Good page navigation for websites
You may have noticed I used button navigation for most of this website which I said earlier was not very good for search engines, but I have got around this by placing a search engine sitemap on the website to make up for using the buttons.
A good navigation set up will also give your visitor an idea of the depth of your website and what's on offer just by hovering over these links. Don't use words like 'click here' whenever linking to another page, use constructive phrases that describe exactly where the visitor may be going.
Don't try and be clever with your navigation just to make your site different to everyone elses. Stick with accepted forms of navigation that everyone is familiar with as something new to a visitor will surely confuse them rather than impress.
A good navigation set up will also give your visitor an idea of the depth of your website and what's on offer just by hovering over these links. Don't use words like 'click here' whenever linking to another page, use constructive phrases that describe exactly where the visitor may be going.
Don't try and be clever with your navigation just to make your site different to everyone elses. Stick with accepted forms of navigation that everyone is familiar with as something new to a visitor will surely confuse them rather than impress.
What is page navigation?
Page navigation is a set of links or buttons to take your visitors to your website to other pages or back to a previous page. Get the set up of the navigation wrong and not only will you lose potential customers but you could also lose points with the search engines too.
What type of navigation should I use?
There are a couple of forms of website navigation, text and button. Using button navigation can look more appealing to your visitors and give your site a good professional feel, however the search engines cannot read button navigation and so when spidering your website can miss out on finding other pages to your site.
Text navigation is one I personally prefer as it is clean, simple and acts as a navigation system for not just the visitors but for the search engines too. Ensuring all your pages can be found on every page of your website is a must for both visitor and search engine and must be taken seriously.
Page navigation is a set of links or buttons to take your visitors to your website to other pages or back to a previous page. Get the set up of the navigation wrong and not only will you lose potential customers but you could also lose points with the search engines too.
What type of navigation should I use?
There are a couple of forms of website navigation, text and button. Using button navigation can look more appealing to your visitors and give your site a good professional feel, however the search engines cannot read button navigation and so when spidering your website can miss out on finding other pages to your site.
Text navigation is one I personally prefer as it is clean, simple and acts as a navigation system for not just the visitors but for the search engines too. Ensuring all your pages can be found on every page of your website is a must for both visitor and search engine and must be taken seriously.
Planning your website navigation
If you owned a two story shop but had no stairs or lift to the second floor then none of your customers could purchase from that floor. It works just the same on a website so ensuring there is 'access' to each and every page from every page is a necessity.
Try where possible to place your navigation at the top of your website, in a clear position and try to ensure it stays in exactly the same place on every page. I have seen sites where the website owner has removed the link to the page that the visitor is on with the presumption that the visitor won't require to see a link to a page he is already on. However this is a big mistake as it means every page will have a slightly different navigation system to the rest. So even on your home page you still should have a link to your home page as it will remain consistent throughout the rest of the website.
As well as having your main navigation it is also worth considering using navigation within your page text content. For example, on this website I also have a page about optimising your website content and so as I just mentioned this in this paragraph you will notice I linked to it too. It doesn't do any harm to have more than one way to access a page of your site.
Keep all your navigation on every page consistent. That means in the same font, size and colour. I have seen some awful navigation on many websites, on one page in gold at the top of the page, the next page in green at the bottom etc; think of your poor visitors, make it easy and quick for them.
One of the hardest sites I ever had to think very carefully on the navigation for was an entertainment agency website (opens in new browser). This website has hundreds and hundreds of pages and so creating a link to every page from every page was difficult but if you look down the left hand side on every page you will see I have every act linked from every page. This way a visitor looking for several different acts doesn't need to go back to the home page every time.
If you owned a two story shop but had no stairs or lift to the second floor then none of your customers could purchase from that floor. It works just the same on a website so ensuring there is 'access' to each and every page from every page is a necessity.
Try where possible to place your navigation at the top of your website, in a clear position and try to ensure it stays in exactly the same place on every page. I have seen sites where the website owner has removed the link to the page that the visitor is on with the presumption that the visitor won't require to see a link to a page he is already on. However this is a big mistake as it means every page will have a slightly different navigation system to the rest. So even on your home page you still should have a link to your home page as it will remain consistent throughout the rest of the website.
As well as having your main navigation it is also worth considering using navigation within your page text content. For example, on this website I also have a page about optimising your website content and so as I just mentioned this in this paragraph you will notice I linked to it too. It doesn't do any harm to have more than one way to access a page of your site.
Keep all your navigation on every page consistent. That means in the same font, size and colour. I have seen some awful navigation on many websites, on one page in gold at the top of the page, the next page in green at the bottom etc; think of your poor visitors, make it easy and quick for them.
One of the hardest sites I ever had to think very carefully on the navigation for was an entertainment agency website (opens in new browser). This website has hundreds and hundreds of pages and so creating a link to every page from every page was difficult but if you look down the left hand side on every page you will see I have every act linked from every page. This way a visitor looking for several different acts doesn't need to go back to the home page every time.
