Can people actually reach me, and trust my site?
A visitor who is ready to buy, book or ask a question will leave if they cannot see how to reach you within a few seconds. A visitor who is unsure about you looks for small signs that a real business is behind the page: a privacy page, a copyright line, one clear email address.
The prompt
“Check whether people can reach and trust [my site]. Tell me which pages have no way to get in touch, and whether my email addresses agree with each other.”
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Ask Bernard to check whether people can reach and trust your site, and it reads your pages and reports what it finds. It changes nothing while it looks.
What it looks for on each page
- An email link: a link that opens a new email to you.
- A phone link: a number a visitor can tap to call on a phone.
- A form: any form on the page, such as a contact form or a sign-up box.
- Social links: links to your accounts on Instagram, Facebook and similar sites.
A page with none of the first three is a page where a visitor who is ready to talk has nowhere to go.
What it looks for across the whole site
- Which email addresses appear. Bernard notes which domain looks like yours: the one that appears on the most pages, because your header and footer are on every page. More than one address on your own domain is worth tidying. Addresses from other organisations, quoted in a post, are fine.
- A contact page.
- A privacy page. Visitors look for one, and you need one if you collect anybody’s details on a form.
- A copyright line. A small, current line in the footer tells people the site is looked after. If the year is old, How do I stop my site looking out of date? covers putting it right.
On a very large site Bernard reads a sample of pages rather than every one, and it tells you when it has done so.
After the check
You get a short report in plain words. Nothing has changed at this point. If you want something fixed, say so, for example:
Add my email address and phone number to the footer on every page.
That change goes onto a draft with a preview link, and it is only live once you approve it. Make it obvious how to reach me covers putting your contact details where people look, and Make my prices and what’s included clear covers the question most visitors want answered before they get in touch.
What this check is not
It does not look at the people in your contact book, and it does not test a form by filling it in. To see who has signed up or enquired, see Where do the people who buy, join or ask end up?. To check that your forms deliver, ask Bernard for a form health check, covered in How forms and signups work on my site.
Questions people ask
- What does the check look at?
- Every page it reads, for four things: an email link, a phone link, a form, and links to your social accounts. Then the site as a whole: which email addresses appear, whether there is a contact page and a privacy page, and whether a copyright line is there.
- Does it change anything?
- No. The check only reads your pages. If you then ask Bernard to fix something, such as adding your email to the footer, that change lands on a draft you can preview, and nothing goes live until you approve it.
- It found several email addresses. Is that wrong?
- Not always. Addresses of other people or organisations quoted in a blog post are correct where they are and should stay. What matters is how many addresses on your own domain appear. If there are two of those, a visitor may not know which one you read.
- Does it check that the phone number is right?
- No. It tells you which pages have a phone link and lists the email addresses it found, but only you know which number and address are current. If one is out of date, ask Bernard to change it everywhere, and approve the change on the preview.
- Is this about the people in my contacts?
- No. This check is about your website, and how easy it is for a visitor to reach you. For the people who have already signed up or bought from you, see the guide to your contacts.