An astounding 70 percent of small businesses lack a call-to-action (CTA) on their website. If you have one, you’re ahead of the curve, right?

Not necessarily.

It’s not enough just to have a call-to-action button. For the best results, you need a well-designed call-to-action button.

What factors should you consider when designing call-to-action buttons for your website? You’ll find the answer to this and other frequently asked questions below.

Table of Contents in Detail Hide

Why Is a CTA Button Recommended?

A call-to-action button naturally encourages more engagement with your website. It also eliminates the guesswork for your website visitors and combats decision fatigue.

With a well-designed, eye-catching button, you can tell them precisely what you want them to do -- Click Here, Order Now, Join My Email List, etc.

Understanding Call-to-Action Buttons

A call-to-action button is positioned strategically on your website and is linked to the webpage that your website visitors to check out next. It tells people how to proceed after they’ve read your blog or looked at a product in your online store.

If you don’t include a call-to-action button on a webpage, people may not know the exact route they should take to buy a product or sign up for a service. If they don’t know what to do, they might decide to click away altogether.

Call-to-action buttons -- especially personalized ones -- have also been shown to increase conversions. According to Hubspot, personalized CTAs convert 202 percent better than a generic CTA.

By designing your call-to-action button with your target audience in mind, you can increase the number of people who stay on your website and eventually make purchases.

How to Have Strategic Placement of Call-to-Action Buttons on Squarespace

The placement of your call-to-action button matters just as much as its message and how it looks.

Where should you position your CTAs for maximum visibility? There are a few different places you can put it depending on the purpose of your webpage. Here are some examples to consider:

The top of a web page
The end of a blog post
The sidebar of your website
A welcome pop-up
The middle of a long blog post

Wherever you decide to place your call-to-action button, make sure there’s plenty of white space around it. White space makes the button stand out and encourages people to stop and click on it.

Tips for Designing Eye-Catching Call-to-Action Buttons

Now, let’s get into the actual design process. No matter what kind of business you run or how you would describe your brand’s style, these tips can help your call-to-action button stand out:

Use Contrasting Colors

Color is critical when it comes to good design.

If your call-to-action button’s color blends in too well with the background of your webpage, people will struggle to see it. The same goes for the font color -- it needs to stand out so people know what you want them to do.

When choosing colors for your call-to-action button (and other text on your website), look at it on several different devices. That will help you ensure it’s easy to read, no matter how someone is engaging with your website.

Incorporate Compelling and Action-Oriented Copy

Consider the words you’ll use to encourage your visitors to take action, too.

Generally, the call-to-action should start with a verb -- Click, Visit, Check Out, Explore, etc. Again, you’re telling people exactly what to do, and you’re doing it as succinctly as possible.

Choose Appropriate Button Sizes and Shapes

You don’t have to limit yourself to a rectangular call-to-action button (although there’s nothing wrong with a classic if that’s your vibe).

Consider experimenting with different shapes. A unique shape might even be more eye-catching and encourage more people to engage with your website longer.

Make sure the button is large enough for people to see it, too. If it’s too small, people will scroll right past it and may leave your website without taking further action.

Add Visual Cues to Guide the User’s Attention

People typically read left to right, so it makes sense to follow that pattern when positioning your call-to-action button. Placing it in the corner ensures that people land on it either when they’re starting to read or when they finish scanning your webpage.

You can use other visual cues to catch people’s attention, too. From an arrow to a blinking or color-changing call-to-action button, there are lots of ways to guide people’s eyes to the place you want them to go.

Don’t Include Competing CTAs

Remember that one of the goals behind call-to-action buttons is to eliminate decision fatigue and tell people what you want them to do next.

If you include two call-to-action buttons with different messages, you’re requiring them to make a decision again (exactly what you were trying to avoid!).

How to Add Visual Effects to CTA Buttons on Squarespace

To help your call-to-action button stand out further, you may want to consider adding visual effects.

For example, you could utilize a hover effect -- perhaps the button changes color when the user hovers over it -- to make your website feel more interactive. You can also add subtle animations to make the button (and your entire website, for that matter) more visually interesting.

How to Optimize a Squarespace Call-to-Action Button for Mobile Devices

Over four million users access the internet from a mobile device. If you want to encourage these people to engage with your website and take specific actions, you must cater to them when designing your call-to-action button.

One way to do this is to ensure your entire website is mobile-friendly. It should look just as good and be just as easy to navigate on a mobile device as it is on a desktop.

You should also consider mobile-friendliness when designing the actual call-to-action button.

For example, is the button the appropriate size for the average person’s thumb? Can they click on it without accidentally hitting a different link and getting sent somewhere else (how frustrating is that?)?

Here are some additional considerations to keep in mind when designing call-to-action buttons for mobile devices:

Keep text short: The shorter the copy, the less likely it is to get cut off or look crowded.
Choose the right size: The minimum size for touch targets (according to Apple) is 44 pixels by 44 pixels.

Use device-specific CTA buttons: For example, you could change the copy to “Pay with touch ID” or “Swipe left to confirm.”

Be sure to keep the design factors discussed in the previous sections in mind, too. For example, use contrasting colors and consider whitespace to increase visibility.

Conduct A/B Testing for Call-to-Action Buttons on Squarespace

A/B testing helps you see if your call-to-action button is working or if it could be improved. A/B testing involves experimenting with two different versions of the same thing (in this case, a call-to-action button) to see which one people respond to more.

The key to successful A/B testing is to change just one element at a time (otherwise, you won’t know what people like better about one vs. the other). For example, you might experiment with two different colors for the call-to-action button or two different fonts.

Another tip for successful A/B testing is to give people enough time to engage with your website and provide valuable insights. Give the test a couple of weeks, so you have sufficient data to review and use to make an informed decision.

Squarespace makes it easy for creators to conduct A/B tests and track progress over time. Utilize this feature to monitor performance and discover the best design for your website’s call-to-action button.

Examples of Effective Call-to-Action Buttons

Still curious about what a well-designed custom CTA looks like? Here are some examples of CTA buttons you can use for inspiration (all these websites were built using Squarespace):

Jones Bar-B-Q

Jones Bar-B-Q is a Kansas City-based restaurant with delicious food and an eye-catching call-to-action. It’s placed in the top right corner and contrasts with the webpage’s background, so it’s easy to spot and click on.

Personal Effects

Personal Effects, a London-based brand, shows the importance of a well-designed call-to-action button for getting email subscribers. This popup appears when you first visit the company’s website.

As you can see, the “Subscribe” button is colored differently than the other text on the page. The text also follows a left-to-right pattern (how many people read), so visitors naturally land on the “Subscribe” button.

Yellow Co.

Based on the text in Yellow Co’s call-to-action button, it’s clear that they want people to learn more about their membership. The text is simple but eye-catching, as it contrasts with the background and is clearly outlined in black.

Need More Squarespace Help?

At Launch Happy, we’re all about helping businesses create a user-friendly, accessible online presence that reaches the right audiences.

We’re also about helping Squarespace developers learn the ins and outs of this versatile platform.

If you need a little extra help, reach out to us. We offer a designer starter kit that new Squarespace designers find super useful.

Our Squarespace SEO packages will help you optimize your site for organic growth.

For free tutorials, subscribe to our YouTube channel, which brings you over 400 videos to browse and watch on your own schedule.

Design Considerations for Call-to-Action Buttons on Squarespace