Your contact form might be the most important page on your website that you’re not paying enough attention to. It’s often the first real interaction potential customers have with your business, yet many small business owners treat it as an afterthought. A well designed contact form can be the difference between a visitor becoming a customer, or leaving your website and forgetting about your business.
The truth is, contact forms face significant conversion challenges. Recent research from Zuko Analytics shows that only 38% of users who interact with a contact form end up successfully submitting their details, and when you factor in all visitors who see the form, the overall conversion rate drops to just 9%. However, there’s encouraging news – studies show that the top-performing brands achieve significantly higher conversion rates than average, demonstrating there’s huge potential to improve your results with the right approach.
Why a good contact forms matters
Your contact form serves as a crucial bridge between your business and potential customers. When someone takes the time to fill out your form, they’re raising their hand and saying “I’m interested” – that’s exactly the kind of engagement every business owner dreams of.
Beyond lead generation, your contact form shapes how professional and trustworthy your business appears. A poorly designed form with confusing instructions or broken functionality can instantly damage the credibility you’ve worked hard to build. Conversely, a smooth, well-thought-out form experience reinforces your brand’s professionalism and attention to detail.
For many small businesses, contact forms are also a vital customer service tool. Existing customers use them to ask questions, request support, or provide feedback. Making this process easy and pleasant keeps customers happy and can even reduce your admin time.
Contact form fundamentals
Before diving into design details, you need to be crystal clear about your form’s purpose. Are you primarily trying to generate sales leads? Provide customer support? Collect general enquiries? Your form’s design and fields should align with this primary goal.
The golden rule of contact forms is simplicity. Research shows that forms with three fields performed the best but started to drop with each additional field. You can potentially increase conversion rates by 50% simply by reducing a single form field. This isn’t just theory – it’s backed by real data from businesses testing their forms.
For most small businesses, your essential fields should include:
- Name – helps you know who you’re responding to, and personalise your initial interaction
- Email address – enables you to follow up and respond to the enquiry
- Message or enquiry details – gives you context about their needs
That’s it. Resist the temptation to ask for more. Phone numbers can be optional (many people prefer not to share them), and avoid asking for addresses, company size, or other details unless absolutely necessary for your specific business.
Phone numbers are the leading information users prefer not to include on forms, at 58%, with home addresses coming in second at 53%. If you must collect additional information, consider using conditional logic to only show relevant fields based on previous answers.
Remember – this is the only the very first step of a customer’s enquiry. There will always be more information that is useful to know and you could justify including in a contact form, but studies show you should hold off. Get the essentials, contact the customer and start building trust by gathering more information as you respond.
Design principles for conversions
Your form’s visual design significantly impacts whether people complete it. Start with a clear, logical layout that guides users smoothly from top to bottom. Position labels above form fields rather than to the side – this ensures they remain visible as users fill out the form and works better on mobile devices.
Effective use of whitespace around form elements prevents overcrowding and makes the form look cleaner and easier to read. Don’t cram everything together. Give your form room to breathe, and users will find it less overwhelming.
Mobile responsiveness isn’t optional anymore. With increasing numbers of people browsing on phones and tablets, your form must work perfectly on smaller screens. Buttons should be at least 44×44 pixels to be easily tapped on mobile screens, and ensure your form adapts smoothly to different screen sizes.
This can often mean moving away from complex column based layouts towards a simpler, cleaner option. If your form does use columns, it’s imperative to check that they adapt to smaller screen sizes well.
Include trust signals to boost credibility. A simple privacy statement near your form can reassure visitors that you’ll handle their information responsibly. If you have testimonials, awards, or security badges, consider placing them near your contact form to reinforce trust.
Your form’s headline matters more than you might think. Instead of generic text like “Contact Us,” try something that creates urgency or highlights the value they’ll receive: “Get an expert review” or “Let’s discuss your project.” Clear form headlines create a sense of urgency or excitement that can help motivate users to complete your form.
Accessibility in contact forms
Creating accessible forms isn’t just about compliance – it’s about ensuring everyone can use your website and contact your business. Forms are often a barrier to accessibility, especially for users with disabilities, but following basic principles makes them usable for everyone.
Start with semantic HTML elements. Forms should use a <label> tags for each form field, and ensure they’re property associated with the input field. Without this, assistive technology users cannot identify the purpose of the form field. Screen readers rely on these associations to tell users what each field is for. Nearly all form builders will include this by default, but if your form is custom built, or you aren’t sure if you are using a quality form plugin or system, it’s definitely something you could check.
