A visitor reaches your homepage’s main button and reads “Get started”, although they still don’t know whether clicking it will open the product, create an account or arrange a sales call. The wording is familiar, but it leaves the next step unexplained, which is a useful place to begin when reviewing your calls to action.
Nielsen Norman Group’s guidance on interface copy recommends concise, descriptive labels that explain what happens when someone selects them. Applied to website copy, that gives us a practical question: does the CTA help the reader understand the action they are about to take? The following examples illustrate how to answer it.
“Get started”: explain what someone is starting
“Get started” can work when the surrounding copy makes the process obvious, so there is little reason to replace it automatically across your website. Where the first step remains unclear, however, “Create an account” or “Audit my page” gives the reader more information about what they are choosing.
The replacement must match the experience, which means an audit button should not suggest an immediate result if the next screen introduces an unexplained registration process. Read the label alongside the steps that follow it before deciding whether the wording is accurate.
“Learn more”: name the destination when it helps
If one link opens a sample report and another explains pricing, giving both the label “Learn more” misses an opportunity to distinguish them. “View a sample report” and “Compare plans” tell readers what information they will find, helping them choose the destination relevant to their question.
Context still matters: W3C’s accessibility guidance allows a link’s purpose to be established through its text and associated context. “Learn more” is therefore not inherently wrong, although a descriptive label can make the destination understandable without requiring the reader to piece it together.
“Submit”: describe the request being made
At the end of a quotation form, “Request a quote” describes the visitor’s intention more clearly than “Submit”, while “Join the waiting list” explains a different outcome that deserves its own wording. These examples apply the GOV.UK Design System’s recommendation to describe the action a button performs.
Keep the promise proportionate to the process, so a request that requires someone to review the details does not sound like an instant quotation. Nearby copy can explain what happens after the form is sent.
“Contact us”: give the conversation a purpose
“Contact us” works as a general navigation label, but beneath a specific service offer you can often say more about why someone would get in touch. “Discuss your project” could suit an enquiry form, while “Book an introductory call” fits a page where visitors can actually choose a meeting time.
That distinction is worth preserving because expressing interest and booking an appointment are different commitments, even when both eventually lead to the same conversation.
“Continue”: make consequential actions explicit
“Continue” can accurately describe moving between steps, but it becomes less informative when clicking completes a purchase or sends an application. GOV.UK’s button guidance distinguishes actions such as continuing, saving and paying, reflecting the different consequences each button carries.
For a checkout, “Review your order” tells the visitor that another checking step follows, while “Place order” identifies the action that completes the purchase. Choose the wording by following the actual journey.
Review the journey alongside the wording
Start with your page’s main CTA and check whether the heading, supporting copy and destination tell the same story. If the offer remains unclear or the next screen introduces unexpected requirements, changing the button alone leaves those problems unresolved.
For a broader review, use our website copy audit guide to check how the offer, evidence and next step work together, then prioritise the changes that remove the most consequential uncertainty.