“Wow, great graphics. Awesome colors. Look at that cool video. Love the quotes. What the heck does this company actually do…?”

Chances are, you’re not a part of some top secret society. If you’re selling purses, ask your customers to buy some purses. If you’re offering consulting services, let your customers know what services you offer and encourage them to contact you for help/more information. Don’t leave them scratching their heads wondering why they landed on your page in the first place.

The thing about a call to action is that it doesn’t matter what kind of website you have –you have some type of goal in mind for the visitors of your site. Whether you want customers to purchase your products or you simply want them to share the information you’ve provided with others who are interested in the same topics. No matter what the action is, you have to make your intentions clear to them by building effective calls to action into your site by using text combined with design elements on your site to take the specific action you desire.

It’s obviously a good idea before you launch a site to make sure that you have clear cues set up for visitors; but, this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t continually go back and reevaluate the call to action on your site. Check to see that it’s clear, that people are understanding and responding to the cues you’re giving them, and make sure that no changes are necessary.

Don’t leave them guessing. Don’t create a puzzle to solve. If you have a newsletter you want them to sign up for, tell them to SIGN UP HERE. Your website is a very direct tool to tell customers exactly what you want from them. Don’t make it cloudier than necessary.

Have you been to any websites lately/seen any commercials/ads/etc. that completely baffled you? Feel free to share them here! Maybe a few horror stories with smack some sense into people about the importance of a strong call to action…