Contact Pages From Hell

• Posted by B Jones on October 22nd, 2007 - Comment on this Post »

Today I spent several hours collecting latitude/ longitude coordinates for about 100 businesses (actually Casinos) for a project I’m working on. This usually involves going to the official web site of the casino, finding the contact page, finding the physical address, and entering it into Google Earth to get the coordinates.

Most sites have a decent contact page. The addresses are easy to find on the page, and when I plug them into Google maps/ earth, I am able to get the location of the business.

Then there are the contact pages that aren’t so great. The pages that make me want to stab my monitor with a bic pen. Contact pages where a business address is nowhere to be found. Contact pages that only have an email address, or an email form. So you have to go digging around the whole site (or some other site) to even find an address.

The thing that bothers me the most though, is when they have an address, but list it in a way that the mapping search engines can’t understand.

Here are some examples of bad contact info:

Example 1: Vague Address
Site: ctownraces.com
Address on site: U.S. Route 340
Charles Town, WV

Google Maps Result:

Example 2: Made Up Street Name?
Site: diamondjo.com
Address on site: 777 Diamond Jo Lane
Northwood, IA

Google Maps Result:

As you can see, these addresses don’t work in Google. I was able to find the locations eventually, but it wasn’t easy (the second example took a while), and I seriously doubt that the average searcher do the same.

More than ever, users are turning to Google for to find local businesses, and if you have bad contact info on your site, you are really shooting yourself in the foot.

Tips for a Good Contact Page
1. Clearly label your phone number, your mailing address, your email address and fax number.
2. A Contact Form and or an email alone is NOT enough
3. If your business has different addresses for the “Mailing Address” and the “Physical Address”, make sure to clearly label them as such.
4. Make sure your physical address works in Google Maps and other mapping search engines. If it doesn’t, find one that does. If you can’t, make a note on your contact page, and find some other way to specify how to locate your business (maps, directions, etc)
5. If customers are visiting regularly, add clear, specific directions, and if possible make a detailed map that clearly shows your location.