Blog / Analytics & attribution
Every form field is a deterrent: what we removed from our contact form
Each field on a contact form is one more reason to close the tab. We took the name and the start date off ours, marked required fields in plain words, asked for a website only when it is needed, and stopped showing an email address. Here is the reasoning behind each change.
Every field on a contact form asks the visitor for a little more effort and a little more trust. Many people who open a form never send it, and each extra question is one more place to stop. So a field has to earn its place: it must change what we do next. If it doesn’t, it is only a deterrent.
We went through our own contact form with that rule, in the days after launch. This is what we removed, what we changed, and why.
If you lead the team: what to ask
- For each field on our forms: what do we do differently depending on the answer?
- Which fields does our sales team actually read before replying?
- Can we see how many people open the form, start it and send it?
Removed: the name
A name feels polite to ask for. But we reply by email, and the email address is enough to reply. People sign their reply anyway, so we learn the name one message later, from the person, at no cost to them. Asking for it up front added a field and saved us nothing.
Removed: “When do you want to start?”
We added this question when we built the funnel, to triage leads (every lead should arrive with its source explains the thinking). But the answer gave us nothing we would act on: everyone gets a prompt, useful answer either way. A question that doesn’t change the reply is a question the visitor answers for nothing, so it went.
What stayed is the one question that does change the reply: How can we help?, picked from a short list. It decides who answers and with what.
Changed: “(required)” in the label
Many forms mark required fields with an asterisk and explain it in a legend somewhere else on the form. That makes people look in two places, and screen readers may not connect the two. Ours now says “(required)” right in the label, next to the field it applies to. It is a small change, and one fewer thing to work out.
Changed: the website field appears when it matters
For most questions, we don’t need your website. For a free audit, it is the one thing we need. So the field sits under the list, marked optional, and becomes required only when “A free audit of my website” is chosen. Everyone else can skip it.
Changed: the free audit is a button, not an option
The free audit is the most useful thing a visitor can ask us for: a report on their own site, with every finding and a first step to fix it. Hidden as one option in a list, it was easy to miss. Now it is a prominent button at the top of the contact dialog. One click sets the form up for an audit: email and website, and the message becomes optional.
Removed: the email address on our pages
An email address printed on a page invites spam, and a message sent from someone’s mail app arrives with no context: we don’t know which page they read or which offer they came for. Our forms are protected from bots and record each lead’s source, so a message sent through them arrives with what we need to answer well. So the pages no longer show an address. The forms are the way in.
Bot protection has to be tested on real people, too. Earlier, our forms’ hidden anti-bot field (a field people never see, which only bots fill in) had a name that browsers autofill. Real people using autofill were silently dropped as bots. We renamed the field and moved the screening to the server. A form that rejects the people it was built for is worse than a long one.
What we will measure
A shorter form is a hypothesis, not a result. Every step is already tracked: the dialog opened, the form started, the lead sent. Comparing those over the coming weeks will show whether fewer fields means more people finish. We decided what to measure before the change, so the numbers can’t be read to fit afterwards. Decide success before the test explains why that order matters.
If you want to see the result from the visitor’s side, try it: two fields, your email and your website. No call, no spam.
Checklist: audit your own form
- For each field, write down what you do differently depending on the answer. If nothing, remove it.
- Ask only for what you need to reply. Everything else can come in the conversation.
- Put “(required)” or “(optional)” in the label itself.
- Show a field only when the choice that needs it is made.
- Put your most valuable offer on a button, not in a dropdown.
- Fill in your own form with browser autofill on, and confirm the message arrives.
- Track opened, started and sent, so you can see where people stop.
Written from our engineers’ work on production systems. Want a second opinion on your project? Talk to an engineer.
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