Many new webmasters get confused about the simplest things sometimes. Website navigation is one of those things that can trip you up if you put too much thought into it, or too little.
Here are 5 things you should know about basic website navigation:
- One menu is enough – I’ve seen websites with two or three versions of the same navigation menu. They’ll have the top menu or navigation bar, then a sidebar list of links consisting of the same items, and then a footer menu of links that link to all the same pages. Is all of that necessary? In most cases, no. Kill the redundancy.
- Use a hierarchy for big websites – I’ve seen large websites with a simple menu system that leaves off some of the deep pages. You should organize your navigation menu to include 2nd and 3rd tier pages that help your site visitors find your content faster.
- It’s not about the search engines – Navigation elements are there for your site visitors, not the search engines. Quit trying to use your navigation menu as an SEO tool and focus on your visitor.
- Nofollow unnecessary navigational links – Do you really need links to your archive pages, category pages, tag pages, author pages, etc.? If so, at least nofollow them so that you don’t have the search engines crawling around on your website in an endless loop. Again, do it for your site visitor or don’t do it at all.
- Keep it simple – In most cases, a simple website navigation system is best. Don’t make it more complicated than it is. You might need multiple menu bars, one for each section of your website. That’s OK. But do your best not to overcomplicate it.
Website navigation elements are there to help your site visitors find information more efficiently. If it’s too complicated, they’ll leave your website. Focus on user benefit.
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