Here’s a crucial point many businesses get wrong: placeholder text is not a substitute for proper labels. Placeholder text poses a variety of accessibility issues, including possible problems with colour contrast, users thinking the form input is already filled out, and placeholder text replacing a form label. Placeholders disappear when users start typing, leaving them without guidance. Always use visible labels that remain present throughout the form completion process.
Ensure your form is fully navigable using just a keyboard. The tab key enables navigation between links and form controls without additional keyboard adjustments. This benefits not just users with mobility impairments, but also power users who prefer keyboard navigation.
High contrast between text and background ensures that all users, including those with visual impairments, can easily read the form instructions and labels. Stick to dark text on light backgrounds for maximum readability.
Practical considerations
Spam protection is essential, but it shouldn’t create barriers for legitimate users.
Heavy-handed CAPTCHA systems can be frustrating and may reduce conversions. CAPTCHAs are not blind-friendly and are difficult for users with learning disabilities like dyslexia. Consider gentler alternatives like honeypot fields (hidden fields that only bots fill out), or if CAPTCHA is required aim for options that are accessible-friendly and unobtrusive.
One of the biggest issues small businesses face is forms that appear to work but don’t actually deliver emails. WordPress hosting providers often have a poorly configured mail function that stops contact form emails from reaching the inbox. Test your form regularly by submitting enquiries yourself and ensure emails aren’t ending up in spam folders.
Set up proper email notifications so you know immediately when someone contacts you. Configure your system to send copies to multiple email addresses if necessary, and consider using a dedicated email address for form submissions to keep them organised.
Don’t forget about mobile users when designing your form experience. Ensure form fields are large enough to tap easily, and consider the mobile keyboard – use appropriate input types like email for email fields and tel for phone numbers to trigger the right keyboard on mobile devices.
By using the right labels and field types, you can also help browsers and devices pre-fill or autocomplete options for common fields like email address, phone, name etc.
What happens after submission
The user experience doesn’t end when someone clicks submit. Filling in a form takes time, even if only a little, so acknowledge their effort immediately with a clear confirmation message or thank you page.
Your thank you page should do more than just say “thanks.” Use it to set expectations about when they’ll hear back from you, suggest next steps they can take (like following you on social media or reading relevant blog posts), or provide additional value like a helpful resource download.
Email auto-responses can be good to include for managing expectations and building trust. Send an immediate confirmation email that acknowledges their enquiry and gives them a timeframe for your response. Keep it friendly but professional, and include your contact information in case they need to reach you urgently.
Include an email, phone number, and physical address – some visitors prefer contact options to built-in web form fields. Don’t rely solely on your contact form. Some people prefer picking up the phone or sending a direct email, so provide alternative contact methods.
Be realistic about response times and stick to your commitments. If you say you’ll respond within 24 hours, make sure you can consistently deliver on that promise. It’s better to under-promise and over-deliver than to set expectations you can’t meet.
Common mistakes to avoid
Many businesses unknowingly sabotage their contact forms with seemingly minor issues. Auto-advance functionality (automatically moving to the next field when one is completed) might seem helpful, but auto-advance is terrible for people with disabilities and can frustrate users who want to review their entries.
Avoid making too many fields required. Each required field increases the barrier to completion. Only mark fields as required if you absolutely need that information to help the person or process their enquiry.
Don’t use generic, unhelpful error messages. Instead of “Error: Invalid input,” tell users specifically what’s wrong: “Please enter a valid email address” or “This field is required.” Clear timeline communications and transparent messaging about challenges or delays focus on solutions, not problems.
Poor mobile experience is a conversion killer. If your form is difficult to complete on a phone, you’re losing potential customers. Test your form on various devices and screen sizes to ensure it works smoothly everywhere.
Finally, don’t set up your form and forget about it. Regularly test submissions, monitor your spam folder, and review your form’s performance. A broken contact form that you’re unaware of could be costing you valuable leads every day.
Need help implementing good contact forms on your website?
Creating an effective contact form isn’t rocket science, but it does require thoughtful planning and attention to detail. Focus on making the experience as smooth and straightforward as possible for your visitors, and you’ll see better results from your website.
Remember, your contact form is often the first step in building a relationship with potential customers. Make it count by following these principles, and you’ll be well on your way to converting more website visitors into actual business enquiries.
If you’re looking to improve your website’s contact forms or need help creating a professional business website that converts visitors into customers, I’d love to help. Book a free consultation call or use my (hopefully quality!) contact form to discuss how we can optimise your online presence and grow your business.
