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If a website is not tailored to make finding great content easy for users, it will definitely be inefficient in terms of generating incoming traffic and conversions. Getting steady traffic can be challenging; getting that traffic to see the intended product or services pages and be prompted to do something will need some well-written, well-placed call-to-action buttons and links. Acting as guides within a website as well as gentle suggestions to participate, these buttons and links provide a sort of subconscious way to entice viewers to take action, whether that is making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or some other similar function. The Importance of A Call-To-Action Depending on what action has been planned for visitors – purchase, e-letter sign-up, or just information – it can be fairly easy or alternatively quite challenging. Making a purchase is usually more difficult to prompt, while sign-ups are easier; either way, including a next step for web page viewers with an article, product description, or some other information is an important, effective way to move them to specific areas. Writing An Appealing Call-To-Action Since a CTA is used to prompt different choices, the wording of a call-to-action should be relevant to the requested action; it should attempt to make a user want to do what the prompt says. It might be commenting on an article, following a link to another website or another related article, or the more common buying page. Something as simple as “Leave a comment – let us know what you think!” can be a great CTA to encourage more user interaction on a website, a positive thing for optimization and increased interest. Those websites that have guest bloggers, mention a particular organization, or otherwise try to bring attention to something special might use a CTA that reads “Visit The Author's Website!” or “Donate Here” as long as the CTA is an obvious, active link. How about “Don’t Miss Anything - Subscribe Today!”? All of these examples are polite yet persuasive, encouraging user participation which is of course the main goal. Avoid CTA Mistakes The key to having an effective call-to-action is placement and verbiage. Other than the typical “Buy Now” balloons that can be placed in strategic areas to be quickly seen by visitors, links that are placed within text should be put at the end of articles or sections of content to be that last thing seen at the end of the content. Placement within text is very distracting and usually ignored by users who have not yet absorbed the information being presented and are more likely to ignore it. When placed at the beginning of a page, a user has not had time to become interested in the topic and are likely to not read it at all. A CTA at the end of content captures the interest of users who have become familiar with the topic and are more likely to leave a comment, go to a specific page, or even go to the purchasing page when prompted. Filling CTA links full of keywords or just using too many words can actually be a deterrent to viewer participation by being too long to quickly read and make an action decision; more likely, it appears too pushy or promotional. A simple question or suggestive directive is usually enough; detail is not needed as long as the directive is clear. Negative text is another CTA no-no that will usually stop users from clicking on a CTA button. Even when the topic is a negative idea, make the CTA a positive prompt for action. As an example, “Click Here To Kill Those Pesky Ants!” versus “Click Here To Be Ant-Free Now! “ - the persuasion is all in the presentation. Making a good call-to-action is not difficult as long as it is placed at the end of content for greatest attention, is polite and positive, and contains a short but concise directive – this will cause users to take the desired action! Chris Hunter is an expert in Web Design, Search Engine Marketing, and Reputation Management. To find out more about Houston Web Design, go to the main website at: http://www.webunlimited.com.
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