The call to action (CTA) is one of the most important aspects of your website or landing page. You attracted a visitor to your site for one reason: to act in some way.

Everything on your site must be oriented toward converting that visitor, whatever that means to you: completing an online sale, gaining information on that customer as a lead, or simply making your phone ring. Here are a few ways to improve your calls to action:

Make sure your CTA stands out
You don’t want anything on your site to be obnoxious, but make sure your CTA stands apart from the pack. Whatever your CTA is, make sure it really “pops” out. For text CTAs, this use a different color for hyperlinks so it’s clear to readers that the text is clickable and an action can be taken. For visual CTAs, use a color that starkly contrasts the rest of your page.

Use strong, active language
This isn’t the place to be passive or longwinded. Everything is funneling toward the visitor taking action, so make the CTA clear, simple, and direct. The visitor should understand exactly what he or she is getting as why acting on the CTA is the logical thing to do. If that isn’t being clearly conveyed, make a change.

Be sure the value of acting is obvious
If you can’t explain to a visitor why your offer is going to help in some way, why would the person click through? Your visitor came to the site to solve some kind of problem, address some sort of need: The CTA needs to be the solution.