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Ask HN: Do you actually click “Get Started” on landing pages?
I've been thinking about landing pages lately, and something occurred to me about my own behaviour.
When I'm on a typical product landing page, I instinctively avoid clicking any obvious call to action item, especially something like "Get Started".
Does anyone else do this? Do you often get to a landing page and feel like you can't figure out what to do next, because the idea of clicking "get started" honestly doesn't occur to you?
- MichaelCrawford 11y agoI don't click them but many people do. This is easily demonstrated through A/B testing. Dave Johnson, President of Working Software told me the reason that so many advertisements say "BUY NOW! DON'T DELAY" is "because it works". "Ask my mother why she likes advertising." -- Karen Salzman "Why do you like advertising?" -- Me "It tells me what to buy." I swear I'm not making this up. For me, just about the most effective call to action I've ever seen is a developer blog linked from here at HN. At the end of each article it said "Read This Next" then linked another technical article. I read every article on that guy's site. I find it helpful that someone notes the "Reading Time" at the top of each of his developer blogs; I plan to add that.
- syllogism 11y agoOut of interest, was it this: http://prog21.dadgum.com/ http://prog21.dadgum.com/ ? Because if so, I had a very similar experience. I also find material that has a lot of interesting in-text self-links will suck me in, ala TV Tropes, Wikipedia, etc.
- gus_massa 11y agoDirect quote from patio11: http://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/12/01/inaugural-kalzumeus-podcast-japan-startups-ab-testing-and-more/ http://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/12/01/inaugural-kalzumeus-podc... > People make fun of me. I’ve been saying this stuff about A/B testing and whatnot for years. I make buttons bigger and it almost always works better. One of the English as a second language folks in one of my forums was talking one day and he’s like, “I know Patrick loves his big, orange, pancake buttons.” Big, orange, pancake button is my keyword for this now because big, orange, pancake buttons really effing work. Go ahead.
- gk1 11y agoI wrote about the common "Sign Up" buttons you see in the top-right corner of nearly every SaaS site: http://www.gkogan.co/blog/stop-asking-me-to-sign-up/ http://www.gkogan.co/blog/stop-asking-me-to-sign-up/ Every time I test a more prominent and specific button, it wins in terms of clicks or signups. So an indirect answer to your question is: "It usually works." Does it win in terms of better customers? Not always. Which is why it's important to measure beyond just clicks. > Does anyone else do this? Do you often get to a landing page and feel like you can't figure out what to do next, because the idea of clicking "get started" honestly doesn't occur to you? If you're the target audience and you're hesitant to click "Get Started," then the landing page failed. This is why I do usability tests in which I watch participants interact with a page and tell me what confuses them. You won't know those things from quantitative metrics.
- contingencies 11y ago[ ALL OTHER AVENUES ARE EXHUASTED ]
- lcswi 11y agoGet Started is so nondescript. I usually avoid it.
- cdvonstinkpot 11y agoI always want to learn more about whatever it is first, before I dive in. So I'll look at FAQ's, or something to that extent first. I get offended by those which assume I'll sign on before learning what exactly I'm signing up for.
- jeffmould 11y agoTo answer your question, for me it really depends on the site and the product/service. I usually will dig around on the site to make sure it is what I am looking for and then click a get started button if I like what I see. As someone else pointed out if the individual viewing the page is your target audience and they are hesitant to click a "get started" button, the page and/or site failed in conveying the value of the product/service. There is a lot of psychology that goes into the wording of buttons, and while you may tell yourself "oh that would never work for me", the truth is that subconsciously it probably does work and you just don't realize it sometimes. I have always found these two articles informative (actually the whole CopyHackers site is a pretty good resource in general): http://copyhackers.com/2012/11/how-to-find-and-eliminate-friction-words-in-your-web-copy/ http://copyhackers.com/2012/11/how-to-find-and-eliminate-fri... http://copyhackers.com/optimize-your-business-online-training/calls-to-action/ http://copyhackers.com/optimize-your-business-online-trainin...
- syllogism 11y agoActually that copyhackers site raises another good example, of where I start to suspect I must be just weird. When that little nag element popped up in the bottom corner, I couldn't read the rest of the article. I stopped reading to try to remove it, but I couldn't. It was then really distracting, so I gave up just closed the tab. Copyhackers must be A/B testing their site to death...So the percentage of people who have a similar reaction must be pretty small.
- jeffmould 11y agoIt's interesting you bring that up. I hate those newsletter signup popups that appear on sites. With that said, I can attest that they do actually work and surprisingly really well. My first experience with them I figured people would signup and then unsubscribe fairly quickly. However, the complete opposite ended up happening. We got tons of signup, people stuck around, and shared our content more than ever before. Needless to say, as much as I personally hate them, I will use them on future projects.
- jakejake 11y agoI almost always want to see a prominent video or screenshots first (or for developer libs/services an examples page). So I'll look for that link before clicking any big buttons. When I see "Get started" I usually think "sign up" so it's not going to be the first thing I click.
- syllogism 11y agoThis sounds right to me — I feel like you have to sell me before you try to convert me. But everyone puts the conversion button first...so maybe my intuition about what works for me is wrong. Or maybe I'm just weird.
- multiplex 11y agoYes, all the time. I feel like as soon as I press the button, I'll turn into a prospective customer from a bystander and a nasty salesperson will start talking to me about all the awesome things about the product. So I recline.
- edoceo 11y agoDoes it matter what you think about the buttons? No. It matters what your target audience thinks. A/B test FTW.
- AmroAdel 11y agoActually, I think that having "Get Started" in any application/Website means that this app/website doesn't have a User friendly interface and failed in explaining its value.