Is Your CAPTCHA Killing Your Business?
Saturday, December 27th, 2008 by Gerald WeberThanks for being a return reader! If you haven't already, you may subscribe to our articles by email alerts or via RSS feed . Also you can follow us on Twitter !

As business owners, bloggers and/or search marketers, we all go through pain staking efforts to get qualified traffic to our websites from the SERPS, Paid search and our various social media outlets. However all this effort and hard work may be in vain if our users are not able to easily fill out our contact form(s). Sure the CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) or as I like to call it CPA (Complete Pain in the A**) is intended to solve a valid business problem, but at what cost? Should we really make customers/prospects work this hard to contact us? Not to mention by using a CAPTCHA you will be alienating multiple groups with disabilities i.e. blind people and people with dyslexia.
I have asked five of my friends who I consider to be authority figures in the area of search marketing, SEO, design and usability the following question:
What is your opinion regarding CAPTCHAs on contact forms as they relate to web conversions and accessibility/usability?




"Gerald handles all of my SEO and web marketing needs. I seriously think he might work at his computer 24-7 because it never takes more than 30 seconds for him to respond to any question I might have. Within weeks of hiring him, he quadrupled my web traffic. He seems to be virtual friends with just about everyone on the Internet, and he knows how things work. If you have a website that you need optimized, he s your man." - Alisa Bowman
"Gerald has deep knowledge of Search Marketing and a unique ability to understand the needs of each specific business. Gerald has helped my business and the businesses of my clients successfully!" - Craig Klein
"I am impressed with the results of Gerald's SEO work he did for my website, with some keyword research and link building magic he moved me up to the first page in Google using a couple of keyword seaches in only 2 months. I also really like the tracking system that is sent to me weekly. Thank you Gerald!" - Elicia Woodford -
"Since hiring Gerald to handle my SEO and link building needs, my website has taken a drastic leap upward in the search rankings. I'm now enjoying first page rankings for many of the most desirable keywords, and my website is getting more quality traffic and more conversions. I look forward to continuing the use of Search Engine Marketing Group's services!" - Eric Brantner
I'm very impressed with how Gerald has increased my rankings in a short period of time. I have been stuck at the same spot for over a year until Gerald stepped in and helped me out. I'm excited to see what he can do for my other businesses! - Barbara Aquino