Website Navigation Best Practices in 2021
Your website navigation needs to be logical, intuitive and easy to understand. If your customers face even little difficulty in finding out what they are looking for, then they may not think twice before jumping to your competitor’s website.
Make sure that every customer knows where he is presently on the website (via breadcrumbs), where he has been (by using a different color for visited links) and where he can go.
Following are the website navigation design best practices:
#1 Maintain consistency in terms of design & layout throughout your website
If there is no consistency in website design and layout then that would confuse the website users and could result in a high bounce rate.
#2 The main navigation menu should remain at the same place on every page
It should otherwise it would confuse the website users and could result in a high bounce rate.
#3 The links on your website should not appear or disappear unpredictably
They should not otherwise it would confuse the website users and could result in a high bounce rate.
#4 Use descriptive anchor texts (not like ‘next’, ‘click here’ etc).
Descriptive anchor text tells the website users what to expect next when they click on a link. They are also good for website SEO.
#5 A user must be able to easily distinguish between plain text and text link on your website.
The text links need to have a different color than the actual text. Otherwise, your website users may have a hard time identifying and clicking on a text link.
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#6 The visited and unvisited text links should have different font colors.
When visited and unvisited text links have different font colors, it makes it easy for your website users to know where they have been on the website.
#7 Use breadcrumbs
Breadcrumbs help website users in understanding where they are presently on the website.
#8 Use pagination
Pagination is a navigation technique that is used to divide content into multiple pages.
If you add all the content on a single page (for example list all of your products on a single page), it could create information overload for your website users which in turn would result in negative shopping experience.
#9 All major web pages should be accessible from any web page (esp. home page) on the website
Major web pages are the most important pages on your website. For example, the home page, about us page, contact us page, privacy page, sitemap, and all main product categories pages.
You want to make sure that your website users can access these web pages from any page on your website.
#10 Every page of your website should have a clickable website logo at the top left-hand side which takes a user straight to the home page
It has become a standard web design practice to put a clickable website logo at the top left-hand side of every webpage which takes a user straight to the home page. So most website users expect that a click on the website logo will take them straight to the home page.
#11 Add an HTML sitemap in the bottom navigation bar
Though users generally don’t use a sitemap to find content on a website, it is still a good navigation tool for search engines (like Google). Through sitemaps, a search engine bot can easily crawl your entire website and find new/updated content really fast.
#12 Use an internal site search engine that is pretty good in producing accurate search results
The internal site search engine is the search box that you see on a website. It also refers to the functionality that powers the search box.
A bad internal site search engine can quickly kill the possibility of any sale, especially on large ecommerce websites. If people can not find what they are looking for, they will not be able to buy and exit the website.
#13 Use an internal site search engine with a low error tolerance level.
Many internal site search engines do not produce any search results at all when a user misspelled a search query (like ihpone, samusng). They have an error tolerance level of zero. This should not be the case.
The internal site search must be able to produce search results for misspelled words and those results should be pretty accurate. Don’t let the typos stop your website users from finding what they are looking for.
#14 It should not take more than 5 seconds for the search results to appear to a website user.
#15 Your search results should automatically adjust to target the most popular search results
Ideally, your search results should automatically adjust themselves to target the most popular search results as the most popular results are often the most relevant.
#16 Your internal site search should allow users to search in multiple languages (in case of a multi-lingual website)
#17 Use an internal site search that provides the ‘auto-complete’ feature
The ‘autocomplete’ feature guides your website users to better search results by suggesting the most popular search terms as they type.
#18 Use an internal site search that provides the ‘auto-complete’ feature with images
Images make the autocomplete search functionality more descriptive and visually appealing which could boost website sales because you are showing exactly what your website users want to find.
#19 Use internal site search with filters
A search filter is a specific attribute (like size, color, price, brand, category) a website user can use to refine the search results pretty fast.
#20 Use internal site search that provides the ‘semantic search’ functionality
According to Wikipedia:
Semantic search denotes search with meaning, as distinguished from lexical search where the search engine looks for literal matches of the query words or variants of them, without understanding the overall meaning of the query.
In short, semantic search allow your website users to find what they want regardless of the words they type into the search box.
#21 Make sure you can do a cross-domain search through your internal site search
If your website has got multiple sub-domains then a cross-domain search allows your website users to search across primary and sub-domains.
Related Articles
- Schwartz five stages of awareness in marketing
- Product detail page design best practices
- Product images best practices for ecommerce websites
- Product pricing strategies for ecommerce websites
- Writing product descriptions that convert
- 12 ecommerce best practices for your category pages
- 25 web form design best practices – Optimizing forms for conversions
- Shopping cart design best practices
- Website navigation best practices
- Brand reputation audit to find conversion issues
Register for the FREE TRAINING...
"How to use Digital Analytics to generate floods of new Sales and Customers without spending years figuring everything out on your own."
Here’s what we’re going to cover in this training…
#1 Why digital analytics is the key to online business success.
#2 The number 1 reason why most marketers are not able to scale their advertising and maximize sales.
#3 Why Google and Facebook ads don’t work for most businesses & how to make them work.
#4 Why you won’t get any competitive advantage in the marketplace just by knowing Google Analytics.
#5 The number 1 reason why conversion optimization is not working for your business.
#6 How to advertise on any marketing platform for FREE with an unlimited budget.
