Meredith's Husband: 0:42

Hey, this is Meredith husband, I've got some SEO advice for you. But I'm gonna keep it really simple so that you can understand it. So make sense. And most importantly, so you can actually use get the puppies here. Oh, baby, see if they have anything that they want to add to this? Yes, you may they may, they may want to add why it's here? Why pees on both ends on both ends? So we're going to talk about contact forms today. Contact Forms, yeah, and how and why we want to optimize our contact forms.

Meredith: 1:20

You mean like the one on the website, the way you like, contact me,

Meredith's Husband: 1:23

contact me the form that page. And this is actually something we're going to be doing, or I'm going to be doing, or both of us are going to be doing on your site very soon. Oh, very exciting. So why do we want to optimize the contact page? Question, we're not optimizing the contact page to get new visitors to get new clients, that's not going to happen. But in an effort to get as many conversions from our website as we can, yes, we want to optimize in that sense. So it's not optimizing necessarily, in the sense that we're, we're willing, we don't want to stuff keywords in here know anything with keywords. We never want to stuff keywords, but we just want to optimize and sense that we're aiming to get more conversions from Google or from anywhere for that matter, okay. Because, yes, what happens is, if you were to look at your website traffic, it's pretty likely that you would have some number of people coming to the contact page, but not all those people are going to actually contact you. Yeah. So that's what we're focusing on. I have, I'm gonna have 10 tips here. 10, top 10, top 10 that can help improve the percentage of those people who actually contact you.

Meredith: 2:33

Oh, oh, wow. Okay, so that sounds good.

Meredith's Husband: 2:36

This is something I really like because it has an immediate effect. If you are getting traffic to your website, this is something you can do. And if you can improve that conversion rate by just a few percent that's going to have an impact, like tomorrow, like as soon as you make the change. So get your pens. Yes. And these are all things that have been tested extensively, not by me, but by lots of people in my industry. These are all all these recommendation, recommendations,

Meredith: 3:05

recommendations, recommendations. I love recommendations. They're delicious.

Meredith's Husband: 3:12

Do you know, by know the book, I'm a I'm a YouTube fan. I know of the book, I don't know. So I'm listening. I'm listening to his book right now. And in that book, he's Irish. He has an Irish accent. And he pronounces things differently. Like whatever I just said, reminded me of this. He says he has to negotiate things. So maybe maybe that was subliminally

Meredith: 3:35

think Bono. Bono really wants to know about this podcast. Oh, I'm sure he's listening. He Listen, he's one of our listeners. Yeah. Yeah.

Meredith's Husband: 3:43

So these 10 things are all research back. They're not my opinion. Okay, if I have if I have anything to add? Yeah, I'm gonna say this is my opinion. This is why this work. Thank you for the clarification. So number one, number one, in your in the title tag of your contact page, the title should be contact and then the name of your brand, or your name, maybe your brand. Maybe your brand name is your name, but it will contact Meredith Zinner photographer, so

Meredith: 4:08

no, like, reach out, I'd love to hear from you.

Meredith's Husband: 4:11

Right, you just want contact because on the off chance that somebody already knows about you. And they just go to Google and they say, contact Meritus. In your photography, you want it to be right there. Number one, you want it to be a match. Number one, that's number one. Number two, you want to have a link to your contact page. In your header in the main navigation. Yeah. And also in the footer. Yeah, and it has to say contact, it should say contact and those two,

Meredith: 4:42

contact me contact. Okay,

Meredith's Husband: 4:45

sure. But the word contact, you don't want to make people you don't want to frustrate people and have them feel like they have to search around for this right? So don't being

Meredith: 4:54

unnecessarily adorable. Right?

Meredith's Husband: 4:56

I call it out don't out clever yourself. Here. This is one area you don't want to out clever yourself and make it cute, which I understand. I totally understand wanting to differentiate your sell yourself and your business etc. But this is not the place to do it. Contact link in your main nav and in your footer. Number three, the first question should be the reason why someone is contacting you.

