Designing a website is a complex process, which combines a lot of small elements and experiences together. Each element has its importance and most of them irreplaceable. One of them is navigation. This “small bar” at the top of the page is extremely crucial. On one hand, it guides visitors thought the most important part of your site and it serves as a lead for them, on the other hand, it also has a massive impact on SEO. If the site is easy to use, it will appear in the top places in search engine listings.
Navigation vs. Search
Navigation is a list of categories or features of the website, which can be represented either by a text link to a sub-page or icons. The navigation menu is often visually distinguished from the rest of the website’s design, and it basically helps visitors to find the information they want on the website.
Some may argue that Search may help users to find what they want more efficiently. However, Gerry McGovern did research, which showed that 70% of the web users rely on navigation and on a 30% use search. There is a reason why people trust navigations more than a search because they contain the words that people are looking for, so it’s easier to just click on the text in navigation than use search.
“Navigation is more important than search,” Gerry McGovern.
It is crucial for the site to have thorough navigation. Here are some do’s and don’ts when it comes to designing website navigation.
Use the right labels
Simplified navigation labels are hurting your website. Labels like Products, Photos, Videos are too generic and they do not communicate with first-time users. Visitors usually search for information and answers. Instead of using labels like Team or About, be more descriptive and use Meet our Team or How it Works.
As mentioned above, navigation helps to guide your users, but it also helps your website’s SEO. Using descriptive labels in navigation will help your rank in search results. Descriptive labels are also helping your visitors to go through your website more intuitively.
Less is more
Make the journey through your website the easiest possible. Firstly, limit the number of items in navigation to a maximum of seven. Having fewer links on your homepage is good for the site’s SEO, and the new users won’t get lost.
Secondly, limit the number of levels within navigation. The fewer clicks users have to make in order to reach what they want, the better. According to Nielsen Norman Group: “the deeper a hierarchy becomes, the more likely visitors are to become disoriented.” If your website is too complicated, try to make it as simple as possible. You might even consider removing some redundant content.
Finally, get rid of drop-down menus. Drop-downs are hurting both SEO and also visitors to your website. Bots find them hard to crawl through and users that are going to click on the navigation item will suddenly have more options, so he will become more confused. The same applies to the hamburger menu. On one hand, the hamburger menu solves a spatial problem of the overall design, but on the other hand, it requires the user to make one more click before he will see the navigation.
Make it visible
You want your user to instantly find the navigation on your website. The first rule, have only one navigation and put it in a familiar location, i.e. you can go crazy with the site’s design, but keep the navigation where users can find it.
The navigation bar also has to look interactive. Users have to know that texts are clickable, it has to be distinguished from the rest of the site’s design. It has to be surrounded by enough of the whitespace to stick out even more. Another important element of navigation is the font. The text has to be big enough to read, but not too big so the user will be distracted from important messages in the hero area of the website. Text color should be in contrast with the color of the background. You can also use colored icons because according to the NN group: “users are roughly 37% faster at finding items within a list on a web page when visual indicators vary both in color and icon compared to text alone.”
Last but not least, do not forget to include the logo in the navigation. The logo serves as a back button to get the user back to the homepage just by one click. It is beneficial because the user will not get lost on your website.
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