Tips for Developing a Navigation For A New Website
Navigation is one of the essential elements of a website. Without good navigation, your website will not be successful. In addition, the navigation also prevents users from getting lost in the search engine. Make sure your navigation is professional and stylish, and be sure to use menu items and links that are visible from the entire page. Here are seven tips for developing navigation for a new website
Find A Standard Place for Your Navigation
When designing your navigation, the first thing you should do is put it somewhere where all visitors can see it. This means putting it at the top or bottom page, near the header, or even in the sidebar.
Don’t forget about using CSS if possible so that other parts of your site don’t get affected. The location doesn’t matter as much here as for other design elements. Try to make your navigation look good wherever it appears.
Create A Main Menu and Sub-Menus
Creating a master navigation bar with several pages linked together by menus is best. This way, you have a central location to track what’s available and how users navigate your site. Since navigation styles may vary between companies and websites, try making different looks to make your navigation unique.
If you want to add more layers to your navigation system, you might consider creating a sub-menu. Sub-menus contain their own set of links to separate them from the rest of the website.
Use A Simple and Easy to Understand the Structure
When working on any navigation, start by thinking about which sections of your website would logically fit into categories. What kind of content would naturally go together?
After deciding this, build out each team and link it up to its appropriate category. This helps organize the content on your pages, giving visitors a better impression of where they are.
Add a Call-to-Action Button
It is always good to include a call-to-action button on every page. These buttons lead users to specific items in your navigation, such as your homepage, contact information, or another part of your site. Remember to only add these on your landing pages or pages that will likely convert well.
Include A Clear Title
Always remember to write great titles. When people click on links in a web browser, the text is displayed underneath each link. Make sure those titles stand out and are descriptive enough to grab attention.
Always Use Keywords
While there isn’t much room for creativity here, writing keywords into the page headers and footers will help increase the chance of someone searching for those terms. Also, never miss an opportunity to add keyword tags to images. You can add the tags directly after uploading them on Facebook and Google+ accounts.
Keep Things Organized
Make sure that everything is laid out neatly. This includes keeping headings related to one another. It also includes taking advantage of the hover effect to give users information about what’s behind those links. Lastly, try removing unnecessary clutter from the navigation itself.
Remove large icons or ads and instead replace them with text links. Make sure there aren’t too many options for users to choose from; some can take away from the clean appearance of your navigation.
Link Your Current Site to External Sites
If you have your website or blog already, make sure to incorporate it into your new website navigation. This gives potential visitors more reasons to visit your company online and learn more.
To do this, create a copy of the navigation built for your old site, edit it as needed, then upload the finished version onto your new website. To avoid duplicate content issues, make sure to change the URL for each page once the new site has been launched.
Be Consistent
Consistency is key. Even though it usually takes time for users to become familiar with changes made to a website, users quickly become accustomed to seeing specific visual cues over time. So, if you make frequent changes to your navigation, keep in mind how your visitors may react. Instead of rearranging entire navigation parts when something doesn’t look right, update existing elements.
Test It Before Launch
Before launching your new site, test the navigation. Use the tips mentioned above plus one bonus tip: don’t forget to search for yourself. If your navigation is confusing, chances are your marketing campaign won’t be successful. And no matter how hard you work, there’s no way around testing.
Creating a practical and attractive navigation tool is easy when you know where to start. If you follow our ten steps, you should be ready to go.
Categorized in: Digital Marketing
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