If you want to design a website for your online business, you must know the navigation of your website has a huge impact on the UX (user experience). If your website has simple and functional navigation, your viewers can find out about your online business and spend more time on your website.
We, Chidma company, with more than 10 years of experience in web designing and digital marketing, are here to speak with you about the pro tips that can help you to design functional navigation for your website.
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A website is like a town, when you enter it, you want to see its map and after that start to move on it, from one page to another page. it is the meaning of the website navigation. It determines the path of viewers and Google crawling robots on the web pages.
If I want to define website navigation more professionally, it is a collection of various links that connect the different pages of a website and make paths for moving between the pages. Good navigation can help you to arrive at your intended page quickly and simply.
There are 5 different types of website navigation including:
● Horizontal Navigation Bar.
This is a common type of navigation placement located at the top of the page. users usually search the menu of a website on top of the page. if you are interested to know more about this type of navigation, we write a special article about this Horizontal navigation bar. You can read it by clicking here.
● Dropdown Navigation Menu.
● Hamburger Navigation Menu.
It is one of the newest types of navigation in web design. The hamburger navigation menu is more appropriate for smart cell phones. The menu is presented as three vertical lines on the right or left side of the top of the page. In this type of navigation, users can easily access the menu. Because hamburger navigation is very popular today, we write a specific article about it. you can read it by clicking here.
● Vertical Sidebar Navigation Menu.
On some websites, you will find the navigation bar on the left or right side of the web page. some users believe that working with this kind of navigation is difficult but some web designers like it!!! If you want to know how you can design a vertical sidebar navigation menu, click here.
● Footer Navigation Menu.
Some of our clients believe that the footer navigation is not important and has no regard for it. But our experience in the field of web designing and digital marketing shows that it is not true. Footer sites can play an important role in the navigation of a website. you can find very golden tips about the footer site and its importance in navigation by clicking here.
Various factors are important in designing appropriate website navigation, some of them related to your plan and program and others are dependent on the template of your website. Since your navigation (special menu) is usually the first part of your website that users visit, you must design it very functional and simple so that viewers can easily find their path without any confusion.
Now you are familiar with the importance of website navigation, let’s get going to find out golden tips that will improve the navigation of your website. the professional web designing team of the Chidma company tested all of these tips and believes the following tips help increase the UX.
Think about your plan before designing a navigation first step in designing website navigation is that you determine your mind map. You must think about the content and information of your website and its hierarchy. For this purpose, we usually ask some questions our clients such as:
What is your objective in designing a website and online business? Increasing your sale? Introducing your services? Attracting customers? Present educational content? Joining in a campaign? Or other things like that.
What is the main subject of your online business and what are the different parts of it?
based on the answer to the above question, some websites need a navigation bar with just one menu and some websites such as shopping and eCommerce websites different types of menus for classifying their products.
Our professional web designers in Chidma company, ask our clients to write their answers on a piece of paper and after one or more counselling sessions with them, start to design their website navigation. If you have any questions about this issue, please click here to contact us.
● Link The Logo To The Homepage
Sometimes users find you by searching on search engines like google or clicking on an advertising link on social media networks. Hence, they enter a page on your website but they are usually interested to visit your home page too. So, there is an unofficial rule that you must place the website logo on the header of the page and it must be linked to the homepage. This policy helps users can simply come back to the homepage by clicking on the logo. All website templates that are designed by Chidma company have this ability.
As mentioned above the goal of website navigation is increasing the UX of your website by helping users to move between pages and find their interests easily. So, you must select a functional simple design for your website navigation. You can see some examples of navigation bars that were designed by the expert team of Chidma company. Please click here.
Best Practice In Designing The Menu Of A Website
In this part, because of the importance of the menu in the website navigation, we will focus on the tips that improve the function of a menu. So, let’s get going.
● Reduce The Number Of Menu Items To Seven
Researches show that peoples can just remember 7 items in their short-term memory. So, if you want users can remember your menu, design just seven items for it. But what must you do if needs more items? Keep reading to show you.
The submenu policy is the solution to the above problem (more than seven items in a menu bar). The subject of submenu in designing website navigation is extended especially if you have a shopping website with a lot of various products in different classes. Hence, we dive into this issue in another article that you can read by clicking here or contacting our expert counsellor in Chidma company.
● Avid Of Designing The Dropdown Menu
The search engines inform you that crawling their robots on the dropdown menus is hard, so, they may index some of the pages of your website. hence, if you use this kind of navigation, it will have a bad effect on the SEO of your website.
● Design A Responsive Menu
Your website menu (navigation) must be optimized on various devices including desktop computers, laptops, cell phones and tablets. You can not determine which viewers enter your page by which one, so, your navigation and menu bar must be responsive for all of them.
● Use The Main Keywords In The Tile Of The Menu
The menu of your website is the storefront of your online business. People prefer to find out about you by visiting the title of the menu of your website instead of reading some content such as about us, etc. so try to use the main keywords of your online business in the title of your menus. If people cannot find these keywords in your menu, may think your website is not related to their request and leave it.
Conclusion
We know that designing website navigation is a professional task that has a huge impact on your online business. But our experience in web designing shows that if you know this issue, you can help us better design the perfect navigation for your website.
Hence in this article, we spook with you about the importance of website navigation and tried to show you the pro tips in menu designing. You can see the Chidma company’s navigation examples. If you have any questions about this issue, please contact us by clicking here, or typing your request in the footer of the page. in addition, our expert counsellors are ready to chat with you on the left side chat box.