How to Write Calls to Action

At an unnamed retailer's checkout, the button to proceed with a purchase was labelled "Register". Jared Spool's January 14, 2009 account describes its replacement: "Continue," beside a message saying purchases didn't require an account.

You do not need to create an account to make purchases on our site.

Spool reported that purchasing customers rose 45%, adding $15 million in the first month and $300 million in the first year. These are figures from his report; the verified account doesn't establish how they were measured.

The account message matters when you interpret that change. A label saying "Continue" leaves the account requirement unexplained on its own.

Map the click before naming it

Before you draft a label, click your own button and keep going until the task the page promises is done. Write down each screen, what it asks for and where money changes hands.

That message about accounts only holds if the guest route really exists. A shopper who clicks "Continue" and meets a compulsory password field three screens later would still have to create an account to buy.

For this invented exercise, a visitor is booking a live review of their landing-page copy. The first click opens a calendar; they choose a review time, enter contact details and pay $40 to confirm the booking.

If the steps you recorded don't match what the page says, take your notes to whoever owns the flow. Sometimes the copy needs to change, and sometimes the checkout does.

Map the unhappy paths too. If no review times remain, "Book today" promises something the calendar can't deliver. Record the unavailable state so you can write a message for it where that state appears.

Record any charge before approving the copy beside the calendar.

Check a booking action against its destination

Ask a reviewer to choose an available review time, then stop before paying. Compare the label with the step they just completed and check where the page explains the $40 payment that confirms the booking.

The calendar lets a visitor choose a time before the payment step confirms the booking.

What should a button label say?

The GOV.UK Design System asks for button text in sentence case that describes the action it performs. Its example comes with a condition: use "Save and continue" only "when the service does save a user's information."

Pick the verb after you know what the click does. At that checkout, the message beside "Continue" explained that shoppers could buy without an account. I'd pick plain words over clever ones, so people can predict the next screen.

A draft label can change the expected commitment

Account creation

Register

Proceeding with the purchase

Continue

Check whether someone can actually purchase without creating an account.

Jared Spool reported these checkout labels, where a message beside the button explained the account requirements.

For the review booking, write "Choose a review time." "Confirm my booking" belongs later, at the step that makes the reservation. Hold each label beside its destination and check whether it names the action available there.

Explain the commitment beside the button

The sentence about accounts did work the label couldn't. It answered the question a shopper had at that exact spot: do I have to sign up to buy this?

The review label leaves a different question open: when do I pay? Put "Choose a time, then pay $40 to confirm your review" beside it. The price is visible before the visitor opens the calendar.

Only promise terms the service keeps. If your sentence says an account is optional, provide a clear guest route that lets people finish without creating one. A phrase added out of habit, like "No obligation," can turn false the day the flow changes.

Keep critical conditions where people can see them. A tiny, low-contrast note is a poor home for a charge or a renewal term.

Questions to settle before writing supporting copy

Is an account required?

Identify when registration is optional.

Follow the guest route to the confirmation screen and check for a later registration requirement.

When is money taken?

Locate the step that authorizes payment.

Keep any charge information visible before the visitor commits.

What does the form need?

Ask who uses each requested detail.

If a field has no current purpose, take it back to the team that owns the form.

Use this audit to gather terms before drafting the copy beside a button.

Reduce unnecessary work in the destination

When you follow the click, read the form as carefully as the label. For each field, ask why it's needed at this step and whether a visitor would understand the request.

Baymard's form-field research is about the effort checkout forms create. It gives you good reason to question every field in a checkout, and it doesn't set a field limit for other kinds of forms.

In the review booking, an email address has a job: delivering confirmation. If the form also demands a postal address, ask the process owner what needs posting before accepting it as required. Keep fields the actual service needs.

Check whether visitors have to type anything twice, or start over after an error. UX Microcopy That Helps People Finish covers the labels and confirmations that get them through those steps.

Give different actions an understandable hierarchy

If your page offers guest checkout alongside registration, make each route clear before people pick.

Give the same label to the same action every time it appears. If two buttons share a name and lead to different commitments, change the wording or the flow until the difference shows.

For the review page, "See a sample review" can sit beside "Choose a review time" with less visual emphasis. The sample link should open a sample; sending both to the calendar would erase the choice the labels offered.

Your hero section gives the first button its context. Check the later buttons where they sit too, since someone may land on them from a link and never read the top of the page.

Check the accessible name and visible wording

Once the button is built, check its accessible name, the name assistive technology reads out for it. The W3C tutorial on labeling controls explains how buttons get their names.

Make sure that name matches the words on screen. A leftover "Register" in the code could contradict a new "Continue" on the page.

Then look at the button with larger text and on a narrow screen. The label and the sentence alongside it should both still fit and read clearly.

Check the links around it as well. A row of "Learn more" links is hard to tell apart, while "Read the cancellation terms" says where it goes.

Review the complete action

1. Predict

   Read the label and nearby text. Write what you expect to happen.

2. Follow

   Open the destination and complete the realistic next steps.

3. Compare

   Check the actual cost, requested information, timing, and confirmation against that expectation.

4. Revise

   Change the promise or the flow wherever the two disagree.

Evaluate understanding before chasing clicks

Show the label and its sentence to someone like your reader before you explain anything. Ask what they expect to happen next, and whether they think they'll need an account or have to pay.

Compare their answer with the route you mapped. If they expect to register on a checkout that doesn't require it, fix the wording that misled them and ask someone new.

Spool's report describes the label and account message changing together. It doesn't isolate the effect of the label, so don't treat the reported increase as evidence for using "Continue" everywhere.

If you test your revision, decide first which completed action you'll count, and track mistaken or abandoned attempts too. Handling Objections on Landing Pages can help you find the worry worth answering before that test.

Audit the commitment around a button

Pick the main button on one of your pages. The Landing Pages topic places that action within the rest of the page. Before you click, write down what you expect to happen.

Follow it to the end and mark each place where the real process parts from your note. Rewrite the label and its sentence together, and take any flow changes to whoever owns the destination.

In the invented test run, the reviewer reads "Choose a review time" beside "Choose a time, then pay $40 to confirm your review." They expect a calendar first and a charge later.

The button opens the calendar. The reviewer chooses a time, enters contact details and pays $40 to confirm the booking. On the review sheet, they record that the label names the first step and the sentence explains the later payment.