Phone number placement, by device and page type

Mobile header: visible without scrolling, tappable, as a tel: link. Desktop header: top right, alongside the primary action, as a tel: link. Service pages: at the decision point, not only the top. Contact page: above the form, not below it. Footer: every page. And in structured data, telephone on the business node.

The tel: scheme is the mechanical part. A number as plain text cannot be dialed by a tap, and the anchor element is the mechanism. Two consequences: a mobile visitor has to memorize and retype digits, and the call that does happen produces no record on the site that earned it.

One formatting rule we hold ourselves to: the E.164 form for machines and the readable form for people, never mixed in one place.

We do not have a citable figure for placement against call volume. No primary source we can find measures it, and our own data does not separate placement from the other changes that shipped with it. So this page gives you the decision table and the mechanism, and declines the conversion-rate claim that accompanies it.

What is safely true without a study: a number that cannot be tapped cannot be tapped, and a number only in the footer is a number behind a scroll on every page where the decision is actually made.

Restore note: if a dated primary source measuring placement against call volume turns up — not a vendor blog — this page gains a section and its heading changes back.