Website navigation should be extremely simple and intuitive. When your followers enter on your website, they should immediately find your content and have a great experience while browsing. Moreover, a well-planned navigation system is crucial for the overall customer experience and retention. In addition, you should also keep in mind that little things make the difference and website navigation design is one of those examples. So, keep reading this article for the best practices in website navigation design.
Website Navigation Design Strategies
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Use friendly language
The competition in the online world is so high that makes us focus too much on copywriting. Even though we manage to stand out of competition with a unique language, we will also pay a price. There are many cases when we miss clarity. Irrespective of how specific your industry is, you should always have the final user in your mind. Therefore, even though you are addressing your message to professionals in a specific field, you will need to stay clear and use a friendly language for those who are reading your website.
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Stay away from format-based navigation
One of the most common mistakes that many website developers make is using navigation labels such as “videos” or “photos”. While these labels might be clear, they don’t tell your visitors too much about the content. So, one of the first question you should ask yourself before developing your website navigation design strategy is why people visit your website. Are they looking for videos or white papers? Of course not! They are looking for answers and information on a specific topic. So, with this idea in your mind, you should start planning and developing your website navigation strategy and give your visitors the answers they are looking for.
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Dropdown menus are not the best idea
Dropdown menus are extremely popular nowadays. However, they are not always the best idea when it comes to website navigation design strategies. First, a dropdown menu is not very good for search engines as they have the tendency to crawl. Moreover, they are not the best solutions for your visitors having the tendency to become annoying. You should remember that your visitors are very busy and don’t have too much time to lose when entering on your website. Therefore, a dropdown menu will actually make them lose time instead of easily finding the answer to their question.
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Lucky number seven
Another mistake that many websites do in their navigation system is having too many links on their home page. There are at least two good reasons why you should limit the number of links. If you limit the number of items in your navigation, your ranking in search engines will increase. The more concise you create your navigation, the more chances you have to increase your website’s authority. Furthermore, your visitors will appreciate fewer items in your navigation system. A person’s short-term memory is able to hold seven items. So, here you have the lucky number which you should consider when adding links to your homepage.
Conclusion
The website navigation design strategy plays an important role in your overall web design development. It will help you create a pleasant navigation experience for your clients, helping users know where they are and what they have to do to get the answer to their questions. Using a simple language and avoid over-complicating things is the best strategy you can apply when you think of website navigation design.
