In average, a website’s lifetime is from 3 to 5 years. Of course, several factors such as nature of the industry and marketing acquisition strategy can make it longer or shorter. But this is generally the time it would take to re-fashion your website’s appearance and ergonomy from A to Z.
Now, more and more companies are making it a continuous step-by-step process. It is easier to run than one really heavy redesign after a few years. And this allows to constantly fit security requirements and evolutions of search engines’ algorithms. More, it makes things adjustable with emerging design and UX trends, for better user experience.
And at some point of this process, you get to think about your business phone number on your website. Would it be better to put it somewhere else on your pages, so your visitors could see it easier? Is one number enough, or do you need more? In this article, you will find all the answers to make your phone number shine online!
How to showcase your business number
Phone number is part of your business’ online identity. It is one of the main things your visitors are exposed to before first contacting your company. So, a number people can see and easily associate with your identity can play a real part in making them decide to call your business.
For example, if your company is located in the United States, your number must locally reflect your strategy and activity. If you are working in a big company performing on a national scale, you would better choose a toll-free number. On the other hand, if you wish to highlight your local identity in specific zones, it is more relevant to take one or more numbers with area codes matching your perimeter.
Next question is, how important phone contacts are in your acquisition strategy? Do you want to receive as many calls as online forms or live chats? If yes, then you need to emphasize your online call-to-action to contact you by phone. There are many subtle ways to do so: a pleasant but visible button color, some space around to see it, … And this is also about where your number can be found on your pages, which is our next topic.
Which of your pages need to display your number?
Is it better for your business number to be visible on all of your pages? Or would it be more intuitive for your visitors to find it on a dedicated Contact page? Both approaches can make sense, since your visitors can easily find your phone number when they need to.
First, in a Contact page you can centralize all your contact data. This lets your visitors decide by themselves which way is best for them to get in touch with you. Phone, but also email, contact forms, your physical address if needed, all of these can do the job.
Maybe you have noticed that some business websites do not mention any phone number at all. In most cases, this is because phone is not a real acquisition channel for them. Another reason could be they do not have the right tools to measure their inbound calls’ performance. But other companies, just like we do here at Dexem, consider phone contact as part of their expertise. Then, it is logical that phone stands among our top acquisition channels. And we are displaying it in the header of most of our web pages.
Besides, a phone number can also be used online to identify your best-performing traffic sources leading to your website. With dynamic call tracking, you can have your phone number replaced by another one on your website, depending on where visitors are coming from. Namely SEO, Google Ads, advertisement portals, emailing, … Call tracking provides you some accurate data to measure how many calls you have received, answered or missed. And this way, you can simply find out your most efficient marketing actions and campaigns.
So great, now you know precisely on which pages your phone number is visible. Next, you need to define where exactly on these pages you are going to display it. Again, if you wish to give your visitors the ability to contact you by phone, your goal is to make your phone number as easy as possible to find online. So ideally, you would not get your visitors to scroll for long on your page before seeing it. For example, you can think about displaying it in the header, sidebar or the upper side of your pages. Although, make sure your other relevant content will still remain visible this way.
Is one business number enough?
For any of your online visitors taken individually, it certainly is. They are looking for a quick and simple way to contact you. So, one displayed phone number can perfectly make it, as long as your callers get an answer from you. To optimize this, you can set redirection numbers and backups in your telephony system.
However, if you noticed that you have many missed calls, several contact numbers can be the answer to fix that. For example, each service in your company can have its own number (customer support, sales, …). And your dedicated Contact page can mention all of these numbers, as well as a main contact number to call your sales team or your reception desk. The numbers to display first can also depend on the pages your visitors are browsing.
For multilingual websites, obviously, the best thing is to display phone numbers with appropriate country codes, according to the language. You can also set up an IVR (Interactive Voice Response) on your contact number, with a menu asking your callers to select their language, before transferring them to a speaker of that language in your company.
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On your website, your phone number is like a front door your visitors can open to reach your business. To highlight your phone number online, you need to develop an internal and external point of view, by putting yourself in the shoes of your leads.
First, to optimize their online experience with you, it must be easy for them to find your phone number. And once the call has started, you need to deliver the highest value possible to your callers. For you as a business, phone number is not only for strengthening your identity, but also an efficient way to learn a lot about how your marketing acquisition is performing.
If you have any question about this, or simply an experience to share with us, we will be more than happy to have a chat with you!