Meredith: 5:23

Okay, the first question should be okay, so we're asking them

Meredith's Husband: 5:27

why, you know, how can I help? Exactly, exactly. I use the analogy. You walk into a store and very often then they have a greeter. That greeter says, what a cake. Yes, exactly, usually, but also then how we can help you? What are you looking for? They don't say and this is how most contact forms start name, email, phone, you walk into a store, they don't say, Hey, what's your name? What's your email? What's your phone number? Right. So like I said, that is research based that's been shown with test. My opinion, is that it's it's kind of like an icebreaker. Once people start conversation, it's easier to keep them going. It gives them a little bit of momentum.

Meredith: 6:05

And we're asking about them. Well, I

Meredith's Husband: 6:08

think yeah, exactly. I mean, all these questions are going to be about them, I think.

Meredith: 6:14

Just just observation.

Meredith's Husband: 6:16

Observation. Okay, first question. Why are they here? What can you do for them? Okay, that's number three. Number four, I got dropped down. It can be a drop down shirt. Yeah.

Meredith: 6:28

What services? Are you interested in? How are you know?

Meredith's Husband: 6:31

Yeah, I Yeah, in fact, the more dropdowns you can use, I think the better. Because they're just people, it's less intimidating. People don't have to think about what to write and etc, just clicking a drop down is really very easy. And the overall goal is to make this very easy, and reduce all the friction or as much friction as you can. So just make it super easy for people. That's true. So yeah, drop down, I like to drop down, and then at the end of that drop down, maybe there's like an other or something else. So it's something like that. Okay. So number four. Ideally, you want to have three to five fields, you want to aim for this. So feel

Meredith: 7:11

like your first name, second name.

Meredith's Husband: 7:14

So your name would be a field. A lot of times on contact forms, it's split into technically two fields, but let's just consider that one field.

Meredith: 7:21

Okay. So if it is two fields, it is secretly just one, just count

Meredith's Husband: 7:26

that as one the person's name. And the three to five has really been shown to get a much better conversion rate compared to forms that have a lot of fields like five to 10. If you're don't ever, ever, ever do more than 10 fields, okay, but aim for three to five, it might not be possible, but try to get close to that number. So for example, the first thing we asked us what we can do for them, what do they want, that's one field, that's one field. And it can be a drop down, or it could be a text, the second field will probably be your name. And you're and the third will be your email. Okay, so that's those three are absolutely necessary. Okay, you have to have those because you got to be able to get back to somebody you got to know what their name is. What about phone? Okay, so next. Oh, phone. This is actually point number five. Hey, if you are asking for phone if you really need the phone number. Yeah, it has to be optional. don't require people to enter their phone number. Really? Why? Just many lot fewer people will actually fill that.

Meredith: 8:27

You know, that's true. That is true. When I've gone to places I don't want to give my phone number.

Meredith's Husband: 8:31

Yeah, it's like, you don't want to you know, it's a private Stokes privacy. Yeah.

Meredith: 8:35

Yeah. Fair enough.

Meredith's Husband: 8:37

What number was four? No. Five,

Meredith: 8:41

that was five by 555-555-5555.

Meredith's Husband: 8:47

Point number six, six, some sort of social proof. Now, for photographers, this might be a little tricky. But this is where you would often see things like credentials or badges or licenses for a lawyer or a dentist or a contractor or whatever. You'll often see on this page, they're going to, they're going to have their license information. Now, I don't You don't need a license, though. You don't have it. If you have won some sort of award. If you have a badge like yeah, that would be a good place.

Meredith: 9:16

What about badges like I belong to this photographic, like photographers, PPA photographer, professional photographer organization,

Meredith's Husband: 9:27

if you know I mean, if it looks impressive, I would say if it looks impressive, if it's obviously just a membership that you just paid for then probably not. But if it's something that really you just want to assure people that you are legit. So anything that makes you look impressive, a testimonial

Meredith: 9:44

testimonial, I was gonna say what if you haven't won 20 awards?

Meredith's Husband: 9:49

A testimonial is good. Okay, if you don't have licenses, or you don't have awards, or you don't even have testimonials yet, maybe then just make sure that you put a nice picture of yourself smiling, looking into the camera, just look nice.

