Navigational Structure

Website Navigation That Increases Conversions

If visitors find your website difficult to navigate, they will leave as fast as they came. Ensuring that your navigation is effective and user-friendly is crucial to your website’s success. Factors to consider when deciding on your navigation design include the following:

Accessibility:

Making your navigation accessible is possibly the most important piece of the navigation puzzle. If visitors can’t find the information they need, they will leave your site to find it elsewhere. Your navigation must be visible and straightforward. And you should avoid using special effects like Flash, Java or JavaScript as your only navigation method.

Appropriateness:

Make sure your navigation is meaningful and appropriate to your audience. Start by making the links clear. Avoid the use of clever or catchy terms that will only confuse visitors. Also, make sure that page titles are clear enough that first-time visitors will know immediately where the links will take them. And stick to proven naming conventions, such as: 

• Products – the products or services the company sells
• About Us – information about the company
• Investor Relations – information specifically for investors
• Support – help for customers

Clarity:

A new trend among website designers is to replace the words in a site’s navigation with images (e.g., using an image of a house to represent the home page). This is acceptable, as long as there is some text associated with the image in order to avoid confusion. Remember that your main goal is not to come across as cute or clever. Rather, it’s to help your visitors find what they need and, in doing so, convert to an inquiry, lead or sale.

Prevalence:

Lastly, your navigation should appear on every page of your site. While you don’t need to have identical navigation on every page, the basic structure should be the same throughout. Changes should be made only to indicate location within the hierarchy.