The mailto command produces a clickable email address. The idea is that clicking this address will open your email client so you can contact the website owner. This is a wonderful concept, but is having mailto commands on your website costing you valuable business. A real estate agent, for example, could loose thousands of dollars if one real estate lead is lost. There are several problems with the mailto command that could cause you to lose your leads.
One major problem with the mailto command is that is depends on your default email client being configured. This is usually a program like Outlook, or Outlook Express. However, many people in the world do not use these programs and instead use web base email such as Yahoo Mail or Hotmail. For your clients using web base email, the mailto command will generate an error message stating something similar to “Email client is not configured”. This means that for a very large part of your potential clients, the mailto link will not work, and even worse may generate an error message.
Another potential pitfall is the unreliability of email. Everyone has lost an email or two. Now image that email was a potential...