How to make a Call To Action work better

The number of links a user has to click between visiting a site and fulfilling an action can have a serious impact on conversions.

I don’t have any live stats on this, though I expect the PPC stats trackers are keenly aware of this.

The difference is that it’s all too easily overlooked in SEO.

For example, when you target visitors to a page where you want to be contacted, don’t put a link up to your contact page - just put a bloody form in.

I actually had real problems with this for a finance site I’ve been simmering for a couple of years. Revamping the site I still had little content, so I added a contact form on every page just to fill up screen space.

The result was that I ended up getting a string of finance leads I couldn’t convert.

I tried to send these on to a client (yes, I do finance SEO) but he wouldn’t take them. So they were effectively wasted (I’m still poorly connected to the finance industry, that’s why I’m slowly building up sites to deliver finance leads when I can process them - get a search history for them first).

So I removed the contact form from every page and replaced them with a link to the contact page. Killed the lead emails.

Also had the same happen on the Britecorp site - I don’t actually get a lot of enquiries from it - but I noticed a big increase in the number of enquiries once I placed a contact form on the pages.

The trouble here is that too often the leads are not well targeted - I need to put more information on the pages to properly qualify the leads by telling potential customers quickly and simply exactly what I can deliver, so they can make a decision there and then.

Too often I get the generic “we need SEO services” but from “we don’t have much budget (if any)”. What I need to tell people effectively on these pages that I can deliver serious link building solutions, but that they cost real cash, so serious business owners please.

So overall, when you’re setting up that Call To Action:

1. Make it as immediately accessible as possible
2. Qualify it as best you can so the quality of the leads is better

Anyway, a quick rant on making that Call To Action work better. :)