There is an old joke in web development and it goes like this:

If a website was left to the design team, it would look great with no functionality. If it were left to the developers it would be text only and if it were left to marketing, it would be one page with a giant flashing ‘Buy’ button.

Many online marketing teams, SEOs and sales-minded site owners have pushed the ‘Buy Now’ button too aggressively and we all have seen sites where the user experience is annoying or confusing based on the number of calls to action. However, a lack of clear call to action can be just as frustrating, and a user who can’t figure out the next step is a user who is about to leave your website.

So why can’t site owners get it right? Many of them do, and their sites convert well, but some sites are just complex enough that the ‘right’ call to action isn’t always obvious. For example, most users of the Malwarebytes anti-malware software just want to scan their computer and move on with their day…but the makers of the software want you to upgrade to the paid version.

well optimized cta examples

Look at how they organize their calls to action. ‘Scan Now’ is a big, obvious call to action and probably gets clicked many times more than ‘Upgrade Now’…but user attention is consistently drawn to ‘Upgrade Now’. Why is that?

  • They’ve placed it in the upper right hand corner, which is a standard location for calls to action.
  • They made the button green, which is a color associated with ‘go’, ‘next’ and ‘success’.
  • It’s also one of very few items in a highlighted color…almost everything else is blue, black or grey. When you’re looking for a call to action, you’re looking for the highlight color.

This is just one example of successful use of multiple calls to action. What you need for your product or service will vary depending on your site design and user behavior. If you have questions about calls to action or conversion optimization, get in touch. We’d be happy to take a look at your site and talk about best practice and testing to find the best ways to convert users into customers.