Website Navigation Best Practices Guide (Do’s and Don’ts)

Think about the last time you visited a website and left frustrated because you couldn’t find what you wanted. Annoying, wasn’t it? Now, take a moment and ask yourself, is your website doing the same to your visitors? Your website’s navigation is like a roadmap. If it’s clear and well-structured, users will happily stay, explore, and convert. If it’s chaotic and confusing, they’ll leave. It’s as simple and as brutal as that.

Website navigation is about more than just slapping together a menu and calling it a day. It’s about creating a seamless journey for your visitors, guiding them through your content, and leading them exactly where they (and you) want them to go. In this guide, we’ll dive deep into the world of website navigation best practices, uncovering common pitfalls to avoid and answering all the burning questions about creating a navigational structure that converts visitors into customers.

Ready to turn your website into a navigation masterpiece? Let’s get started.

What is Website Navigation and Why Is It Important?

Website navigation is the roadmap of your site. It guides your visitors through your content, helping them find what they’re looking for with ease. A good navigation system can improve user experience, significantly reduce bounce rates, and increase conversions. On the flip side, poor website navigation can lead to frustration, causing potential customers to leave and never come back.

When your website has clear and intuitive navigation, you’re essentially laying out a red carpet for your visitors, inviting them to explore more, interact, and take desired actions. This not only enhances user satisfaction but also helps search engines understand the structure of your site, contributing positively to your SEO efforts.

Website Navigation Types

There are various types of website navigation, each serving different purposes and types of content. Some of the most common types include:

Top Navigation: The most conventional form of navigation, located at the top of a website.

Source: Neil Patel Blog

Sidebar Navigation: Vertical navigation on either side of a website, often used for blogs or content-heavy sites.

Source: Coding Nepal Web

Hamburger Menu: A compact menu symbolized by three horizontal lines, typically used for mobile sites.

Source: Justinmind

Footer Navigation: Located at the bottom of a site, usually containing links to privacy policies, contact information, and other essential pages.

Source: Website Strategies

Mega Menus: Large dropdown menus that can accommodate a bigger number of items and even images or videos.

Source: FatStack

Choosing the right type of navigation depends on your website’s content, layout, and your audience’s preferences.

Website Navigation Best Practices

Navigating a website should be as seamless as flipping through a well-organized book. When users land on your site, they’re on a quest—either searching for information, a product, or a service. How smoothly and quickly they find what they’re looking for hinges on your website navigation.

In this section, we’ll walk through a series of navigation best practices that are crucial for creating a user-friendly and effective navigation structure, ensuring that your visitors stay engaged and convert.

Establishing A Sitemap

Source: Milanote

Think of your sitemap as the blueprint of your website or the website architecture behind how your site is organized. It’s a tool that helps search engines understand the structure of your site, ensuring that every page is indexed correctly. But it’s also invaluable for user navigation. Before you even start creating your website’s navigation, sketch out a sitemap. Understand how pages relate to one another and ensure that there’s a logical flow from one section to the next.

Limit Your Number of Menu Items In The Top Navigation

When it comes to your top navigation menu, less is more. Stick to around five to seven items to avoid overwhelming your visitors. Too many options can lead to decision paralysis, making users more likely to leave than to dig deeper into your site. Focus on your most important pages, and utilize dropdown menus if necessary (but don’t go overboard).

While this is good general advice for any website, it’s especially important for areas like e-commerce that have a large amount of products to navigate to. Another example might be regional businesses that want to have pages for all of their local locations, but in a way that’s easy to navigate. One way to maintain this balance is think long and hard about the most relevant categories and subcategories so you can prioritize which ones need to be in the top navigation and which ones don’t.

Plan Out The Order Of Your Navigation Bar Items

The order of the items in your navigation bar matters. Place the most critical pages towards the beginning and end of the menu, as these are the areas that tend to attract the most attention. Make sure that the flow is logical and that related items are grouped together.

Creating Separation

Ensure that there is ample space between each navigation item to prevent accidental clicks and to make your menu aesthetically pleasing.

Source: Flux Academy

In this example Coder creates separation using the main navigation, as it’s separated from the page content by both color and a thin line.

This is especially important for mobile users, who navigate with their fingers and need enough space to tap the right item. Creating separation not only improves usability but also contributes to a cleaner, more organized website design.

Always Use Analytics To Improve Your Navigation

Navigating the waters of website optimization can be tricky, but with analytics, you have a powerful compass at your disposal. Integrating tools like Google Analytics into your site provides a wealth of data, turning user interactions into actionable insights. Let’s dive deeper into how you can leverage analytics to enhance your website’s navigation.

