Categories: Website development.11.4 min read.

How to build a good web navigation to keep visitors stay

You invest a lot in SEO and SEM to draw people visit your site, remember to ensure your web navigation is optimized to keep them stay and explore more also. Accordingly, simple and fast navigation and low bounce rate are best friends ( almost siblings). 

About the Author: Celine Nguyen

A Marketing content writer with expertise in technology, innovation, and creativity — Passionate in technology solutions that transform lives and works.

By Celine Nguyen

You invest a lot in SEO and SEM to draw people to visit your site; remember to ensure your web navigation is optimized to stay and explore more. Accordingly, simple and fast navigation and low bounce rate are best friends ( almost siblings).

Your stunning web design or intriguing content may draw visitors’ attention for a few seconds. Yet, a recent poll showed that 94% of website visitors chose simple navigation as the most important element to their satisfying website experience.

Why is good web navigation important?

One of the most important aspects of a website’s user experience is its navigation. It’s a bad experience if users can’t locate what they’re looking for on a website or effortlessly move from page to page.

It’s also one that will have an impact on your business. Customers who come to make a purchase or book a reservation but can’t locate what they’re looking for, owing to inadequate navigation, might have a negative impact on your revenue.

Furthermore, the majority of internet users will navigate your site via navigational links. Up to 30% of web users utilize site search (a number that will be significantly lower for many sites), implying that the great majority navigate via links.

The user will have a better on-site experience if the navigation on the website is simple and intuitive. It saves them time to second-guess the site to obtain information, and it increases the likelihood that visits will result in conversions.

8 Practices for a Good Web Navigation

1. Boring is always the best

This sentence from the movie named Hitman’s bodyguard is also true to good navigation. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel. Website navigation is more about usability than creativity.

Follow known standards for essential design elements like where to place your menu and indicate that it is expandable.

The “hamburger” ☰ sign is one of the most recognizable icons for identifying an expandable menu. The other is the three dots creating a horizontal line.

If you try to get creative, develop a custom icon or try to place the menu in an unusual position, the chances are that many visitors won’t understand the purpose of your design and will struggle to find your menu.

2. Use mobile-friendly menus

Because mobile now accounts for over 52% of all online traffic, responsive/mobile-first design has become necessary. Make sure you use expandable mobile menus instead of menus that extend beyond the mobile web browser’s frame or are excessively cluttered.

There’s a reason it’s become the industry standard. On mobile, horizontal menus with little font are difficult to read, click, and use appropriately. The good news is that by default, all of the finest WordPress themes include responsive design and responsive menus. Unless you’re starting from scratch with your WordPress site, WordPress has you covered.

3. Exploit the advantage of your footer menu

Readers that continue to read and scroll all the way to the bottom of your website are more engaged than the ordinary user. Take advantage of this by emphasizing important information at the bottom of each page. Because the footer takes up no “above the fold” real estate, you may be more specific and incorporate many categories and emphasize important cornerstone pages or articles.

However, you can still use the footer to repeat the header bar. Thus, users don’t need to scroll up to get back to the menu.

4. Use Your Users’ Voice

Use language closer to what your users use to search for and want, rather than merely connecting to the same old pages, utilizing conventional web development vocabulary, or too imaginative text. This strategy is advantageous for both SEO and usability. Make pages that represent what your visitors are looking for on the internet.

The same words and phrases that help consumers locate your website on Google can then be used to connect to those same pages.

5. Add clear space between navigation links for mobile

Navigation needs to take into account mobile users, and one key factor in making navigational links easy to select without user error. Space links apart so that they can be selected easily by touchscreen users to avoid user error. This is also one of the criteria used in Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test.

Read more: Review your website performance to ensure a seamless user experience.

6. Avoid drop-down menus

Consider replacing your drop-down menu with a descriptive page if the selections are fairly difficult, unfamiliar, or extensive. According to usability studies, drop-down menus are inconvenient, and you’ll have to sacrifice vital information to make everything fit.

Apple has utilized this method to assist customers in navigating their assistance menu. Rather than hiding all of their support options into a drop-down menu, they created an entire page dedicated to each of their product categories. Finding the best solution is straightforward, thanks to the accompanying images.

Apple support menu features image cues

(Source: https://www.apple.com/)

7. Arrange a strategic menu order.

If I told you to go to the grocery store and buy 12 things, you’d probably get the first two, the last two, and maybe one of the middle ones. This is due to the serial position effect, which reveals that people remember the first and last items in a list the best.

You can use this effect to enhance your navigation design. Place your most significant links at the top and bottom of your menu to direct people to them.

8. Link the navigation to the company’s priorities.

While user experience is vital, you also want to direct your visitors to the most critical pages for conversions and sales. Getting visits to those key sites can have a significant impact on your company’s bottom line.

Create a balance between sites that not only might pique your audiences ’ attention but also include links that will guide them through your funnel.

Include the “About” and “Contact” pages, as well as a link to your blog, for example. Then include a compelling call to action, such as “Download” if you have a mobile app or “Test Drive” if you have a SaaS company.

Summary

Unless you are a master of your user’s language and confident that creative and extraordinary navigation can make their interest, always try to stick your site navigation with simplicity and clarity.

A clear structure also helps Google crawl and index your site more effectively. Good navigation improves the user experience on your site. It increases the likelihood that visitors will locate products or services, while a clear structure also helps Google crawl and index your site more efficiently.


Arestós is a full-cycle website development company. We have a wealth of experience in helping clients across industries build websites that convert. Moreover, our team can also help you optimize your current site to enhance your user experience, be more competitive, and boost sales. Contact us now to find the best solution for your digital identity.

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