How to Fix Unreachable Contact Methods

Agents helping users contact you need machine-readable contact info. Phone number rendered as an image, email obfuscated via JS, address only displayed inside a Google Maps embed — agents see none of these. The user asks "what's their phone number?" and the agent says "not listed". The fix: contact info in HTML with proper schemes (tel:, mailto:), supported by Organization + ContactPoint schema.

1. The basic fix

Bad: contact in images

<img src="/contact-info.png" alt="Contact us" />
<!-- Phone, email, address all rendered as pixels. Agents see nothing. -->

Bad: JS-obfuscated email

<span class="email-obfusc" data-1="hello" data-2="example.com"></span>
<script>
  // Build email from data attrs at runtime
</script>
<!-- Agents fetching raw HTML see no email -->

Good: plain HTML with schemes

<section>
  <h2>Contact us</h2>
  
  <p>Phone: 
    <a href="tel:+441273555012">+44 1273 555 012</a>
  </p>
  
  <p>Email: 
    <a href="mailto:hello@example.com">hello@example.com</a>
  </p>
  
  <address>
    Acme Ceramics<br />
    12 High Street<br />
    Brighton BN1 1AA<br />
    United Kingdom
  </address>
  
  <p>Hours: Mon-Fri 09:00-17:00, Sat 10:00-16:00</p>
</section>

2. ContactPoint schema

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Organization",
  "name": "Acme Ceramics",
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "logo": "https://example.com/logo.png",
  "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "streetAddress": "12 High Street",
    "addressLocality": "Brighton",
    "postalCode": "BN1 1AA",
    "addressCountry": "GB"
  },
  "contactPoint": [
    {
      "@type": "ContactPoint",
      "telephone": "+44-1273-555-012",
      "contactType": "customer service",
      "email": "hello@example.com",
      "areaServed": "GB",
      "availableLanguage": ["English"]
    },
    {
      "@type": "ContactPoint",
      "telephone": "+44-1273-555-013",
      "contactType": "sales",
      "email": "sales@example.com",
      "areaServed": ["GB", "EU"],
      "availableLanguage": ["English", "French"]
    },
    {
      "@type": "ContactPoint",
      "contactType": "technical support",
      "url": "https://example.com/support",
      "availableLanguage": ["English"]
    }
  ],
  "sameAs": [
    "https://twitter.com/acmeceramics",
    "https://linkedin.com/company/acmeceramics"
  ]
}
</script>

3. Phone number formatting

Use international format for tel: hrefs — agents and phone apps parse reliably:

<!-- UK number -->
<a href="tel:+441273555012">+44 1273 555 012</a>

<!-- US number -->
<a href="tel:+12125551234">(212) 555-1234</a>

<!-- Extensions -->
<a href="tel:+441273555012,123">+44 1273 555 012 ext. 123</a>
<!-- Comma = pause then dial extension -->

4. Address — visible + structured

<address itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/PostalAddress">
  <span itemprop="name">Acme Ceramics</span><br />
  <span itemprop="streetAddress">12 High Street</span><br />
  <span itemprop="addressLocality">Brighton</span>
  <span itemprop="postalCode">BN1 1AA</span><br />
  <span itemprop="addressCountry">United Kingdom</span>
</address>

<!-- Microdata works too. JSON-LD in head is preferred but inline microdata is acceptable. -->

5. Hours — schema + visible

Visible for humans, schema for agents:

<h3>Opening hours</h3>
<ul>
  <li>Monday-Friday: 09:00-17:00</li>
  <li>Saturday: 10:00-16:00</li>
  <li>Sunday: closed</li>
</ul>

<!-- And in LocalBusiness schema -->
"openingHoursSpecification": [
  {
    "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification",
    "dayOfWeek": ["Monday","Tuesday","Wednesday","Thursday","Friday"],
    "opens": "09:00",
    "closes": "17:00"
  },
  {
    "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification",
    "dayOfWeek": ["Saturday"],
    "opens": "10:00",
    "closes": "16:00"
  }
]

6. Map embed — agent-friendly version

Google Maps iframe is fine for users but invisible to agents. Add a text fallback:

<section aria-label="Find us">
  <h2>Find us</h2>
  
  <!-- Embedded map for humans -->
  <iframe src="https://www.google.com/maps/embed?..." 
          title="Map of Acme Ceramics location" 
          loading="lazy"></iframe>
  
  <!-- Address text for agents -->
  <address>
    Acme Ceramics, 12 High Street, Brighton BN1 1AA
  </address>
  
  <!-- Direct map link -->
  <a href="https://maps.google.com/?q=12+High+Street+Brighton+BN1+1AA">
    Open in Google Maps
  </a>
</section>

7. Verify

curl -s https://example.com/contact | grep -oE 'tel:[^"]+'
curl -s https://example.com/contact | grep -oE 'mailto:[^"]+'
curl -s https://example.com/contact | grep -A1 "PostalAddress"

# All three should produce output