A visitor who wants to write to you should be able to do so without searching, and their message should reach you. On sites made with 29webs, this goes through two paths, depending on how the site was made:
- a page built in the studio has a contact block, with real links that call, write or open a conversation;
- a site written “Based on a site”, the trial mode that writes a three-to-five-page site from a site you like, carries a form, whose messages arrive in your 29webs account.
Here is what each one does, where the messages arrive, and what the law asks of you as soon as a form collects contact details.
On a studio page: the contact block
The “Contact” slice asks the question “How do people reach you?”. The block it adds brings together your address, your opening hours and direct links: a number dialed with one tap on a phone, an email address that opens the visitor’s mail app, and, if you wish, a WhatsApp conversation. There is nothing to copy out, and nothing that can get lost on the way.
The call and email links only use the contact details you gave when describing your business. A link to a number or an address missing from your description is refused by the studio’s checks, and the spot stays pending, with a dash, rather than leading to someone else.
The call-to-action button on the first screen can lead to this block, through an anchor on the page, or straight to your number, your email address or your booking tool. Our guide on the call-to-action button helps you choose.
On a “Based on a site” site: the form
The form asks visitors for three things:
- their name, up to 120 characters;
- their email address, if they want a reply; a malformed address is refused;
- their message, up to 5,000 characters, the only required field.
The message goes out even if the visitor’s browser doesn’t run JavaScript. It is the only submission these sites can receive. The studio’s checks block a form that would send to another site, and flag any other form, since nobody would receive what it sends. So there is no newsletter sign-up and no booking through this channel.
Where the messages arrive
Each message is filed in your 29webs account, under “Messages received”. There you see the date, the site it comes from, the name and address left, then the message. The section title counts the new ones.
For each message, three actions:
- Reply, when the visitor left their address: your mail app opens, address filled in;
- Mark as read;
- Delete.
The same section sets where you are notified of each new message: your account’s address, by default, or another one, a work address for example. Another address is proven by a six-digit code sent to it, valid for fifteen minutes. You can choose one address for all your sites, or one per site, so that the bakery’s messages go to the bakery. When the visitor left their address, replying to the email that notifies you writes to them directly. If sending email isn’t available, the section says so, and your messages wait for you there.
Messages are kept for one year, then deleted automatically. Copy elsewhere the ones you need to keep longer, an accepted quote for example.
The limit against abuse
A public form attracts bots. The one on 29webs sites protects itself in three ways, without asking anything of the visitor:
- five messages per hour at most from the same IP address, for a given site, and two hundred per day at most for the whole site. Beyond that, the visitor reads “Too many messages sent. Try again later.”;
- a honeypot field, invisible to a human: a bot that fills it believes its message was sent, and it is thrown away;
- capped lengths for each field.
There is no “are you a robot?” test to solve. These tests often block the way for people with disabilities: a screen reader can’t read distorted letters in an image, and the audio variants hinder other audiences. The W3C, which writes the web accessibility guidelines, advises sticking to a honeypot field as long as it is enough (W3C, 2021).
What the CNIL asks you to display
A name, an email address and a message are personal data. As soon as a form collects them, the person must know, at the moment they fill it in (CNIL, 2019):
- who collects their data, and how to reach you;
- what it is used for, for example answering their request, and on what legal basis;
- who receives it;
- how long it is kept, or how that period is set;
- what their rights are, of access, rectification, erasure, and how to exercise them;
- that they can lodge a complaint with the CNIL.
The CNIL, France’s data protection authority, accepts two levels: a short notice under the form, and a full page, “Privacy” for example, linked to it. It also asks you to tell required fields apart from optional ones, with an asterisk for example, and to say what happens if they are left blank.
Two common-sense tips complete the rule: ask only for what you need to reply, and don’t use the address received to send a newsletter nobody asked for. Our guide on legal notices covers the rest.
In short: a studio page is contacted through real links, which call or write with one tap; a “Based on a site” site has a form whose messages arrive in your account, kept for a year, protected from bots with no test to solve. In both cases, tell visitors what you do with their contact details.