Direct answer: 35 of the 36 article pages offer at least one way to get in touch, but only one page has a message form. Phone links are the most common path (34 pages), followed by contact-page links (27) and email links (25); QR wording appears on 16 pages and WeChat on 15.
The sample contains 21 forms, yet by HTML rules only two can be identified as site search and one as a message form; the other 18 are single text inputs whose purpose cannot be told from the markup. No page offers all four paths (message form, tel, mailto, contact link), and one page (E28) has no contact path at all.
Method: reuse the study-45 article cache
The study parses the 36 article pages cached on 2026-11-03 08:40–08:41 (10 sites, HTTP 200, HTML ≥5 KB) with zero network requests, and clicks or submits nothing. It counts forms, fields, accessible labels, tel/mailto/contact links and QR/WeChat wording. Five E20 pages of about 1.4 KB are excluded by the size threshold.
| Item | Rule | Boundary |
|---|---|---|
| Message form | Form contains a textarea | Pop-ups and JS-inserted forms excluded |
| Search form | type=search, name=q/keyword or action containing search | Otherwise unclassified |
| Fields | input/select/textarea except hidden and buttons | Visibility not judged |
| Accessible label | aria-label, aria-labelledby, title, placeholder, label for or wrapping label | Label wording not judged |
| Contact path | tel / mailto links, href with contact/lianxi/about | Keyword match is a lower bound |
| QR / WeChat | Text or image alt match | No image recognition |
Result: phone links dominate, message forms are rare
| Path | Pages | Share of 36 |
|---|---|---|
Phone link tel: | 34 | 94.4% |
| Contact-page link | 27 | 75.0% |
Email link mailto: | 25 | 69.4% |
| QR wording | 16 | 44.4% |
| WeChat wording | 15 | 41.7% |
| Message form | 1 | 2.8% |
| Site search form | 2 | 5.6% |
| At least one path | 35 | 97.2% |
Path counts: three paths on 21 pages, two on 10, one on four, none on one; no page reaches four. In practice, getting in touch relies on phone numbers and navigation links, with almost no on-page messaging.
The only message form: six fields, zero programmatic labels
E26 embeds a product inquiry form with product name, company, contact name, phone, address and message (five text inputs plus one textarea). Each field has visible text in a preceding div, but the page contains no <label> element and these inputs have no placeholder, aria or title, so under the strict rule none of the six fields has an accessible label. It reads fine visually; a screen reader cannot tie the hint to the field.
That also explains the overall ratio: 26 of 32 fields (81.2%) carry a label, mostly placeholders or titles on single search boxes, while the only real inquiry form has none.
Most of the 21 forms are single text inputs
| Type | Count | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Message form (textarea) | 1 | E26, six fields |
| Identifiable search | 2 | name=keywords / key |
| Single text input, unclassified | 18 | Likely site search or subscribe |
These inputs carry neither type="search" nor name="q", so HTML alone cannot tell search from subscribe; they are recorded as unclassified and are not counted as an inquiry path.
By site
| Site | Pages | Forms | Message pages | tel pages | mailto pages | Contact pages | No path |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| E03 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 0 |
| E06 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| E09 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 0 |
| E14 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| E16 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| E19 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| E22 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 0 |
| E23 | 5 | 8 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 0 |
| E26 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| E28 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
E03 and E23 have the most forms, all single text inputs; E16 has phone links only (three pages); E19 has a contact link only; E28's single form is neither search nor message, and the page offers no usable contact path. E23's five pages carry eight forms, the densest in the sample.
Compared with contact pages
| Measure | Contact pages (study 62) | Article pages (this study) |
|---|---|---|
| Pages | 20 | 36 |
| Message forms | 15 | 1 |
| Pages with a form | 15 | 18 (mostly single inputs) |
| Form fields | Phone 9/9, email 6, company 6, captcha 6 | 32 fields, 26 labelled |
| Privacy notice | 1 form | Not measured |
Contact pages usually carry an inquiry form (15 of 20); article pages almost never do (1 of 36). An intent formed while reading has to travel to another page, which lengthens the path.
What this means for acceptance
- Decide whether articles must capture inquiries. Only 1 of 36 has a message form; acceptance should state whether phone and navigation links are enough.
- Keep phone and email links clickable. 34 pages use
tel:and 25 usemailto:, the most reliable paths today. - Label forms programmatically. The only message form has visible hints but no label or aria, so screen readers cannot connect them.
- Name single-input forms. 18 inputs cannot be identified from HTML; add
type="search"or a clear placeholder. - Do not rely on QR codes alone. 16 pages mention a QR code, but scanning leaves the page and produces no trackable on-site inquiry.
Limits
- HTML only: JS-inserted pop-ups, floating widgets and forms are invisible, so counts may be low.
- Page level: a site-wide footer form counts for every page; body and template are not separated.
- Keyword lower bounds: contact links match on href, and QR/WeChat on text.
- No submission test: whether a form actually sends, has a captcha or a consent checkbox is not judged.
- 10 sites, 36 pages: a pilot, no industry claim.
Data and reproduction
Anonymised data: equipment-article-inquiry-paths-2026.csv (36 rows × 13 columns: forms, message forms, search forms, fields, labelled fields, tel/mailto/contact links, QR and WeChat, path count). The repository keeps docs/research/2026-11-article-inquiry-paths.csv.
Parser: scripts/article_inquiry_probe.py; unit tests: scripts/test_article_inquiry_probe.py (no network). Run:
python -m unittest scripts.test_article_inquiry_probe
Related: the contact-page form pilot, the homepage form-input pilot, and the article anchor-text pilot., and the inquiry path checker, and the homepage inquiry-path pilot
Sources and definitions
- Article cache: 36 pages from 10 sites in study 45 (2026-11-03 08:40–08:41).
- Forms: input/select/textarea inside
<form>, excluding hidden fields and buttons. - Scan: 2026-11-05, zero network requests, no form submitted.