How To Optimize Your Contact Page For Your Student Housing Website

By Victoria Robertson on July 21, 2015

The contact page of any housing website is one of the most important — and oftentimes, one of the most overlooked — in website design.

Students (especially those that are searching for housing their first time) will have plenty of questions as they continue their search, and the more difficult it is for them to find these answers, the less likely they are to pursue the search on your site.

So to help make sure your contact page is one of the most easily navigated on your site, here are some ways to optimize your contact page for your student housing website.

Have contact info available on all pages.

The most easy-to-use websites have contact info at the bottom, which appears on all pages a user might click on. This way, if a user doesn’t have a question on one page, but all of a sudden gets one on the next, they don’t need to find a contact page in order to ask.

The quicker students have access to contact info, the more likely they are to ask their questions/request more information, which means they’re more likely to end up choosing you as they search for student housing.

Have multiple ways in which students can contact you.  

All students have different comfort levels. Appealing to all these levels is your best bet for continued involvement from students.

Just including a phone number won’t cut it: make sure you have an email address, phone number and even an option for students to contact you right in the website itself. Also, make sure that all this information is readily available at all times, so that students don’t need to go looking for it.

Image by photosteve101 via flickr.com

Include an FAQ section.

Most times, students are all asking relatively similar questions. Providing an FAQ section, along with very detailed, easy to understand answers, will help students sort through these questions themselves before they need to contact you.

If it’s possible for your contact page to answer their questions before they ask them, then that’s certainly something you’ll want to do.

Include info about your housing.

Don’t just assume students know everything there is to know about you. If you think there’s a potential question about your housing, go ahead and provide the information right up front.

This includes location (on a map), hours of operation and even staff bios so that potential residents know who to direct their questions to. Even little information like this goes a long way in a student’s housing search.

Include social media links.

Many housing sites shy away from doing this, which is a huge mistake. Developing a following on your social media sites not only gives residents a fast way (in which they’re familiar with) to contact you, but also to allow residents to communicate with one another.

Also, this is a great place to post about upcoming events, notices and other information that students residing in your housing need to know. Oftentimes, it’s much easier to reach students on social media platforms than it is by email.

Image by Sylwia Bartyzel via Unsplash

Make it easy to navigate.

Not only should your contact page be easy to find, but once students are on it, they should be able to navigate it without any trouble.

All information needs to be easy to find on the page. Contact pages aren’t meant to raise more questions, so make sure that yours doesn’t. While you can get creative with design etc. (as this usually helps appeal to students), make sure that function is your top priority.

Don’t overcrowd the page.

This all being said, you still want to make sure that you aren’t overcrowding the page. While all this information is important to include, you don’t want to have so much information that students are scrolling forever to find what they need.

Providing the above info in as concise a matter as possible is the best way to ensure your contact page is functioning as it should. Links are a great way to avoid this as well as avoiding paragraphs of content when one line is sufficient.

While there are countless ways to improve your contact page, this is a great place to start.

So long as you’re providing your residents with all the information they need in as concise a matter as possible and everything is easy to get to, your housing website is more likely to attract and commit students to your student housing.

Even with something as simple as a contact page. What can I say: the little things matter.

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