When writing copy for your website, good calls to action matter. These are the links (or even navigation items) that steer your users toward what you want them to do. It’s important, though, to not lose sight of what your website’s users may actually want to do.

Just because you want your website’s users to buy something or fill out a form, it doesn’t mean that your users are ready to. You must recognize that users go through a process of gathering information first, and if you try to rush them to the end of the process, you risk clashing with their mental models.

Imagine, for example, that your company sells widgets through its website. Very expensive widgets. You’ve got a landing page that gives an overview of your three major kinds of widgets with links to pages where the user can get more details.

A strong call to action would be to make those links into bright, shiny buttons that read “Buy Widget X.” It is, after all, what you want your website’s users to do. However, are your users ready to spend a lot of money on Widget X?

You want users to “Buy Widget X.” Users may well need more information about a large purchasing decision. To them, “Buy Widget X” is scary; what they want to do is “Learn More about Widget X” or see a “Detailed Description of Widget X.” A button that reads “Buy Widget X” is jumping ahead of where the user is at, and they may not follow that link because it doesn’t correspond to what they are thinking.

Another example: Instead of making widgets, your company is instead a chain of brake service shops. You’ve got a website that lets potential customers locate a shop near them and schedule an appointment. You’ve got an item in your main navigation that reads “Schedule an Appointment.” It’s what you want users to do. But do they?

In fact, users may want to first know if you even have a location that is convenient for them before they even reach the point where they want to schedule an appointment. If you have “Schedule an Appointment” in your navigation but no “Find a Location,” you’re not meeting the immediate need of your users. You’re just relying on them to figure out that if they go to the page where they schedule an appointment, they can find one of your locations.

Ultimately, though, the only way to know for sure what works is to test it out. In both of these examples, the calls to action may work fine, but you can’t say for sure without trying them out. That’s where usability testing comes in, or if you’re feeling very adventurous, trying it on your actual users and measuring the results.