address helps make customers feel secure about doing business with you. Additionally, think about the other possible circumstances that could make someone want to contact you directly, such as a journalist wanting to use you as a source for an article in the local paper or a customer who simply wants to know where they should mail payment. There are so many reasons why you should consider adding your contact information to your small business website and a few ways to do it right. Use these tips below.

1. Your phone number. Take a look at the website we built for Finale Inventory. You can see their toll-free phone number prominently displayed in the upper right hand corner right next to their search bar. What is especially important about this strategy is that the number remains on screen no matter what page the visitor is on—whether on the Home page, Pricing page, or even the Blog, that phone number is always there for users to see.
2. Your email address. For those customers and potential customers who are phone-shy, display your email address or the email icon (linked to your email address, of course) in the main header of your website. Just like the case with Finale Inventory and their phone number, keep your email address (or the linked icon) within view on any and every web page. Bonus tip: if you’re going to use the email icon for an easy one-click way to email you, go ahead and display your social media icons, too. Make it easy for potential clients to follow your social media updates and contact you that way, too.
3. Your physical and/or postal address. Our client, Mosaic Consulting, shares their address in the footer of their website, which can be seen on every page. If the majority of your business is conducted within the walls of a brick-and-mortar (i.e., restaurant, dental office, etc.), then you absolutely must list the addresses for every single location available. Make it easy and obvious to find you. Believe it or not, it’s a common mistake that small businesses make—omitting location addresses from the website. Don’t let that happen to you. Bonus tip: include a Google Map to your location(s) so that potential customers can access driving directions.

You may have your reasons for not wanting to include direct contact information on your website, but know that your desire for privacy or to control access to you personally will come at a cost. The mainstream consumer wants to know with whom they are doing business. There are many resources for setting up a business phone line and you can even rent a postal box for business mail. You really have no excuse for not doing it. Adding contact information to your small business website builds client trust and makes them feel secure about purchasing your product or service. That alone is worth a quick review of your website to see if you are displaying your direct contact information correctly.