When someone comes to your website and they like what they see… Do they immediately know what to do next? - They should. That's why you need a strong "call to action". A call to action answers that critical question and gives people a straight navigation route through your website. Here are three things you can do to make sure you're creating a compelling call to action.

1. Make it obvious

I'd love to say otherwise but the truth is most people will only skim your homepage. They won't read all the content you provide. So as they're skimming along make sure the call to action sticks out like a sore thumb. That way they'll get going in the right direction even when they don't take time to read. You can do this by surrounding it with plenty of white space, making it large, and readable.

2. Make it clickable

Your links should look like links and your buttons should look like buttons. Clickable links online are generally blue and have an underline. If that's too tacky try keeping the underline and ditching the blue or try applying a rollover effect that makes the text change colors when a cursor is hovered over it.

Buttons should be on the larger side, have some depth, and or a rollover effect. Flat buttons are all the rage in web design right now but be careful. They don't stand out and say "click me" quite the way as traditional thee dimensional one's.

3. Keep it above the fold

"Above the fold", means the viewable area on someone's screen without scrolling. If you require people to scroll to find your call to action there's a good chance a lot of them will never see it. For best results don't place your call to action more than 700px down a page. By doing that you'll ensure the call to action is viewable on most screen resolutions.

Following these steps on your homepage are sure to increase engagement and conversion rates on your website. If you haven't yet embarked on creating your website sign up and make one for free at WebStarts.com