Is There Such Thing As Too Many Calls to Action?

Every website needs a reason for being. A purpose. Not your mission statement, but your objective. What do you hope this website will accomplish for you?

It could be to raise brand awareness. It could be to sell a product or service. It could be to publish amazing articles that earn the trust of subscribers who are all too eager to share your brand with their friends.

You’re inviting people to visit your website… what do you want them to do?

Without a clear purpose, your website is pointless. Every call to action is empty. Take a look at your home page, right now, and ask yourself if it is very clear what visitors should do.

How many calls to action should your website have?

Excellent question! I’m glad that (I pretended) you asked! If you have a few different goals, it’s okay to have a few different calls to action. With that being said, it is not okay to overshadow any request with too many options… that just gets confusing and you won’t get any conversions. For any goals.

So treat each web page individually and keep the goals to a minimum per each page. If you want visitors of the About page to (a) purchase a product or (b) request a quote for a custom product, then you should prioritize one and offer the second option as an alternative.

In this scenario, you might even say:

“Click here to choose your favorite design and enter SAVE10 during checkout for a 10% discount! If you’d like more information about ordering personalized shirts with your own design or logo, please fill out this form to get a quote for custom orders.”

The more options you include, the more confusing it becomes. So you might want visitors to buy, share, subscribe, contact, sign up for emails, and a million other objectives but it’s not going to happen if you overwhelm your visitors because there is such a thing as too many options.

Case in point:

“Click here to choose your favorite design and enter SAVE10 during checkout for a 10% discount! Be sure to sign up for coupons and special offers sent via email or text. If you’d like more information about ordering personalized shirts with your own design or logo, please fill out this form to get a quote for custom orders. If you like our products, please follow us on Facebook or Twitter. Click here to learn more about how you can get a $5 credit for referring your friends!”

See. That’s just too much.