Website Navigation Tips for a Smooth User Experience

Website Navigation Tips

TechsPlace | We all know that having a good user experience and easy website navigation are the two most important and common aspects that people expect to have when they visit a website. People are dependent on navigation to find the actual website content and elements. Helping users to navigate should be the top-most priority of every website. Because, no matter how much time you spend on creating good content and functionalities, all these efforts go in vain if the visitor is unable to find them.

There are various aspects of your website design that can give a smooth user experience—but when you try to overlook a few details, it can ruin your product design. From the visual draw of your website to its design, structure, use of text, and more, having a good product needs a balance of good features and functionality.

Do you know that bounce rates, conversion, and revenues all are directly impacted by the website’s navigational design? Yes, all these are impacted due to the product hierarchy. Users tend to spend more time on your website if your navigation is intuitive and simple so that they can easily find the website functionalities and navigate from one page to another quickly.

In this post, we’re going to discuss several website navigation tips to have a smooth and flawless user experience. But before we proceed further, let us first know what exactly is website navigation and then list out the tips. So without any further ado, let’s get started!

 

What is website navigation?

Website navigation is the practice of connecting and examining the Internet resources such as various pages that create a website. Basically, it is a collection of UI elements that help visitors find content on the website. Your website’s navigation aims to make it simple for your visitors so that they can find the required content easily that they are looking for.

Using the web browser, users can easily navigate the website just by clicking on links that can switch them from one page to another. Some links can be internal, which shows that they’re connected to pages within the same website whereas other links can be external, which connect to other sites.

A simple website normally features menus, or a set of organized links, that guide users through various pages. Make sure to create your website menus attractive and at the top of the page so that your users can easily find them when they visit your website. Business websites generally feature menu links such as home, about us, blog, contact us, testimonials, pricing, and services and products.

Apart from this, you may find some other links on the page which are important for the business and that the users expect to see. Each link is connected to one or the other page having related information indicated by its title and set of internal links.

 

7 Website navigation tips for a smooth user experience

 

1. Meet basic expectations

There are some important and interesting website navigation elements that users expect to see in particular places. For instance, users expect to have a menu at the top of the page, and a footer at the bottom. So make sure to place such elements as per the user’s requirements so that they can find a menu at the top and options such as FAQs and career opportunities at the bottom. So if you include all these elements in their places on your website you can satisfy the user and encourage them to continue navigating your site.

 

2. Label your menu clearly

After identifying your expectations and the items that you want on your website menu, you should think strategically about labelling them on your website. In this case, your top-most priority should be nothing but clarity—so abstain from utilizing innovative micro-copy and enterprise jargon.

While creating your menu, make sure that the text is clear, not too generic, and descriptive. But if you are not entirely sure about the wording, then you should try two different versions and perform A/B testing on your site to find out that the items are findable. Having a descriptive navigation menu will also give a hint to search engines about what your website is all about.

 

3. Add a search bar

Adding a search bar for website navigation is one of the best strategies if you have heavy content on your site. It can help users to navigate from one page to another just by searching a related keyword. A search bar is important for users who’re not very well familiar with surfing the web. You can place the search bar near your menu so that users can easily find it and have simple access to your site’s content.

 

4. Avoid hidden menus

If you are planning to add hidden menus to your website, please drop this idea because it can create problems for search engines as well as the users. Search engines will be unable to index the data which can lower your position in the ranking results. Users might find these hidden menus confusing which may lead them to select incorrect links that they don’t want to see.

 

5. Use a sticky menu

A sticky menu or floating menu is a menu that allows your user to scroll down for a long-scrolling page and helps them to come to the top of the site just by clicking the Back to top button. Whichever solution you are choosing it should be dependent on your product design and layout. So make sure you’re going with the most convenient option of navigation for your visitors.

 

6. Try to keep home page navigation easy

What your users are searching for is the driving force behind the headlines and content of your website, make sure to add related keywords so that they can find the content easily without navigating from one page to another. Navigation elements that are small or located close, might result in improper actions. This can help you to optimize your content easily and make your website stand out from the rest. This is one of the best ways to improve your search engine ranking and help your visitors to navigate the site and find the information quickly that they are looking for.

 

7. Manage links based on priority

Based on the serial position effect, users focus on the options that appear first and last. This can become your advantage. So you can place your important links at the extreme ends of the menu that will quickly grab the user’s attention. And similarly, place the least important links in the centre of the menu.

 

Key Takeaway

There is no deficiency of websites across the web where people can find exactly what they are looking for. If they find that your website doesn’t have related links, menus, and poor information, then they might leave your site and there is an 80% chance that they will not come to your website again. So make sure to follow the tips that we mentioned in this post so that your users can easily find relevant information that depends on the navigation system.

We hope you find these website navigation tips useful. We would really appreciate your little effort if you share this post on Facebook or Twitter to reach more audiences.