subject: Website Navigation: How to Optimize Web Site Navigation [print this page] Make no mistakeMake no mistake. the most impressive looking and product-rich web site will fail to convert visitors into paying customers if they are unable to more quickly and easily find what they are looking for. There's a lot of competition out there. Develop and design a web site that's easy to understand and use, and you'll attract more than your fair share of visitors - visitors that will return, and buy, again and again. Fail in this, and the only one's smiling will be your competitors.
How do we accomplish this? By utilizing intuitive navigation techniques. Use them in the development and design of your web site; then sit back as hordes of satisfied customers return to your internet business on a regular basis. And you'll find when marketing online, return business is your key to significant and effortless profits.
Ok, so what exactly is intuitive navigation - and how do we design it into our web site? I can tell you what it's not. It is not flashy, creative designs that entertain and distinguish you from the other 'dull' web sites out there. Simply defined, intuitive navigation implements a familiar and consistent look and feel across all the design elements of your web site. These elements include;
GOOGLE ADSENSE Menu:
Your website menu - the table of contents if you will - that directs visitors throughout the various pages of your site should be consistent, and included on every page. Websites that contain a menu on the home page only or certain select pages on the web site (and I've seen far too many of these), force visitors to use the Back button (or click on the logo to return to the home page). The common result, visitors do more clicking and visitors get lost. And visitors who get lost... well, 'get lost'.
And for Pete's sake, keep your menu style and placement consistent from page to page. Again, fancy and different equals confusion. Confusion equals frustration. And frustration equals 'no sale'.
Site map:
Another useful website element, and one that's missing in many business web sites, the site map is a web page that contains a hierarchical, top-down, organized list of all the sections, or pages, on your website. It's a road map through your web labyrinth, which can get you where you want to go more directly, that is, quicker (especially to access links). It can also make up for any design 'sins' on your menu. And for many left brainers, like myself, it is sometimes the preferred route.
For those large pages on your web site, which require page scrolling, it is preferable to include subtitles in your copy, for readability. Repeating these subtitles at the top of your page, linked to the subtitle in the copy, makes it easier for visitors to access or return to those sections of the copy that most interest them.
Website Navigation: How to Optimize Web Site Navigation
