Every page needs one obvious next step

A page that asks a visitor to call, subscribe, download, follow, and book has not given them five options. It has given them a decision they did not want to make, and the usual answer to that decision is nothing.

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Each page should have one primary action, repeated where it makes sense, with anything else clearly secondary. Competing calls to action of equal weight force the visitor to choose between them, and the easiest choice is always to leave. Pick the action by asking what the person on this specific page is ready to do next.

Choice feels generous and behaves like friction

It seems helpful to offer several ways forward. In practice, every additional option of equal weight is a small tax on the visitor's attention. They must now compare the options, work out which is right for them, and take responsibility for choosing well. Many quietly decide not to bother.

The strongest pages remove that work. There is one thing to do, it is obvious, and it fits where the reader is in their thinking. Anything else is present but visibly secondary, so nobody has to weigh it.

Choose the action by asking where the reader is

The right next step is not the same on every page, and this is where most sites go wrong. They put the same book a call button on an article somebody found while researching a problem for the first time.

Match the request to the stage. Somebody reading an introductory article is not ready to book. Somebody reading your pricing page probably is. Asking for too much too early loses people, and asking for too little on a page where they were ready wastes the moment.

  • Early research article: send them to the page that explains the service properly.
  • Service page: contact, call, or book, whichever your customers actually prefer.
  • Pricing page: contact, with the questions already answered on the page.
  • Case study: contact, because somebody reading this is comparing you against others.
  • Location or area page: the relevant service page, then contact.

One action does not mean one button

A single primary action can and should appear more than once on a long page: near the top for the person who is already convinced, again after the proof, and once at the end. Repetition of one action is not clutter, it is convenience.

It also does not mean only one channel. Some people will only telephone and others will never telephone. Offering a call and a form is one action expressed two ways, which is quite different from offering five unrelated things.

What competing actions look like in the wild

Look at your own service page and count what it asks for. Very often it is more than you expect: a newsletter box, a social media row, a chat widget, a download, a phone number, a form, and a link to a related service.

Each was added by somebody sensible for a sensible reason. Together they compete, and the newsletter box, which is the least valuable of them, is frequently the most visually prominent because it arrived with its own coloured background.

Make the action specific rather than polite

The words on the button do real work. Submit, learn more, and click here tell the visitor nothing about what happens next, and uncertainty at the final step is where people stop.

Say what will happen. Get a quote for your project. Book a fifteen minute call. See what it would cost. A visitor who knows exactly what they are agreeing to is considerably more likely to agree to it.

  • Name the outcome, not the mechanism.
  • Keep it short enough to read at a glance on a phone.
  • Say what happens afterwards, near the button, in small plain text.
  • Avoid asking for commitment the page has not yet earned.

How Licheo decides the action for each page

The conversion agent gives each page a single job before anything is written, based on who arrives there and what they are ready to do. The page is then built around that job, with secondary links present but visibly lesser.

It also checks the whole path on a phone, because an obvious next step that is awkward to complete with one thumb is not, in practice, obvious at all.

Part of a larger guide

This page is one part of Websites that make money. The other parts:

Questions people ask

Can a page have more than one call to action?
It can repeat one primary action several times, and offer a secondary option in a visibly lesser style. What hurts is two or more actions of equal weight, because the visitor must then compare them, and the easiest resolution is to do neither.
What should my main call to action be?
Whatever the person on that particular page is ready to do. On a service or pricing page that is usually contact, call, or book. On an early research article it is more often a link to the page that explains the service properly.
Should I offer both a phone number and a form?
Yes. Some people will only telephone and others will never telephone a stranger. That is one action offered through two channels, which is quite different from asking for several unrelated things at once.
What words work best on a button?
Words that name the outcome: get a quote, book a fifteen minute call, see what it would cost. Submit and learn more describe the mechanism rather than the result, and leave the visitor unsure what they are agreeing to.
Is a newsletter signup worth the space?
Only if you actually send something worth reading, and even then it should not outshine the action that produces revenue. A brightly coloured subscription box competing with your contact form is a common and expensive habit.

Give every page one clear job

The agents decide what each page is for before writing a word of it, then build the page around that single next step.

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