Focus on the User Flow report. This tool visually represents the paths users take through your site, highlighting the most common routes from the homepage to conversion points. Pay attention to any unexpected detours or drop-offs, as these could indicate areas where your navigation may be causing confusion.

Source: The Good

Look at the Behavior Flow report as well. It helps you understand how users move from one page to another, showing you the content that keeps them engaged and the points where they decide to leave. Use this data to optimize the pathways through your site, ensuring the journey from landing page to conversion is as smooth as possible.

Source: Research Gate

Exit pages are another critical aspect to consider. These are the last pages users visit before leaving your site. A high exit rate on a page that’s not intended to be a final destination could be a red flag. Investigate these pages to ensure they’re providing clear navigation options and compelling calls to action.

Source: Databox

Conversely, pages with a low bounce rate and high engagement are doing something right. Analyze these pages to understand what aspects of their navigation and content are resonating with users, and consider how these successful elements can be applied site-wide.

Don’t forget about A/B testing. Use this technique to experiment with different navigation structures and styles, directly comparing the performance of various elements to determine which yields the best results.

Include Calls To Action

Website navigation design elements aren’t just about guiding users through your content—they’re also powerful tools for driving actions. Calls to action (CTAs) such as “Sign Up,” “Contact Us,” or “Get Started” should be prominent within your navigation. Placing them in your header, footer, or even as part of your dropdown menus ensures they’re always within reach, prompting users to take the next step without feeling overwhelmed or lost.

Remember User Intent

Your website’s navigation should reflect your user’s needs and intentions. Think about why someone would visit your site, aka their search intent. Are they looking for information, trying to purchase a product, or needing to get in touch with you? Understanding these intents can guide how you structure your navigation. 

For instance, an e-commerce site should prioritize product categories and shopping carts, while a blog might focus on highlighting popular or recent posts.

Source: Yeti

Yeti does a great job of guiding users through their shopping journey. The easy-to-follow navigation follows their user intent, allowing for quick and easy purchases.

Align your navigation with user intent, and you’ll create a smoother, more intuitive experience that meets your audience’s needs.

Website Navigation Practices To Avoid

Creating an efficient and user-friendly navigation setup is crucial, but it’s just as important to know what pitfalls to avoid. Some common website navigation mistakes could hinder user experience and even harm your site’s SEO. Let’s delve into a few website navigation practices you should steer clear of to ensure your site remains accessible, intuitive, and effective.

Forgetting About The Mobile View Of Your Menus

In today’s mobile-centric world, your website needs to perform flawlessly across all devices, especially smartphones. A navigation menu that works perfectly on a desktop might become a tangled mess on a smaller screen. Ensure your menus are responsive, opting for a hamburger menu or a similarly mobile-friendly option when screen real estate is limited. Test your mobile navigation rigorously and adjust as necessary to guarantee a seamless experience for mobile users.

Putting Social Icons In The Header

While social proof is vital and you certainly want to showcase your social media presence, the top of your navigation menu isn’t the place for these icons. They can distract from your content and main conversion points, potentially leading visitors away from your site before they’ve had a chance to engage with your content. Instead, place your social icons in the footer or a dedicated “Contact Us” page. Instead, social icons are typically seen in the footer of the site like the example above.

Using Tiny Drop-Down Menus

Drop-down menus can be a helpful navigation tool, but when they’re too small, they can become a frustrating obstacle for users. Ensure that your drop-down menus are large enough to be easily clickable, with text that’s readable on all devices. Avoid cluttering these menus with too many options—instead, focus on providing clear, direct paths to your most important pages.

Trying To Fit Too Much In Your Menus

Overloading your navigation menus with too many options can overwhelm your visitors and dilute the effectiveness of your site’s structure. Instead of cramming everything into the main menu, prioritize your most important pages and consider using secondary menus or footer links for less crucial content. Simplicity is key—a streamlined, focused navigation menu will always outperform a cluttered, overwhelming one.

FAQs

Conclusion

When creating a successful website, intuitive and effective navigation simply can’t be overstated. Your navigation is the roadmap that guides visitors through your site’s content, leading them to the information they need and encouraging them to take the desired actions. 

By keeping to the best practices and avoiding the common mistakes we’ve covered here, you’re setting the stage for a user-friendly experience that not only satisfies your audience but also contributes positively to your SEO efforts.

In the ever-evolving landscape of web design and user experience, staying informed and adapting your navigation structure as needed is key. Remember, your website is often the first point of contact between your brand and potential customers.

What first impression does your website’s navigation give, and how might it influence their perception of your brand?