Creating a WhatsApp link for your business (wa.me)

Creating a WhatsApp link for your business (wa.me)

Many customers would rather send a WhatsApp message than fill in a form or pick up the phone.

Here is how to create a WhatsApp link with a pre-filled message, where to put it and how to turn it into a QR code.

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Published on · By the IT LABS PRO team

WhatsApp has become an essential contact channel for businesses, and in Morocco it is often the first one: customers ask questions there, request a price, send a photo or book an appointment. To make that first contact easier, WhatsApp offers a simple, free feature: the “click to chat” link, in the wa.me format. One click, and the conversation opens with your number, possibly with a message already written. Here is how to create and use it.

To go fast, use our free WhatsApp link generator: it creates the link with your pre-filled message, its QR code and the code for a button on your website.

The wa.me link format

The basic link looks like this: https://wa.me/<number>, where the number is your full number in international format, without the + sign, without the leading zero of the national format, and without spaces, dashes or brackets. The number must belong to an active WhatsApp account.

Examples

For the Moroccan number 06 12 34 56 78 (a made-up number), Morocco’s country code is 212 and the leading zero is dropped: https://wa.me/212612345678. For the UK number 07700 900123 (a number reserved for examples), the country code is 44: https://wa.me/447700900123.

Adding a pre-filled message

You can make a message appear in the customer’s typing box, ready to complete or send: https://wa.me/212612345678?text= followed by the message encoded for a URL (spaces become %20, and apostrophes and accented letters are encoded too).

Example: “Hello, I would like a quote for a website” becomes
https://wa.me/212612345678?text=Hello%2C%20I%20would%20like%20a%20quote%20for%20a%20website

A good pre-filled message gives the context (the page or offer that triggered the contact): it lets you answer faster and measure where enquiries come from.

Where to use your WhatsApp link

On your website

A visible WhatsApp button, for example at the bottom of the screen on mobile, catches visitors who would never have filled in a form. Also put the link on your contact page, service pages and product pages, with a message suited to each page.

On your Google listing

Add your website and contact options to your Google Business Profile so customers can reach you easily from Search and Google Maps.

On social media

In your account bios, your posts and your ads: the link shortens the path between interest and conversation.

In your e-mails and documents

E-mail signature, quotes, invoices, brochures: a WhatsApp link or QR code invites people to ask a question straight away.

Turning the link into a QR code

For printed material (business cards, flyers, shop windows, packaging, stands), turn the wa.me link into a QR code: the customer scans it with their phone and the conversation opens. Always test the QR code before printing, with several phones. Our guide to creating a QR code gives good practice for size and contrast.

WhatsApp or WhatsApp Business?

For a company, the WhatsApp Business app is a better fit: a business profile with address, opening hours and description, automatic greeting and away messages, saved quick replies, labels to sort conversations and a product catalogue. The wa.me link works the same way with a Business account.

Good practice

Common mistakes

One pre-filled message per page

The pre-filled message is a simple, free way to qualify enquiries. Adapt it to each page of your website to know immediately where the customer comes from and what they want:

You reply faster, with the right information, and you can count enquiries by page. Keep the messages short and polite: the customer should be able to send them as they are or add a few words.

Measuring WhatsApp contacts

A click on a WhatsApp link does not go through your website: without specific tracking, it is invisible in your statistics. To measure these contacts, record an event in your analytics tool (Google Analytics, for example) at each click on a WhatsApp button, with the page it came from. You will then know which pages generate the most conversations, and you can compare WhatsApp with forms and calls. On the websites we build, this tracking is set up at the same time as the button.

Organising replies in the company

When several people answer customers, decide who handles the messages, how quickly, and how important requests are passed to the sales team. WhatsApp Business labels help you follow conversations (new contact, quote sent, customer). For high volumes, requests can also be centralised in a customer relationship management tool.

Frequently asked questions

Is the wa.me link free?

Yes, WhatsApp’s “click to chat” feature is free and needs no special registration.

Does the customer need to save my number to write through the link?

No, that is the whole point: the customer can start a conversation without saving your number in their contacts.

Can I create a link without a number?

Yes: a link such as https://wa.me/?text=… opens WhatsApp with the pre-filled message and lets the user choose the recipient, which is useful for sharing content.

In short

A WhatsApp link takes seconds to create: https://wa.me/ followed by your international number without + or leading zero, and optionally an encoded pre-filled message. Put it on your website, your social media and your printed material, and reply quickly. We add WhatsApp buttons and contact tracking to the websites we build: discover our website development.

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