Call to Action vs. Keywords in Anchor Text - Is Your Site Failing to Convert?

Posted on April 25th, 2008
by Lisa Stewart: : Better Rankings By Blogging

I just finished reading an excellent article on Copyblogger by Brian Clark , who’s writing style is breath of fresh air. He is straight to the point and an exceptional communicator.

In the article, Does Telling Someone to “Click Here” Actually Matter? Brian calls out the increasing trend to ignore the basic marketing tactic ” call to action” in favour of over used keywords in anchor text.

If your site is ranking well and visitors are not converting you have failed. If you have a blog set up to generate leads or get sale or to brand yourself and you are visitors leave your site with out buying something or signing up for anything or reading more of your posts than what’s the point?

The are many reason why a site doesn’t convert. It can be anything from poor site usability to bad copy writing. it may also be because you are not telling people what to do. sometimes you do have to tell them to “click here” !
” Sue’s Needlepoint newsletter” used as anchor text is different than ” Subscribe Up for Newsletter Now !” . Even CLICK HERE for my weekly newsletter might be better than both. I will often set up two ( or more) different pages and test the anchor text- which gets more clicks and what gets better conversion.

Examples of Call to Action Phrases to Use on Your Blog

- create a sense of urgency i.e email now! email today , subscribe now, click now, read now, register now, etc
- offer incentive i.e. pay now and save, today’s coupon, subscribe and save, see this weeks specials, special offer here, “get free trial today”
- create “exclusivity” i.e “become a member now and save” , “subscribe now and get…” ” subscribers receive free…” . ” free e-book when you register” and so on.

Link your call to action with your conversion goal. I hate the phrase “contact for more info” If you have a real estate site, don’t ask them to contact you for more information use “list your home today” or “get your free hotsheet here”.
If your conversion is to sell affiliate products your call to action should not be the passive ” get more info here” or just the title of book or product, try “order XYZ now” or ” Read first chapter of….. now” , etc

Lest you think knowing about this kind of stuff is “too advanced” its isn’t. To make get your business or monetized blog reach to the next level you must Always Be Closing. Using basic marketing technique your blog will make more money with the same effort.

When writing your blog- don’t get caught up in SEO tangle and start writing exclusively for search engines instead of people. You need to balance your SEO with good copy that works.