What is a call to action (and why your website needs one)?
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These are all examples of a Call to Action (or CTA for short). You’ve definitely seen some of these before (they’re all over the internet), but may not have known what to call them.
CTAs are one of the most important items on any website, but they’re often overlooked and forgotten when the content is written for a site.
So what is a Call to Action?
A call to action is the part of your content that encourages and guides your website visitors to the next step on your website. Often it’s a button or text link, but a form or pop up can also be used as a CTA.
Why is a Call to Action important?
Here are 3 of the main reasons to have a call to action:
1 - A Call to Action guides visitors through your website
If you don’t have a CTA, you’re leaving it up to your website visitor to try to figure out what they’re supposed to do next on your website. This can lead to confusion and frustration, and some people will just leave your website without taking any steps at all.
I like to think of your website as a set of roads and your calls to action are road signs along the ways. If your client gets to the end of your road, but they don’t see a sign to their destination they might just figure that they’ve hit a dead end and turn back (usually to search for your competitors).
A call to action helps your website visitors easily find the information or content they want, improving your user experience.
2 - A CTA helps to increase conversion rate
Whether it’s filling out a form for a quote, contacting you, or buying a product, every website should have goals. CTAs help you to convert more of your site traffic to those actions or goals by guiding and encouraging your visitors to take those steps.
3 - A Call to Action helps increase your website traffic
A good CTA helps your visitors navigate from blog post to blog post or to important content to “learn more” about your services. This keeps them on your website longer, helping you to avoid that dreaded bounce rate which affect your SEO.
Calls to action also help your SEO by giving browsers more information the structure of your website and what content is most important.
Tips for an effective Call to Action
1 – Know your Website Goals
“What do you want your website visitors to do when they land on your home page? Call? Buy? Schedule an appointment?” This is one of the first questions that I ask my clients.
Your website can have more than one goal. You may have different products or services. It’s good to know what your most important goal for the website is. For instance, what’s your bestselling product? That’s definitely something that needs a CTA on the home page.
2 – Understand your Target Market
What are their needs, wants and goals? What path makes the most sense for them to navigate through your website?
Some people worry that CTAs seem too pushy or too salesy. If you get to know what your target market needs you won’t be pushing, you’ll be helping, encouraging and guiding. You can write calls to action that lets them easily and quickly find the information and get to the results they want.
3 – Keep it Short and Relevant
Keep your CTA text short and simple. People should understand what to do immediately.
You should also avoid using generic labels that don’t tell the visitor what they get out of pushing your button. “Download your Workbook” gives you a much better incentive to press a button than “Click Here”.
4 – Write 1 Call to Action per Page (At Least)
Don’t let any of your pages become a dead end. Every page should have at least one call to action. Your home page will probably have more than one. You’ll want it to introduce and link to all your most important content.
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