Meredith: 10:04

Oh, oh, wait. So so it shouldn't be like a contact should be one of your photos of what you do.

Meredith's Husband: 10:12

Correct? Because they are correct. They are correcting they are they are they are contacting you. Like this is where you're basically selling yourself. So you're you want to show a picture of your product. So sort of Right, right. So just make sure you look friendly. If you don't have those other things, you know, a nice picture of yourself. Okay. Yeah. We can do that. Okay. Number seven, seven, the submit button. Change submit to sent. Okay, more people will fill it out. It's amazing. Yeah, it's amazing. But it's true. It's a very small percentage, but send an even better send to Meredith. Send it to Meredith something like that. That makes it more personal. Yeah. Submit is just kind of a cold sound

Meredith: 10:57

bet. Yeah, exactly. match our information.

Meredith's Husband: 11:01

Exactly. Okay, number eight, the speed of your response? This makes a big difference. How quickly do you get back to people? There have been lots of studies on this. And almost always, like, if people were to reach out to three photographers at the same time, something like 80 to 90% of the time, they would get back to the they would hire the first person to get back to them. Really? Yeah. So there is very much something to be said, don't wait two days, I used to do that. I used to do that myself. Because I used to when I first started trying to pay hard to get? No, I was I was afraid of like, you know, I was afraid

Meredith: 11:41

that's understandable. But get

Meredith's Husband: 11:43

back to them right away. Now you can use an auto responder here. Okay, if you are using an auto responder, yeah. Just make sure that it's plain text, don't make it like an HTML fancy don't make it look like a newsletter. Because that is going that is you want to give the impression that you personally are reaching out to them. Just via email, just like you would contact a friend.

Meredith: 12:05

So but but but you can I mean, I have I have things on. A lot of people have things as a footer, you know, like their, their their signature side signature. Yeah, yeah, that can you?

Meredith's Husband: 12:19

Yeah, but just don't make it don't include like your logo, you know, don't make it look obviously like a newsletter, HTML 40 formatted? Email, you know what I mean? Like with color background and your logo? Image? Yeah, yeah. Don't do that fitness needs to be just just regular text. Okay, and make it casual? Yeah. And this is where if you have, let's say, you have more questions that you want to put on your contact page, like you have some extra questions, we're going to want to reduce that. I would say, I would say, have those questions, and then put them in the auto responder and keep that momentum going, keep the conversation going, then that buys you a little bit of time. For you personally, getting back to somebody, you don't have to actually respond in 10 minutes, you can rely on that autoresponder and just again, make it casual and say, hey, great, thanks. By the way, why did you choose now for whatever the questions are that you wanted to ask somebody? Put them here?

Meredith: 13:22

And this idea that say this is bread crumb, is that like a bread crumb? No, okay.

Meredith's Husband: 13:27

No, not not, not in terms of websites, when it comes to something very specific, actually.

Meredith: 13:34

But it's kind of it's kind of like, Come hither a little bit, a little bit.

Meredith's Husband: 13:39

And studies have actually shown that if you can get back to somebody inside of 10 minutes, it really increases the likelihood that they would hire you. So with the auto responder, I was gonna say, with the auto response, I would have the auto responder, if you can have it delayed by five minutes or 10 minutes. Don't send it with a lot of email providers. You can not all but if if you can try to do that, because then that does that makes it look like it's not obviously an auto responder? Like if if somebody clicks send? And then right away, they get an email that's obviously an auto responder, if it comes 10 minutes later? Yeah, maybe it is. Maybe it isn't.

Meredith: 14:19

Right. Okay. And what do you think about if so if you can't, let's just say you have an an email responder that doesn't have an auto responder and it goes immediately after? Would you recommend something like hello from the friendly auto person, we'll be reaching out to you shortly, kind of,

Meredith's Husband: 14:38

you could do something cute. And then and then but then you can also from there, ask that ask you know, try to make it a simple follow up question. Don't make it you know, don't make it questionnaire, right. Make it simple. Again, you want to get some momentum. And you know, the further the further and this is my opinion, the further along people get in the in that conversation, the closer you are to them becoming a customer

Meredith: 15:03

and yeah, yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense.

