Submit Is the Worst Word on Your Page

I was sitting in a coffee shop last Tuesday, staring at a landing page for a local boutique, and I felt that familiar twitch in my eye. They had a massive, beautiful hero image, a gorgeous color palette, and a button that simply said “Submit.” It’s the ultimate waste of real estate. Most people think they need a high-priced consultant or some complex A/B testing software to figure out how to write button text, but they’re usually just overcomplicating something that should be intuitive. When you hide the actual action behind vague, polite language, you aren’t being sophisticated; you’re just creating friction for the person trying to give you money.

I’m not here to feed you any “growth-hacking” nonsense or tell you that a single word will magically double your revenue overnight. Instead, I want to talk about the mechanics of clarity. I’m going to show you how to strip away the fluff and write labels that tell your users exactly what happens when they click. We’ll focus on the practical stuff: verb choice, expectation setting, and why brevity beats cleverness every single time. No jargon, no expensive fluff—just the logic you need to make your links actually work.

Why Button Label Psychology Beats Fancy Design Every Time

I’ve spent enough time staring at “Submit” buttons to know they are where engagement goes to die. You can spend three weeks picking the perfect shade of brand-aligned teal or adding a subtle drop shadow, but if the words on that button don’t bridge the gap between curiosity and action, the design is just expensive wallpaper. In my experience, button label psychology is what actually moves the needle. People don’t click because a button looks pretty; they click because they understand the immediate value of the transaction.

When I’m auditing a landing page, I look for the friction caused by vague language. A button that says “Click Here” or “Learn More” provides zero cognitive ease. It forces the user to do the heavy lifting of guessing what happens next. Instead, I lean into microcopy best practices that prioritize clarity over cleverness. If you’re offering a guide, tell them they’re “Getting the Guide.” If it’s a newsletter, use “Join the Community.” When you remove the guesswork, you stop fighting the user’s brain and start working with it. This isn’t about being flashy; it’s about ensuring that the path from interest to action is as frictionless as possible.

Microcopy Best Practices for People Who Hate Fluff

If you want to improve your conversion rate optimization, stop treating your buttons like a place to hide your cleverness. Most people treat microcopy like a creative writing prompt, but in reality, it’s a set of directions. When I was managing social accounts for that restaurant chain, I saw dozens of pages where the button said “Explore More” or “Discover.” Those words are useless. They don’t tell the user if they are about to see a menu, a gallery, or a booking form. Clarity is more important than cleverness every single time.

The best cta copywriting tips usually boil down to one thing: eliminate the mental math. Your user shouldn’t have to guess what happens after the click. If they are signing up for a newsletter, tell them “Join the list.” If they are buying a product, use “Get my discount.” I keep a folder of “evidence”—screenshots of buttons that promise “Magic” or “Adventure”—and they almost always fail because they lack a clear destination.

When you follow these microcopy best practices, you aren’t just being “boring”; you are respecting the user’s time and cognitive load. A button should be a functional tool, not a decorative element. If the text doesn’t bridge the gap between where they are and where they want to be, it’s just noise.

Five ways to stop wasting your click-through rate

• Use verbs that actually mean something. “Submit” is a graveyard for engagement; it tells the user they are about to perform a chore. Tell them what they are getting instead, like “Get my guide” or “Join the list.”
• Match the button text to the promise of your headline. If your landing page promises a free template, don’t make the button say “Register.” If I’m promised a template, I want to click a button that says “Download template.”
• Eliminate the “mystery meat” navigation. If a user has to hover their mouse or guess what happens after the click, you’ve already lost them. The text should be a clear bridge between where they are and where they’re going.
• Keep the word count low enough to read on a three-bar signal. I’ve seen people try to fit entire sentences into a button. On a mobile device, that just creates a massive, clunky block that looks like a mistake. Two to four words is the sweet spot.
• Test the “So What?” factor. Before you publish, read your button text aloud and ask, “So what?” If the answer isn’t immediately obvious to a stranger, your copy is too vague. “Click here” fails this test every single time.

The bottom line on button text

If your button text requires a second of thought, you’ve already lost the click; keep it functional, predictable, and stripped of any marketing jargon.

Stop treating buttons like design elements and start treating them like instructions; tell the user exactly what happens the moment they tap.

Test for clarity over cleverness every single time, because a “witty” label is useless if it leaves your audience wondering where the link actually leads.

Stop decorating and start directing

At the end of the day, your button text isn’t there to look pretty or match your brand’s aesthetic palette; it’s there to act as a functional signpost. We’ve covered why you need to ditch the vague “Submit” or “Click Here” nonsense in favor of labels that actually describe the outcome. Remember: clarity always wins over cleverness, and brevity is your best friend when you’re trying to guide someone through a page. If you can’t explain what happens next in three words or less, you haven’t thought about the user journey deeply enough. Focus on the value exchange—tell them exactly what they are getting, whether it’s a PDF guide or a booked consultation—and stop treating your microcopy like an afterthought.

I know it feels small. When you’re staring at a screen full of copy, changing four words on a button feels insignificant compared to your grand marketing strategy. But I promise you, those tiny bits of text are often the only bridge between a visitor scrolling past and a visitor actually converting. Don’t let your hard work go to waste because you were too afraid to be direct. Go back to your landing pages, find those lazy, generic buttons, and replace them with something that actually has a job to do. Your conversion rates—and your sanity—will thank you.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I decide between "Learn More" and something more specific without making the button look cluttered?

“Learn More” is the ultimate safety net for people who don’t want to think, but it’s also a conversion killer. It tells the user nothing. If you’re worried about clutter, don’t add more words; just swap the generic ones. Instead of “Learn more about our seasonal menu,” use “See the menu.” It’s shorter, punchier, and tells them exactly what happens when they click. If it doesn’t add value, it’s just decoration.

Is it actually worth the effort to test different button colors if the text is already solid?

Look, I’ll give you the short answer: if your text is solid, color testing is a luxury, not a necessity. I’ve seen buttons with perfect copy fail because they blended into the background, and I’ve seen neon monstrosities work because they actually provided contrast. Test color to ensure visibility and hierarchy, but don’t go down a rabbit hole of testing fifty shades of blue. If the text tells them what to do and the color makes it easy to find, you’re done.

How much space should I give a button to ensure it's actually clickable on a mobile screen?

Stop guessing and start measuring. If your button is too small, you aren’t just losing clicks; you’re frustrating people. I always aim for a minimum touch target of 44×44 pixels. That’s the industry standard for a reason—it accounts for the average human fingertip. If you’ve got a tight layout, give the button some breathing room with white space. A cramped button is a broken button, especially when someone is trying to tap it while walking.

At what point does adding a little bit of descriptive text under a button become a distraction instead of a help?

It becomes a distraction the moment you stop explaining and start justifying. I call this “anxiety microcopy.” If you need three lines of text to convince someone to click, your button text has already failed. Use a single, punchy sentence if you must—like “No credit card required”—to remove a specific friction point. Anything more than that is just clutter that slows down the page load and confuses the user. Keep it lean.