How to Design Navigation for

Your Website?

When designing a website, many people focus more on its

aesthetics – colors, images, fonts, etc. They often give less

importance to navigation, one of the important elements of an

effective website. Well-designed navigation not only enables

visitors get the information easily but also helps search engine

bots crawl through and index the webpages.

In this article, we will discuss designing user- and search

engine-friendly navigation for your website.

Use simple and user-friendly terms for navigation menu

You may have great content on your website, but it is of no use

if your visitors cannot access it easily. The navigation menu is

the primary visual element of any website. An important aspect

of a website’s navigation is the ease of using it. So, make sure

that you keep it simple and clear with common terms that are

easy to figure out.

Don’t assume that people already know your business/industry

and include the industry jargon. Even an average (educated)

individual should be able to understand your menu and should

know where they will be directed when they click that link.

Use breadcrumbs to let visitors know where they are

Without knowing where exactly you are, you cannot reach your

destination. Breadcrumbs play an important role in a website’s

usability. A breadcrumb is a secondary navigation scheme that

helps users know where they are exactly on the site. In other

words, a breadcrumb shows the path the user has traversed

(navigated) so far in a fixed order. Note however that

breadcrumbs should not replace the primary navigation menus.

Standardize navigation menu

Make sure that the navigation menu is identical and consistent

across all the pages of the website. Otherwise, there are chances

your visitors may become confused and subsequently frustrated

with your website.

Use a sitemap

A sitemap is simply a map that shows the structure of the

website. The sitemap enables users to quickly find the

information they are looking for on the website. There are two

types of sitemaps – XML sitemap and HTML sitemap. XML

sitemaps are used by search engines to identify and crawl

important pages on a website. HTML sitemaps are user-readable

and contain links to all the sections and important pages of the

website.

Descriptive anchor text links

Anchor text is the visible, clickable text in the link of a

webpage. Make sure that the anchor text is relevant to the

landing page content. Some website designers try to stuff the

targeted keywords in the anchor text assuming it will help them

with rankings. Though this technique may have worked earlier,

today it is considered spam to manipulate the search engine

rankings.

When users land on your website, they often scan pages/link

text to know what the page is about and where it takes them

within the website. Therefore, it's important to provide

descriptive links that are meaningful, easy to understand and

have proper keywords that make sense for the user.

The text given/used for links should reflect the purpose of the

page where the link redirects. Proper links will eventually

enhance user interest to reach the destination on the website.

Put headings on top location for lengthy pages

Studies show that users focus more on the initial viewable area

of a webpage and they avoid scrolling down to see the

remaining content. Therefore, make sure to include all the

important headings of sections on top of the lengthy pages.

Enable the back button on every webpage

According to Nielsen Norman Group, the ‘Back’ button is the

lifeline of the web user and the second-most used navigation

feature (after hypertext links). Still, many website designers

ignore the ‘Back’ button while designing websites. Visitors on

your website are more likely to explore your website if it has a

‘Back’ button. They will want to be able to click on any link on

the webpage and can go back to the earlier page by clicking the

‘Back’ button.

Do not clutter the footer section with unnecessary links

Generally, links to the pages that are important for customer

experience like FAQs, support, terms of service, privacy policy,

etc. are placed in the footer. You can even include the main

pages that you want your visitors to see in the footer. But you

have to be very careful while doing this as you should always

keep the user experience in mind – Don’t just clutter up the

footer section with unnecessary links.

If visitors can find what they are looking for easily, they are

more likely to stay on the site, and make transactions/deal with

you. Otherwise, they will leave the website without doing any

activity; this leads to high bounce rate and reduced search

engine rankings.

Hope these points help you design an effective website

navigation.

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