Calls to action (CTAs) are very important— especially on homepages. They encourage people to move past the initial virtual introduction and get to know your church in greater depth.
But steer clear of the much beloved "learn more." It's what we call in my industry a conversion killer, which in the church context could accidentally take on a whole new meaning! 🙃
As part of the communications course I taught in August, I reviewed three of the participating churches' websites. "Learn more" was the only call to action used on all three homepages and on two of the three it was used multiple times!
The problem with "Learn more" is three-fold:
1. It's weak.
It's boring. It's impersonal. And unconsciously it brings up memories of sitting at a desk in a classroom waiting for the bell to ring. Nothing about "learn more" is enticing or incentivizes your website visitors to continue browsing.
2. It lacks clarity.
As I explained in last week's blog post, our brains want to conserve as much energy as possible in processing information. We want to know almost instantly if something is going to interest us or not. "Learn more" gives our brains very little indication as to what follows and the likeliest outcome is that they will simply move on to something else.
Furthermore, clear navigation—the way in which you steer your web visitors through your website—is a hallmark of an effective website. Learn more links offer a suggestion, not direction.
3. It harms your search engine optimization.
That's right. Too many learn more links can actually negatively impact your rankings. Optimize your website through the use of more targeted keywords that use language specific to your church where possible.
Now that you understand why learn more links are not just unhelpful but harmful to your church's website, here is a list of 20 alternative words or phrases instead!
Discover
Explore
Get started
Will you join us?
Let's...
Take a look
Find out more
Show me more
Show me how
Tell me more
Yes, I want...
Start...
I'd like more details
What's next
What happens next
Check us out
See us in action
Get more info
Learn how
How do I...
Which one(s) will you use?