Calls to action: what to get right first

Every audit we run turns up some version of this. If you only fix one thing about calls to action this quarter, make it the first item below.

Pages that answer a real question outlive pages written to fill a slot in a sitemap. The failure mode is not doing it wrong, it is doing it once and assuming it stays done.

Start here

One clear next step beats several options. In practice this is a scheduling problem more than a technical one. It rarely shows up as a line item, which is exactly why it slips.

Then this

Say what happens after the click. In practice this is a scheduling problem more than a technical one. Doing this properly once is usually cheaper than doing it approximately three times.

Eventually

Reduce the sense of risk near the button. This is the sort of thing that compounds, quietly, in both directions. Doing this properly once is usually cheaper than doing it approximately three times.

In practice

Writing for the web is largely an editing job: the first draft is always longer than it needs to be. Three things worth confirming about calls to action before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• One clear next step beats several options — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

If any of that sounds like a description of your current setup, it is fixable.