"Get Started" and "Learn More" are the two most common buttons on small business websites, and they're both weak for the same reason: they don't say what happens if you click them. The buttons that actually get calls say exactly what's on the other side.
Why vague buttons underperform
The Nielsen Norman Group, a longtime usability research group, studied "Get Started" as a button label directly and found it's "too generic and misleading:" a visitor can't tell what it leads to, so it can point to a signup flow, a sales pitch, or basic information, and different people expect different things from the same two words. Their core principle is worth remembering for any button: "a link is a promise." Vague text breaks that promise the moment someone clicks and lands somewhere unexpected, and that mismatch costs trust even when the click itself counted as a technical conversion.
What to do instead: say precisely what happens
Nielsen Norman's own recommendation is to "avoid a generic call-to-action and increase the information scent by stating precisely what users should expect." For a trades or small business site, that means naming the actual action and, where it helps, the outcome:
- Instead of "Get Started," try "Request a Free Estimate"
- Instead of "Learn More," try "See Our Water Heater Pricing"
- Instead of "Contact Us," try "Call Now" or "Schedule an Inspection"
- Instead of "Submit," try "Send My Request"
Each of these tells the visitor exactly what clicking will do, before they click.
Match the button to what actually happens next
This matters beyond just word choice. If a button says "Get a Free Quote" but clicking it opens a long, generic contact form with no mention of a quote, the mismatch itself is the problem, not just the label. Write the button text to match the real next step, not the most appealing-sounding phrase you can find.
One clear action per screen
A page with five buttons of equal visual weight, "Call," "Get a Quote," "Learn More," "See Our Work," "Contact Us," asks a visitor to make a decision before they've decided to act at all. Pick the one action you most want from that specific page, and make it the obvious, dominant choice. Secondary actions can still exist, but visually, one should clearly lead.
Specific beats clever
A clever, vague line might get noticed, but a specific, plain one gets clicked by someone who already knows what they want. For a trades business, most visitors already know why they're on the page; a burst pipe, a dead AC, a roof that needs inspecting. The button's job isn't to persuade them the service exists. It's to remove any doubt about what happens if they act.
A short checklist for any button on your site
- Does it name the actual action? ("Request," "Call," "Schedule," not "Get Started")
- Does it match what actually happens after the click?
- Is there only one primary version of it per screen?
- Would a stranger, reading only the button, know what they're agreeing to?
Write the button after you know what the page is asking for
A button's wording is hard to get right when it's written before the rest of the page has a clear purpose. Decide first what you actually want a visitor to do on that specific page, call, request an estimate, book an inspection, and only then write the button that names it directly. A page built around a vague goal tends to produce a vague button, no matter how much attention goes into the four words themselves.
Questions
Should every button on the site say the same thing?
No. A homepage's primary button might be "Request a Free Estimate," while a specific service page's button can be more specific still, like "Schedule a Water Heater Inspection."
Is "Call Now" a good button even next to a form?
Yes, when it's true and the number is real. Pairing it with a shorter, specific form label ("Send My Request" rather than "Submit") covers both kinds of visitor clearly.
Does button color matter as much as the words?
Color and contrast help a button get noticed, but noticing a vague button doesn't fix the underlying problem. The words are what set the expectation that determines whether the click converts into a real lead.