Have you ever looked up a website on your smart phone, and then tried to remember the number to call, only to have it vaporize from your brain as soon as you close your phone’s web browser?
Have you ever noticed that some websites actually have “clickable” phone numbers when viewed on your phone (i.e. touch the number, and it drops it in your phone ready to call) while other websites don’t for some reason?
Pretty frustrating isn’t it?
Now imagine if that it’s your non-clickable phone number, and it’s your customers (motivated seller leads, potential private lenders, buyers, etc.) feeling irked because they want to reach out to you, but can’t remember your darn number when they switch from browser to phone.
In an increasingly mobile-centric world, it’s more important than ever to make sure your website is smartphone friendly. You can (and should) allow your customers and prospects to call you by simply clicking the phone number on your web site. Not doing so kills deals for you, plain and simple.
Fortunately you can fix this little mistake and have your phone number clickable on your website in about 2 minutes.
An Easy Solution
Step 1: Open the HTML code of the webpage in your code editor of choice, such as Dreamweaver or TextWrangler. (If you don't have a code editor, Notepad can work fine.)
Step 2: Add the following line of HTML code to the body of the page right where you want the phone number to go:
Step 3: Replace the XXX-XXX-XXXX with your 10-digit phone number.
Step 4: Save the new HTML code for the page.
Boom.
Now your phone number is clickable on your website. How cool is that?
If the Above Sounds Like Garbledygook
If you have no idea what the heck I just said in the 3 simple steps above, don’t fret. It’s OK to be techno-ignorant! And besides, even though this is an important little nuance to fix, your time is much better spent on bigger picture stuff, right?
So just point your friendly neighborhood web guy (or high school kid) to this page and have them do it for you. Seriously, it’ll take them like 2-3 minutes.
If you don’t know any web guys or high school kids, you can hire someone at Odesk.com to do this for you for like 50 cents.
Wordpress Users
More and more people are using Wordpress as a platform to manage their whole website. Can’t say I blame them – I’m one of them. Wordpress is just super robust and easy to use, and getter better all the time.
If this is you, too, then here’s a nifty Wordpress plugin you can use that’ll make the whole thing automatic – no code play required.
And actually this little plugin allows you to turn a phone number on your site into a link that appears clickable only for mobile phone users. So mobile device users can click the number to call it, but desktop users won't see it as a link. So no awkward error pages.
Pretty sweet, eh? :-)
- JP Moses
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Take 2 minutes to fix your website so your customers can get in touch with you, otherwise they might just go to the next business down the road.
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This little tip works on html pages and blogs.
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If you still don’t want to make your phone number clickable on your website yourself, then have someone do it for you – but get it done! Not doing so is costing you leads and deals, period.
JP Moses
is a real estate investor in Memphis, TN, with experience ranging from land lording to note buying, rehabbing, and wholesaling. However, wholesaling is the area that he enjoys most and where he bring the most experience and expertise to his students.