Is it a problem not have a contact page if all webpages without exception have a backendly following contact box?
By “backendly following contact box” I mean to a Contact us at any time kind of box which appears in the bottom part of the viewport and “scrolls” down or up, along with the user, always.
Such contact box is configured in the backend (it’s not JavaScript that can be turned off in advance, or anything like it) and it is generally an integral and static part of the source code any webpage.
Such contact box contains at least two links such as a clickable phone number and an email button (or for those going more international, a few application buttons like a Telegram button, a Signal button and a WhatsApp button).
So long as the site has the contact inf that the user wants, you don’t have to have a dedicated page for it. For example some sites have contact info in the page footer.
I think of a situation in which even the footer doesn’t contain contact details, rather only this sub-footer scrolling (“floating”) contact box
In my opinion, both not having a contact page and/or contact details in the footer could cause minor to medium and less likely major SEO damage though.
As an aside, that sounds incredibly annoying as a user experience if thats the only purpose of the box. I’d rather a contact page be added rather than being chased about the page like im being shadowed by a salesperson in a furniture store. But thats just my two cents.
A contact page offers a centralized location for users to easily find all the contact information they need. Depending solely on a contact box on every page may be less intuitive and can make it more difficult for users to find comprehensive contact details.
Fair enough. But keep in mind, you dont hear the screaming. People just leave.
It wont show up in the visitor count, because they had to visit the page to see the annoyance.
It will show up in the number of people who come back.
I don’t have external evidence for either claim here, but is there good evidence to claim that 2-3 following contact buttons annoy website visitors, let along causing them not to come back to that website for a long period of time (a month to a year)?
It’s not the contact buttons - it’s the idea of making them sticky on the viewport. I’m not coming to your site to look at a contact bar. I’m coming to look at the CONTENT, and your contact bar is blocking the content.
For the same reason that a dozen ads on the page may make you lots of money on each view, but it will drive down repeat viewing because your CONTENT is being blocked by the ads filling the page and causing users to have to navigate around them.
I fully agree about ads, banners, popups, “accessibility tools”, etc. but I personally don’t find a problem with a 50px height solid background color viewport-bottom bar containing a button or a few as a shortcut for those who are in the same visit just feel too lazy or are cognitively biased to go to a menu or to the footer, locate the “Contact” link, read the “Contact” page and then decide if and how to contact the owner of the website, especially in mobile phone devices.
I got to admit that I was never annoyed from such buttons in any website. It’s new to me that some are (and of course, I seriously take that into consideration).
So if my phone is in vertical alignment, lets assume my screen is an ‘average’ size - 400x850. Your contact bar, which has nothing to do with your content, takes up 5% of my view. If i’m in horizontal alignment, it takes up 12.5% of my view. For something i’m not interested in. And I cant get rid of it.
You truly don’t find a problem with that? You’ve got a LOT more patience than the average user, IMO.
So your content isnt engaging enough that people would seek out the button at the bottom of the page? Again, i’m not saying you offend people by putting contact buttons on the page; it’s that you’re STICKING THEM TO THE VIEW.
If you’ve got an article or whatever that is engaging to the user and at the bottom, after having read the content, you’ve got the “Contact us for more information” stuff? You’ve engaged the user, they’re interested, and you’ve presented the method to do so in an easy manner that the user can interact with immediately after their positive interaction with the site. Instead, what you’re doing is standing in front of the content going “Hey, you clicked on this link, so before you read what you came here for, contact us is right here!”. You’ve gone from the helpful cashier behind the register to the salesperson standing at the door hooking people as soon as they step foot across the threshold.
@sibertius I would agree with that, and those ads do annoy me, but two differences:
1: The ability to dismiss the ad is available. It’s not permanently glued to your screen.
2: On a mobile display, this is more of an issue, but on a full screen computer, the ad does not block the content, so YMMV. I dont engage with Sitepoint on mobile any more than the occaisional glance, so this is less an issue for me.
(Also I would not consider sitepoint a ‘casual view’ for me at this point; so the ads have started appearing after the long term commitment point; but if i were a newcomer, it would be a deterrent.)
I find your point about vertical alignment as good, I didn’t think about it. Anyway, limiting the bar to a viewpoint of 320px can prevent this phenomenon.
So your content isnt engaging enough that people would seek out the button at the bottom of the page? Again, i’m not saying you offend people by putting contact buttons on the page; it’s that you’re STICKING THEM TO THE VIEW.
That’s not correct. Humbly saying, I just got an inquiry from a potential customer and got several in the last month and also got several others from various websites spanning various time periods, all without having such a contact bar or any other scrolling contact links.
Therefore I find this piece of text of yours as cynical and not touching the issue of cognitive biases which I personally find extremely important especially nowadays (“the smartphone era”) in which using a computer has become more distracting and chaotic for many people from all the notifications and popups even before web browsing, so an elegant shortcut to immediate contact might be handy.
Yes, sometimes the heading + first passage of an article would be enough to some potential customer to contact; is it more likely that the lead would be inappropriate? I guess so, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the cost would outweigh the benefit.
Let’s say no solid color bar is involved, just two buttons, one for WhatsApp contact and one for Telegram contact as in the bottom left of the screenshot above, what big problem do you personally find with that?..
It… can’t be incorrect if i tell you it does offend? I didnt say it would offend everyone. You won’t… hear from the people it annoys. They will just… leave. That’s how it works. Just because a user doesnt contact you and say “this annoys me about your site” doesnt… mean they arent annoyed? I’m absolutely lost that you can’t seem to grasp that.
And it would be, for those seeking contact. But what you suggested, in my personal opinion, fails to deliver on the word “elegant” in your sentence.
I would find it less offensive than if it were a solid bar, but still annoying.
Let me ask you this. When was the last time you went to a random page on the internet and wanted to contact the owner? What percentage of sites you visit do you want a contact us link in your face on?
It… can’t be incorrect if i tell you it does offend? I didnt say it would offend everyone . You won’t… hear from the people it annoys. They will just… leave. That’s how it works. Just because a user doesnt contact you and say “this annoys me about your site” doesnt… mean they arent annoyed? I’m absolutely lost that you can’t seem to grasp that.
I think you believe that it annoys all or most visitors but I haven’t found any evidence for that; when no pure logic evidence is there, I can only adhere to collective opinion or personal opinion. I humbly said, that is my opinion, but I am not as sure as you with my personal opinion on the matter.
And it would be, for those seeking contact. But what you suggested, in my personal opinion , fails to deliver on the word “elegant” in your sentence.
I understand elegance is more a matter of collective opinion then of pure logic and I do somewhat rely on the experience of others I knew and worked with in the past on this matter.
Let me ask you this. When was the last time you went to a random page on the internet and wanted to contact the owner? What percentage of sites you visit do you want a contact us link in your face on?
I don’t know how to put this in percentage but I can recall many times that I was actually disappointed that there wasn’t any way to contact the owner or the writer of the specific article, or at least, there wasn’t an easy way.
Now I have a question for you, why would icon/s on a bar would be less annoying to you?
