I'm struggling to think of a website that doesn't try to get you to do something.
Buy Now, Sign up, Subscribe, Reply, Add Comment, Call us on... Get the latest model.. learn more... Play online now, etc.

All these are examples of calls to action, that is they are trying to get you the visitor to engage with the website or the company or the organisation in some way.

But then I look at lots of websites where there isn't a call to action of any sort on the site, or its not visible or obvious.

There has always been competition in some way however the www has made that global, certainly not so many years ago, the thought of directly buying a product sight unseen from a company at the other end of the country was utterly ridiculous but now, we don't think twice about it, the Royal Mail, UPS, Fed Ex or DHL will deliver it right to our door.

What that means is that for any particular small company, they don't just compete with other company's in the town, county or state, now, each small company is competing on a country wide and possibly global level which in traditional marketing terms was just an impossibility. Now with the web its free and easy. However,...

The however is that more competition = more noise and when there's more noise, you need to shout louder to be heard.

There are many ways to get noticed with a nice professionally designed site, great graphics, excellent content and these are all part of the mix but what you're doing is asking for the customer to buy from you (even if metaphorically) and that's Sales 101. If you don't ask for the order, you're less likely to get it.

So
Get your visitors Attention
Excite their Interest
Create a Desire
Ask for the Action

This is just fine for business sites but does this work for non profit making sites?
Well, yes.
Take a church for example, Join Us!, Always a warm welcome, find out more.
How about a charity? Please donate and help XYZ
What about a hobby site? Matchstick modelling, Look at my fantastic models, 30,000 hours of work!

A call to action doesn't need to be cold hard and commercial to be effective, it just needs to ask the visitor to do the thing they've come to your site for even if its something as simple as 'Join our online cute pussycat discussion forum'

Every website really should have a call to action. Does yours? Is it visible? Does it ask the right question (or the question you want asking).

Ask your visitors to do what you want them to do, Don't make them think as they probably won't.

I hope this helps.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Geek-u-like (Andrew),