No matter how good your website looks, people can be discouraged from exploring it if they can’t easily find their way around. Good navigation means a visitor can go straight to whatever they are looking for. The longer that process takes, the more likely it is they’ll give up and go elsewhere.
To improve your site navigation, think about what your target visitor is going to want. What information do they need? What are they searching for? Answering those questions is important if you want to provide good navigation on your site.
What’s in your menu?
Most sites have a menu with links to other portions of the site. A contact page and the main topics of interest will likely be there. Make sure the most important elements are included there, so your visitors can select them when they land on your site. They should be in view without scrolling.
In some cases, your menu may need subsections to fit everything in. For example, if you own a hotel, you’ll need a menu section on accommodation. In that section, you might offer different options for single, double, and luxury rooms. This would enable visitors to go straight to the page they want to see.
Setting up internal links
Not only is this good for the search engines, it’s good for your users too. Link to relevant content on each page, so your visitors can easily find their way to topics that interest them, rather than searching for it themselves. The easier you can make this process, the better it will be for you and your target audience.
Making everything clear and easy to scan
Notice I said scan, not read. Your visitors need to be able to scan your content, keeping them on the site for longer in the process. have you ever left a site in seconds because the pages were filled with huge wodges of text you couldn’t be bothered to wade through? I have, too – we all have.
Providing simple and clear links to appropriate information your visitor wants to read is the main aim here. Do that, and your website navigation is likely to be far more appealing to everyone who visits.