Meredith's Husband: 15:06

Point number nine. Okay, test it. Oh, yeah, test it. What happens a lot here is these messages might go to your spam folder. Oh, gosh. So check that all right. That's happened a lot. I've had numerous clients over the years say we're not getting any leads. And I look at their website says looks like you're getting a bunch. Say well, we didn't get any I said check your spam folder like Yep, they're all there. Ah, so right Check it. Yeah, yeah, good. Good point. Point number 1010. Make sure it looks good on mobile. Oh, look at it, just the contact form itself. You don't need if it if the contact form works from a desktop computer, it will also work on mobile. But just make sure it looks good.

Meredith: 15:50

Right? Good points, because a lot of people are looking while they're shopping, or whatever they're doing.

Meredith's Husband: 15:57

Well, you just want to make sure that it looks if it looks wonky on a phone, which I've seen things can look great on a desktop, that look screwed up on a phone. That's not good. Yeah, that's not the point isn't now you're so close. You don't want to lose their interest attention at that point, or confidence. You don't want to lose their confidence that, you know, right, when they're just about to reach out to you fair enough. And I thought I would throw in a bonus. Oh, that was number 10. Yeah, set up a thank you page. So after people click Submit, or set the rumor, we're gonna, we're gonna say send and they should go to a confirmation page that says, got it. We got your message. Thank you, and then whatever else you want. But the reason you do that is so that you can track your conversions in Google Analytics? If there is no does that work. So the reason we do it this way is, this is a page that people can only get to, if they have submitted your contact form. If they have sent your contact form, there's no other way for people to get there. So if somebody arrives on that page, that's a conversion. Right? So that's a really good way to measure conversions. There are other ways to measure conversions. Like sometimes people can set up an action, when people click the Send button, that is a conversion that can run into problems like, well, maybe they have to press it twice, because they forgot to do something. And so it just that it's not a very reliable way, the much more reliable way is to have a conversion page a thank you page,

Meredith: 17:28

and you set that all up through your email provider.

Meredith's Husband: 17:32

You it depends I mean, there are, you know, there's a lot of a lot of different ways you can set up a contact form. So if you're using something like dubsado, yeah. Or you might be embedding your contact form from dubsado, or some other platform into your website, that setting is going to be somewhere in dubsado. Most likely, okay. If it's not, if you don't see it, I then I would reach out to support dubsado, whoever you're using, wherever you generated that contact form and say, hey, I want to use a confirmation page. How do I do that? Because it's not always the default option.

Meredith: 18:04

Got it? Makes sense? Yeah, it does. I was just thinking, I have a dubsado referral code that people can use. Oh, you do? I do.

Meredith's Husband: 18:17

That. I'll put that in the thing. Hey, well, well, how do you like dubsado?

Meredith: 18:23

Well, so far, I love it. I'm still transitioning from 17 hats, but I have to say sorry, 17 hats. dubsado is pretty freakin gorgeous. All

Meredith's Husband: 18:33

right, good. Oh, look for the link to dubsado. There you go. Alright, that's it. 10 ways and a bonus.

Meredith: 18:42

This is all very important stuff. And easiest easy to accomplish,

Meredith's Husband: 18:47

easy to do big impact, short timeframe. I like these ones. And we're going to do this with your website.

Meredith: 18:53

Oh, please. Let's do it. Good. Gosh, my website is I feel like my website is when you take a piece of toast, and it's a and it crumbles into crumbs. I feel like yeah,

Meredith's Husband: 19:07

we've been working on it. And then it just launched. So now it's time to go through and clean up a bunch of things, including the contact page. Thanks, everybody.

Meredith: 19:16

Thank you.

Meredith's Husband: 19:24

I hope that helped. I hope that helped your website. I hope that helped your business. I hope that helped give you a little bit of confidence that SEO is not this convoluted, cryptic, crazy thing that nobody can understand. If you did like it and you found it helpful. Please share it with a couple of your colleagues. Tell them what you like or more importantly, tell me what you liked. Let me know interview. leave a review on Apple. Tell me what parts you like. And I'll try to do more of those parts. And again, thanks for listening