Are your website visitors going where you want them to go?

A call to action (CTA) is a button or text on your site that prompts a user to take an action like, like sign up of your list, download a report, make an appointment, etc.

You can have the best product or service in the world, but if nobody takes that next step you are effectively out of business. An effective call to action is crucial for a company’s web success.

When I need to place a call to action for my site for one of my clients I use a 7-step checklist that I created and will share with you.

1. Be direct

It’s pretty simple; if you don’t tell people what you want them to do they won’t do it. You need to effectively take them by the hand and tell them what is the next step. If they weren’t interested they wouldn’t be there in the first place so don’t be shy about it.

2. Use the right words

Never ever use a button that says “Click Here”. People don’t click buttons that say click here. Instead, use words that tell what will happen or what the user will get when they click the button. Phrases like “Download Now” or “Instant Access” are much more effective because they establish trust. It becomes an effective call to action because the user knows that when they click on “Download Now” that they’re going to download now.

3. Make it POP

Another element that seems obvious, but is often not the case, is that the call to action must stand out. You need to make the viewer see it so you need to make it obvious. The two rules of thumb to accomplish this goal are to make it graphical and make it red. People can’t help but to look at things that are red.

4. Keep it “above the fold”

We’ve all seen those really bad websites that seem to scroll down forever. Thankfully most web designers know better now, but that doesn’t mean we’re entirely out of the woods. There is still a very common mistake being made on sites across the web; they are burying their calls to action below the “fold” of the page. That means that you still have to scroll down to see them. Even if it’s only a short ways, you don’t want to make the viewer scroll to see the call to action because of they don’t, then they won’t see what they’re supposed to do next. If you want to be sure that your call to action is seen by every visitor to your site, then keep it in the top 700 or so pixels of your site. Any lower and you run the risk of it disappearing.

5. Better yet, put it in the top right or left

Eye tracking studies have shown that the upper right and upper left corners of the page are where far more eyeballs will look than any other part of the page. If you want to be 100% sure that the call to action doesn’t get lost, then stick it right at the top.

6. Design the CTA so it fits with the page design

If your landing page says “Download Now”, then make sure the user can download your stuff. If you are dishonest and make them jump through hoops or when they click “Download Now” if something – anything – else happens, then you will lose their trust and their business.

7. Test

Something as simple as changing the color of the call to action button or the image used can have significant effects on the conversion rate. You could improve your rates by 10% or more just by using the right color. Experience and outside studies can give a solid head start for making the correct choices, but there is nothing better than actual, live testing. Always test colors, imagery, placement and text to see what works best.

Of course there is no guarantee that visitors to your site are going to do what they’re supposed to and buy your products. But by taking a little extra time and preparing your site with the best call to action buttons possible, you will maximize your site’s potential you will gain much higher clickthrough rates and conversion numbers.

A list of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) “add-ons” that will help raise your localized search rankings.

1. Local Business Listings (Google, Yahoo, Bing)
2. Use your business address, not a PO Box
3. Use your local phone number, not an 800 number
4. Add a locator map and business hours to your contact page
5. List the names of the cities that you serve
6. Include city and state in site content, titles, headers, etc.
7. Create a printable coupon to drive traffic to your location*

* 82% of local searchers follow up with an offline in-store visit or phone call. (comScore)

WordPress makes a fantastic product. It is great for when you have a relatively simple website that the client wants to control the content. I like to consider it an entry level CMS.

Anyway, as with many 3rd party applications – it often times need to be updated. This could be due to new security issues, patches to old issues or just an update in functionality. Whatever the case, you need to know what is happening before you go and update blindly.

Typically with 3rd party apps there are three main areas of concern. Each of these areas must be reviewed and taken into consideration BEFORE the upgrade is applied. If something goes wrong, you will want to have a backup plan in place. With WordPress, Drupal, Joomla and other open source CMS’s there is a 4th.

The four areas that I consider for WordPress upgrades are:

• Application Logic
• Application Display
• Data Storage
• Plugins

1. Application Logic – This one sounds the most intimidating but is actually the least of your concerns as a user. Unless otherwise specified in the uprade notes the inputs and outputs of these files are going to be the same so for you as a website owner, there will be no changes to your code necessary. The application will just be performing better or new features will be added.

3. Application Display – Most 21st century application developers have grasped the concept of separating logic and display. In WordPress, all of the display templates are stored in your “themes” directory. So, check the documentation and see what, if anything, is going to change here. This will be more of an issue of you are using a default template as opposed to a custom template. But still, check it out.

4. Data Storage – This is the “meat and potatoes” of your blog. This is what you have been working so hard to create so you had better pay attention to this. Depending on what is happening with the upgrade and how many versions you are jumping, a database modification may be required. ANYTIME you are going to modify a database, please do yourself a favor and make a complete SQL dump before you do anything. This way if something goes wrong you can get the data back immediately instead of waiting for your hosting company to pull it off of the archive disks, etc. causing hours if not days of downtime (assuming your hosting company has the backups)

5. Plugins – These are all of the extras that are added to give your blog more features and functionality – photo gallery’s, SEO plugins, social bookmarking tools, database backups, etc. Make sure you check these to see if the plugins that you are using are supported in the new version. There are many threats with plugins:

• They may not work with the new blog version
• They may work but the display/functionality may hange based on the blog upgrade.
• if you upgrade the plugin, it may update the styles/codebase which can cause more problems.

A side note – if your plugin hasn’t been updated in a year or more – you may want to look for another.

So what is a person to do? Upgrade, just be smart about it.

STEP 1: Backup your file system.
STEP 2: Backup your database.
STEP 3: Review your site real quick to refresh your mind of the look.*
STEP 4: Upgrade the blog.
STEP 5: Test the site (check posts, check display, everything).
STEP 6: Fix any issues.
STEP 7: Upgrade Plugins (one at a time)
STEP 8: Test the site (focus on plugin functionality)
STEP 9: Fix any issues and return to STEP 7
STEP 10: If all is well, write a new blog post.

* This may seem funny but as a blogger – I spend most of the time looking at my blog backend interface, not the frontend display. You want to refresh your mind so that you can see if anything goes wrong with the upgrade.