Website navigation refers to the way a user browses your website as well as its pages, links, content, and various sections. Navigation is essential to a website’s SEO and provides potential customers with a way to find the information they need. In this article, we will explore the role of website navigation in your site, how to optimize it, and some tips you can use to make your site easier for customers to use.

What Is Website Navigation?

Website navigation is the flow of your website–is it clear, concise, and well-organized? It is how users explore your website and create a path to the information they need. From the main page to each page and section of your site, it’s essential to ensure your website’s navigation is user-friendly.

Here are some tips for creating a navigation scheme that is easy for potential customers to use:

1. Organize Your Navigation

If your navigation gets too complicated, you will increase the likelihood of frustrating your users. Make it easy for your customers to find the information they’re looking for by streamlining your website functions. 

Organize your content by placing the most important links at the top of your page, then move down the page to present less critical information. Visitors will also be more likely to explore other pages on your website if your navigation is straightforward.

2. Highlight the Most Important Content

Your website navigation should highlight the most important content and provide customers with quick access to that information. To do this, apply various principles of interaction design to your website. For example, use concise wording to make your links stand out.

Stay away from text-heavy navigation and complex phrases. If your site has plenty of words and sentences, you will not be able to achieve the simplicity you need to provide your users with a clear path to relevant information. Experiment with different layouts and styles of your navigation to find the content that works best.

3. Include a Search Option

The search option should be easy to find and include a simple search bar so that users can quickly find content on your website. They should also be able to search specific sections of your site if they want to access a particular product. Make your search feature stand out through text spacing, highlighting the search box, or creating a button for it.

4. Give Visitors the Ability to Save Favorites

Customers can have a hard time remembering where they visited a website if they have to explore a lot of content. To help your visitors with this, let them save their favourite pages.

This can be as simple as offering a “save this page” option on a particular page. If your website uses a log-in feature, you can also allow users to save favourite pages to an account.

Conclusion

Website navigation is a key element of your site, and it influences not only your site’s SEO but also your site’s engagement. After all, no one likes to click through a hundred links before they can find what they’re looking for.

When it comes to your website’s navigation, you don’t have to sacrifice your site’s design to make it easy for your users to browse. Experiment with designs and layouts to know what works best.

Are you looking for a web design company in Vancouver? Turn to Honeycomb Creative.  We built our first website in 1996 and continue to evolve website design and development services to meet the needs of our clients. Contact us.

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