Proof before the button: where reassurance belongs on a page
Put the reassurance that answers a visitor's doubt right beside the button: a real review, the next step, the price, your response time or your guarantee.
TL;DR
- People pay little attention to the bottom of a page. Put whatever answers the visitor's doubt, such as a real review or your guarantee, right beside the button. Keep the footer links as well.
- Give each page one main button, labelled with what actually happens after the click.
- Use only real reviews you can back up. In Australia, fake reviews are illegal, and hiding or editing genuine negative ones can mislead too.
Use this if: your page gets visitors but few of them click the main button.
A visitor can hesitate at the button while the reviews and guarantee that would settle their doubt sit down in the footer. Both are on the site, but neither is anywhere near the button.
The bottom of the page gets little attention
In eyetracking research published by Nielsen Norman Group (NN/g) in 2018, about 57% of page-viewing time went above the fold, the part of the page you see before scrolling. The first two screenfuls got 74%, and the rest was spread thinly further down.
People do scroll, so the button doesn’t need to be at the top. The proof just needs to sit near it.
Put reviews and guarantees next to the button
NN/g’s Hierarchy of Trust advises meeting a visitor’s trust needs before asking for a bigger commitment, such as contact or payment details. In practice, that means putting the reassurance that answers the visitor’s doubt right before or beside the button.
Match what goes beside the button to what the visitor is wondering.
| What the visitor is wondering | What goes beside the button |
|---|---|
| Are they any good? | One real review or rating, with the writer and source named |
| What happens next? | One line on the next step, such as “We’ll call you to book a time” |
| What will it cost? | The price or starting price, with any extra fees. Add “no obligation” if it’s true. |
| Will anyone get back to me? | Your real response time, with hours and time zone |
| What if it goes wrong? | Your guarantee or returns policy in a sentence, linked to the full version |
| Are they qualified? | The licence or membership that matters for this job |
Say where each review came from, and who wrote it. Shoppers are sceptical of reviews on a brand’s own site. In testing that Baymard Institute published in 2022, 62% of participants said they’d look for third-party reviews (reviews on sites the brand doesn’t control) before buying from an unfamiliar brand.
NN/g found people looked at a testimonial writer’s job title and company. They were especially receptive to testimonials where the writer started with a concern and then sounded confident.
Be upfront about cost. Baymard’s survey of US online shoppers, last updated in September 2025, asked why they abandoned purchases. Among shoppers who weren’t just browsing, 40% said extra costs such as shipping or fees were too high. And 12% said they couldn’t see or work out the total cost up front.
Promise only a response time you can keep. NN/g reported in 2019 that most users expect a reply to a form within 24 hours.
Repeat the reassurance next to the button, and keep the footer links too: Baymard found a subgroup of shoppers consistently look in the footer for returns and shipping information.
Use one main call to action per page
Give each page one main call to action (the button you most want clicked), and make it the most obvious button near the proof. Buttons that share a colour read as equally important, so NN/g recommends a separate colour for the primary action.
The label should say what happens next, so “Request a callback” tells people more than “Submit”. NN/g found vague labels like “Get Started” sent people into quizzes and sign-up forms before they understood the offer, and it advises stating precisely what users should expect.
Use only real reviews: the Australian rules
Every review near the button has to be real, and you need to be able to prove it. Under the Australian Consumer Law (the national law on how businesses deal with customers), it’s illegal to create or arrange a fake or misleading review. A review counts as fake or misleading if:
- the writer hasn’t used the product or service
- you or someone else removed or changed it after the customer posted it
- family, employees or people paid by the business wrote it without disclosing that connection
- it came from an incentive to write a positive review, or from an incentive that wasn’t clearly disclosed
Incentives are allowed only when offered for positive and negative reviews alike and clearly disclosed. Google Maps is stricter: it bans review incentives outright, along with asking only happy customers for reviews.
Leave genuine negative reviews up. The ACCC (the national consumer regulator) warns that omitting them can be as misleading as posting fake ones.
If a testimonial is challenged in legal proceedings, section 29 of the Australian Consumer Law presumes it’s misleading unless evidence is produced to the contrary. Keep the original review and the customer’s permission to use it.
If you advertise a regulated health service, the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law bans using testimonials about clinical aspects of that service in advertising. Check the advertising guidance from Ahpra, the national health practitioner regulator, before you add reviews.
Guarantees and prices next to the button must be accurate
The consumer guarantees in the Australian Consumer Law, such as goods being of acceptable quality, can’t be excluded or reduced, so a money-back guarantee has to add to them.
Any price you show has to be the total: the ACCC’s price display rules say to show it as a single figure that includes taxes and any unavoidable fees.
This is general information, not legal advice. Last checked 10 October 2026.
The result: doubts get answered at the button
The visitor who hesitates finds the answer right beside the button, instead of in a footer they may never reach.