Build a High-Converting Author Contact Page

Introduction

In this lesson, you’ll learn how to design a dedicated, reader-focused contact page for your author website. By integrating a branded contact form, setting clear expectations, and adding subtle calls to action—such as newsletter sign-ups and showcasing your latest releases—you’ll transform a simple feedback channel into a powerful engagement tool. This approach not only improves user experience and boosts SEO but also nurtures deeper connections with your audience, ultimately driving long-term growth for your author platform.

Why have a dedicated contact page?

Search engines and visitors love dedicated contact pages. 

Search engines love contact pages because they are a signal you are open for business and willing to communicate with your visitors. That’s because your contact page helps turn your website from a 1 dimensional brochure site to an interactive experience where visitors can send you a message. Search engines AND visitors love that experience.

More than just a contact form

Just like the thank you page we created in the last lesson your contact page is more than just a form. It’s a place to personalise the author for the visitor. To go beyond ‘buy my book’ and expand the author’s voice and set the tone and expectation of the experience with them.

Build the Contact Form Page

From the WordPress dashboard let;s go to PAGES > ALL PAGES and underneath CONTACT I’ll click on EDIT then Edit IN BREAKDANCE.

Hero Section

Unlike the thank you page we just set up this is a page want the search engines to index and for our visitors to easily find. I want to keep this page consistent with the rest of the site so I’ll start with branded page title section.

• I’ll add a new section.
• I’ll use the SLIM HERO SECTION preset to style this section
• Next I’ll add a H1 heading
• Change the heading text to ‘Contact Dirk Volcano’
• Next I’ll add a text element
• I’m Dirk Volcano, the mind behind the thrilling tales you’ve come to love. Your support and enthusiasm for my stories mean the world to me. If you’d like to share your thoughts, experiences, or simply want to say hello, I’d love to hear from you!

• Add 3 rem of extra spacing to the bottom of the text element.
• Underneath the text element I’ll add a Global Block
• I’ll choose the Global Contact Form from the drop down list inside the GLOBAL BLOCK
• And there we go the form is added to the page.

Testing the Form

Before we go any further I want to test the form.

• Save the page and exit to the front end.
• I’ll fill out the details on the contact form and press submit.
• The first part of the forms actions works and takes us to the contact thank you page
• When check the inbox for di**@di*********.com, the admin email, I see we have the new email waiting for us in the designated folder. I use a rule on the email client to move the emails into that folder.
• When I look at the test client address I can see the confirmation email telling me my message has been received and setting the expectation for what happens next.

Dirk’s weekly newsletter

We could just leave this Contact page as it is because it is doing exactly what it needs to. In fact most author websites do exactly that but that’s a waste of opportunity. This website HAS to do two things

• Grow the mailing list
• Sell books

Every page has to focus on one or both of those calls to action and the contact page is no expectation.

While the subscriber and sales conversion rates from the contact page may not be high it will contribute to a growing mailing list and more paying readers.

But.

It’s never a good idea to have two forms on one page.

It can look… messy.

So how do we advertise the mailing list without cluttering up the page with another form?

With a Button!

• Add a new section to the page
• Rename it Newsletter Sign Up Section
• Style the section with the SLIM Section preset.
• Add a h2 title
• Change the text to Dirk’s Weekly Newsletter
• Add a text element 
• Change the element text to
  • Did you know I write a weekly newsletter with updates on new releases, behind the scenes updates and life on the Volcano midwest farm?
• Add a button.
• Style the button as secondary
• Change the button text to ‘Tell me more!’
• Link to the button to the newsletter page we created near the beginning of the course. There’s no content there yet but we’ll fix that in an upcoming lesson.

We now have an extra call to action on the contact page that doesn’t detract from the main form. But why stop there?

Latest Releases Section

That’s a really clean looking section for the newsletter and I’m comfortable we can add in another section to support our goal to sell more books without confusing the visitor.

• Add a new section to the page.
• Rename it to ‘Latest Releases Section’
• Style the section with the ‘WIDE SECTION’ preset
• Add a H2 header element
• Change the text to ‘Latest Releases’
• Add a Post Loop Builder
• Choose the ‘Other Books Max’ Global Block
• Edit the Custom Query
  • Post Type is Books
  • 3 posts per page
  • Order by Last Modified Date is Descending
• Click Apply Query
• Style with the Book Grid Max Preset
• Save the page
• Exit to the front end

When I view the whole page in a desktop browser it looks clear and uncluttered. The title section makes it clear to visitors what this page is for. There’s a welcoming statement encouraging use of the form below which is straightforward.

For the curious there is a call to action for the newsletter in the section below and finally the latest releases section reminds the visitor what Dirk has on offer.

The final check is the link in the footer to the Contact Page we set up in a previous module. If you haven’t added your footer link now is a great time to do so.

Summary

But this is Dirk’s contact page. 

You may want a different layout supporting your form. Instead of a call to action for a newsletter you may want a secondary section that encourages visitors to follow you on a specific social media channel or keep the focus on an upcoming release.