Have you ever gone to a website and ended up sitting on the home page for about 40 seconds mindlessly scrolling up and down the page, only to leave and return to Google? After investing in resources to build a website and attract visitors, losing them without meaningful interaction is one of the most unfortunate things to happen to a website owner. There are a couple things which cause a lack of action from your viewers.
One – There is not a one focused call to action which really, truly compels the viewer to act. If your website does not have the necessary calls to action to draw the user in and get them on the right track they will most likely end up leaving your website without clicking a single thing. If there is no clear direction or path for the user to take that is obvious to them, don’t expect them to just magically find their way to your contact form. Even if you have a contact button in your navigation bar, there is really no guarantee that the user will end up there. The key is to gently guide them through your website in a way which accomplishes both their needs and your goals.
Two – On the opposite end of the spectrum your website may have too many calls to action and the viewer is lost and confused and again probably won’t ever make it off your homepage. As a business owner, you may think to yourself, okay I offer all of these products or services and they are all equally important to me so I need to have calls to action for each one on my home page. I am here to tell you this is not always the best approach. There is compelling research which proves the more choices you give someone the less likely they are to choose.
On average people visit one or two pages on your site. Don’t let that happen by accident. Decide what the single most important thing is that you want users to do when they come to your website. Make that the first call to action. We see all types of effective calls to action from schedule an appointment, view the portfolio, download an ebook or meet the team. As you think about your business what is the one thing which will compel visitors to action.
Some tips for effective calls to action:
- Decide what is the most important thing for someone to do when they come to your website. Use action words such as “learn more” or “download now” to tell users what you would like them to do.
- The design of your call to action needs to stand out and pop amidst every other component of your webpage. An easy way to achieve this is to use a color which is not used as much or at all on the rest of the website.
- Making the element larger on the page can be effective at times, but if you have multiple calls to action I would not advise making them all larger than normal because it will only clutter your web page and overwhelm the user.
- Very slight visual hover effects can be appealing but don’t over do it.
When designing your calls to action, remember that both the design and content of your calls to action are important and the less mental effort the viewer has to exert the better. Lastly, don’t be afraid to experiment and try different things to see what is most effective.
Now that you’ve implemented some of these web design navigation tips, it’s time to check out how your website stacks up in the modern age. Try our free website auditing tool today:
