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Does Too Much Padding Look Unprofessional? And How Big Should A Contact Form Be?

by RedShifted
3 replies
  • WEB DESIGN
    • |
I think I am confusing the role of my website and am looking for some advice.

Right now, I still need to make a lot of changes. For instance, I have done no work to the copy on the site yet. The video thats in there, is not the video I'm using. The 3 bullets I have, will be changed into some type of compelling offer.

Then all the copy underneath will change too.

http://www.allcountywaterproofing.ou...com/wordpress/ (site will be moved to new url btw)

I'm just trying to get things situated right. And these are my main questions:

1) Does the template have too much padding? I feel like padding is pointless because most professional sites I'm looking at, don't have padding in between the header/menu/body etc. Should I remove the padding so I have more content above the fold?

2) The form. Is it too big? One side of me says a large form gets attention, another side says it distracts people. Should I completely remove the form off the front page, and put a little button under where the video is going? So people have to click to a back page to submit info?

I will be using both SEO & PPC to get traffic to the site. So one side of me says I should have a large form on the front page for PPC. Another side says I need to use that space for content/educating SEO traffic.

So let me get one thing clear. If a website does the job of having a compelling offer on the front page.... and lots of social proof, does it really matter how obvious the form is? Its been almost a year, and I still have no idea how smart it is to have a form on the front page. My intution says focus on providing value and a compelling offer, then make people find the form on their own.

Any advice on this, I'd really appreciate.

Thanks WF - Red
#big #contact #form #padding #unprofessional
  • Profile picture of the author xtrapunch
    Looks fairly okay. I guess you are suffering from "Analysis Paralysis"

    No problem on the padding part. Your form can do away with the "Are you Human" captcha and the email requirement. Local businesses would like to call their customers.
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    • Profile picture of the author wiredtolive
      The padding is fine. No worries there. The form is not too big and I think you should leave it on the main page. But, I would change it up a bit. Because it is a bit distracting, you want it a little distracting because you want people to notice it and fill it out. I would remove the human capture, not necessary. And no need for so much information required there, too many slots to fill out and people just move on. Have two spots like email and message but shorten up message area or just name and email. If they submit info probably good chance they want to be contacted for services. But, form needs to be quick and easy. Good luck with your site.
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  • Profile picture of the author TheContentAuthority
    Red,

    I think your site looks really good.

    You are at a point now where getting opinions of professionals on this forum is probably not going to do you any good. Some people post their sites on here and they are violating common web conventions, they have left out key elements or their designs just really suck. Your site does not fall into these categories.

    Is the form too large? Too small? In the right place? No one will be able to tell you just by looking. At this point to get the information you need you must run some multivariate tests using your PPC campaigns. Try making different variations of the page. Perhaps one with a smaller form, one with a larger form, one with different copy surrounding the form, etc. Measure how visitors are converting on the pages over a long period of time (say one month). This will give you actionable data from real users/customers/prospects that are coming to your site.

    Here is some more info on multivariate and A/B testing,

    When and How to Run A/B and Multivariate Testing for your website | Web SEO Analytics

    Good luck,

    Shawn
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