, 2 min read
How to connect your website and WhatsApp Business
Most customers in India would rather message than fill in a form. How to link your WhatsApp Business profile and your website both ways.
For many small businesses, WhatsApp is where the real conversations happen. Your website and your WhatsApp Business account should point at each other, so a customer who finds one can reach you through the other in a single tap.
Add your website to WhatsApp Business
- Open the WhatsApp Business app and go to Settings.
- Open Business tools, then Business profile.
- Find the website field and enter your full address, starting with https.
- Save, then open your own profile from another phone to check the link works.
While you are there, fill in the description, hours, address and category. A complete profile looks established, and it is the first thing a new customer sees when they open a chat with you.
Add a WhatsApp button to your website
A WhatsApp button is just a link in a special format: wa.me followed by your number in international format, with no plus sign, spaces or dashes. For an Indian number that means 91 followed by the ten digit number.
- The link looks like: https://wa.me/919876543210
- Put it on a button that stays visible on a phone, usually in the bottom corner.
- Use the official WhatsApp icon so people recognise it instantly.
Make the first message useful
You can add a ready written first message to the link, which the customer can edit or send. It saves them typing, and it tells you the chat started from your website. Add ?text= to the link, followed by the message with spaces written as %20.
A good first message names the page they were on, so you know what they want before you reply.
Mistakes to avoid
- Leaving the plus sign or a zero in the number. WhatsApp shows an invalid number page instead of a chat.
- Using a personal number you do not check during work hours.
- Making WhatsApp the only way to reach you. Some people still prefer a form or a call.
- A button that covers other buttons on a small phone.
Every site we build can include a WhatsApp button with a prefilled message. This site has one in the bottom corner, set up exactly the way this post describes, if you want to see how it behaves.