Place Your Primary CTA Directly Under the Headline
The best default spot for a primary call to action is in the first screenful, center-left or directly under the headline. This is a practical inference, not a measured result. It combines two eye-tracking findings: more than 65% of first-screen viewing time goes to the top half (Nielsen Norman Group, 2018), and about 80% of fixations on web pages land on the left half (Nielsen Norman Group, 2017).
Why the inference holds
Neither study tested buttons or conversions. The research behind this post includes no standalone study of CTA placement and conversion rates. What the studies do show is where people look. Attention concentrates at the top of the first screen and on the left side of the page, because people expect important content there.
A button can only be clicked after it is seen. Putting it where attention already concentrates gives it the best chance of being noticed. Placing it directly under the headline also ties it to the statement that explains why someone would click.
What it means for a business website
Common placements work against this. A button set to the right of a large image sits in the half of the page that gets about 20% of fixations. A button below a tall hero falls into the lower part of the first screen. A site that relies only on a small “Contact” link in the top-right corner of the navigation puts its main action in a spot people tend to pass over.
None of these choices is fatal, but each one makes the page work harder than it needs to.
What to do
- Move the primary button directly below the headline and supporting line, aligned left with the text.
- Keep it inside the first screen on both desktop and phone.
- Use one primary button in the hero rather than several of equal weight.
- Treat this as a starting point and confirm it with your own analytics.
Sources
- Fessenden. Scrolling and Attention. Nielsen Norman Group, 2018.
- Fessenden. Horizontal Attention Leans Left. Nielsen Norman Group, 2017.