I bought gas at my local super market recently.

Wow! Gas pumps have come a long way. They are now a combination of “call-to-actions” with a few important warning messages buried among the teases for cigarettes and soft drinks. This pump happened to have 15 different “call-to-actions” strategically place to catch the attention of the customer.

The pump is designed well and the same techniques used at the pump should be considered when designing a website. I was a captive of this pump for 5-10 minutes today. The super market chain definitely knows the importance of marketing and does not take the buyer’s attention for granted.

This is what I learned from the gas pump.

1.It uses primary colors. I love the use of color and many companies have specific colors that must be used to compliment their branding. One thing is certain. Primary colors work well when used as a building block for “call-to-actions”. If at all possible, use primary colors when designing your company website. They stand out and contrast each other while grabbing the attention of the website visitor.

2. The pump uses complimentary color combinations as well (red-green and blue-orange) to establish a contrast from one “call-to-action” to another. The green ads jump higher off of the red pump as a result. The sign on top of the pump works well given the position of the blue and orange signs and their adjacent position to each other. Black is used in combination with yellow; the two most contrasting colors on the color wheel to make certain we don’t miss the discounted prices. Use complimentary colors on your company website. They cause a visual reaction that demands attention.

3. Arrows and the vertical and horizontal arrangements of both the pump hoses, hardware and graphics lead the customer’s eye around the pump. A television screen with sound and looping video is strategically placed so that upon collecting the hose or returning it, you can’t miss the video at eye level. The lines of your website navigation albeit horizontal or vertical should lead the website visitor to the other elements on the page. Given that most website visitors read right to left and up to down, use horizontal navigation to lead the visitor to your first call to action. Use the vertical lines of the call to action to lead the visitor down to the next call-to-action and so on.

4. The pump includes small signs attached to the hoses at the top of the hose. I expect the thinking is, when we pull the hose away from the pump, we quite often will look up towards the spot where the hose is attached. The grocery chain takes no sudden glance for granted. They have attached small signs to the hose at the top to capture yet another second of the buyer’s eye. There are natural positions on your company web page, that a visitor simply cannot ignore. Seek those spots out so to capture another second of your visitor’s attention.

I expect that the positioning of all the call-to-actions on the pump are place with purpose in descending order from most important to least important. Place the elements on your website the same way. You’ve got but a few seconds to engage website visitors. Be concise and have a call-to-action that does just that; call the visitor to move, jump, or run to you for your product or service. We shouldn’t forget SEO value of positioning of items on your site as well. The search engines examine the position of both content and alt tags and give that significance in their algorithm’s. The pump utilizes the call-to-actions to drive sales for various items. Your company website should do that too.