#7 How to learn and master digital analytics and conversion optimization in record time.
My best selling books on Digital Analytics and Conversion Optimization
Maths and Stats for Web Analytics and Conversion Optimization
This expert guide will teach you how to leverage the knowledge of maths and statistics in order to accurately interpret data and take actions, which can quickly improve the bottom-line of your online business.
Master the Essentials of Email Marketing Analytics
This book focuses solely on the ‘analytics’ that power your email marketing optimization program and will help you dramatically reduce your cost per acquisition and increase marketing ROI by tracking the performance of the various KPIs and metrics used for email marketing.
Attribution Modelling in Google Analytics and Beyond
Attribution modelling is the process of determining the most effective marketing channels for investment. This book has been written to help you implement attribution modelling. It will teach you how to leverage the knowledge of attribution modelling in order to allocate marketing budget and understand buying behaviour.
Attribution Modelling in Google Ads and Facebook
This book has been written to help you implement attribution modelling in Google Ads (Google AdWords) and Facebook. It will teach you, how to leverage the knowledge of attribution modelling in order to understand the customer purchasing journey and determine the most effective marketing channels for investment.
About the Author
Himanshu Sharma
Your website navigation needs to be logical, intuitive and easy to understand. If your customers face even little difficulty in finding out what they are looking for, then they may not think twice before jumping to your competitor’s website.
Make sure that every customer knows where he is presently on the website (via breadcrumbs), where he has been (by using a different color for visited links) and where he can go.
Following are the website navigation design best practices:
#1 Maintain consistency in terms of design & layout throughout your website
If there is no consistency in website design and layout then that would confuse the website users and could result in a high bounce rate.
#2 The main navigation menu should remain at the same place on every page
It should otherwise it would confuse the website users and could result in a high bounce rate.
#3 The links on your website should not appear or disappear unpredictably
They should not otherwise it would confuse the website users and could result in a high bounce rate.
#4 Use descriptive anchor texts (not like ‘next’, ‘click here’ etc).
Descriptive anchor text tells the website users what to expect next when they click on a link. They are also good for website SEO.
#5 A user must be able to easily distinguish between plain text and text link on your website.
The text links need to have a different color than the actual text. Otherwise, your website users may have a hard time identifying and clicking on a text link.
Get the E-Book (50 Pages)
Get the E-Book (104 Pages)
#6 The visited and unvisited text links should have different font colors.
When visited and unvisited text links have different font colors, it makes it easy for your website users to know where they have been on the website.
#7 Use breadcrumbs
Breadcrumbs help website users in understanding where they are presently on the website.
#8 Use pagination
Pagination is a navigation technique that is used to divide content into multiple pages.
If you add all the content on a single page (for example list all of your products on a single page), it could create information overload for your website users which in turn would result in negative shopping experience.
#9 All major web pages should be accessible from any web page (esp. home page) on the website
Major web pages are the most important pages on your website. For example, the home page, about us page, contact us page, privacy page, sitemap, and all main product categories pages.
You want to make sure that your website users can access these web pages from any page on your website.
#10 Every page of your website should have a clickable website logo at the top left-hand side which takes a user straight to the home page
It has become a standard web design practice to put a clickable website logo at the top left-hand side of every webpage which takes a user straight to the home page. So most website users expect that a click on the website logo will take them straight to the home page.
#11 Add an HTML sitemap in the bottom navigation bar
Though users generally don’t use a sitemap to find content on a website, it is still a good navigation tool for search engines (like Google). Through sitemaps, a search engine bot can easily crawl your entire website and find new/updated content really fast.
#12 Use an internal site search engine that is pretty good in producing accurate search results
The internal site search engine is the search box that you see on a website. It also refers to the functionality that powers the search box.
A bad internal site search engine can quickly kill the possibility of any sale, especially on large ecommerce websites. If people can not find what they are looking for, they will not be able to buy and exit the website.
#13 Use an internal site search engine with a low error tolerance level.
Many internal site search engines do not produce any search results at all when a user misspelled a search query (like ihpone, samusng). They have an error tolerance level of zero. This should not be the case.
The internal site search must be able to produce search results for misspelled words and those results should be pretty accurate. Don’t let the typos stop your website users from finding what they are looking for.
#14 It should not take more than 5 seconds for the search results to appear to a website user.
#15 Your search results should automatically adjust to target the most popular search results
Ideally, your search results should automatically adjust themselves to target the most popular search results as the most popular results are often the most relevant.
#16 Your internal site search should allow users to search in multiple languages (in case of a multi-lingual website)
#17 Use an internal site search that provides the ‘auto-complete’ feature
The ‘autocomplete’ feature guides your website users to better search results by suggesting the most popular search terms as they type.
#18 Use an internal site search that provides the ‘auto-complete’ feature with images
Images make the autocomplete search functionality more descriptive and visually appealing which could boost website sales because you are showing exactly what your website users want to find.
#19 Use internal site search with filters
A search filter is a specific attribute (like size, color, price, brand, category) a website user can use to refine the search results pretty fast.
#20 Use internal site search that provides the ‘semantic search’ functionality
According to Wikipedia:
Semantic search denotes search with meaning, as distinguished from lexical search where the search engine looks for literal matches of the query words or variants of them, without understanding the overall meaning of the query.
In short, semantic search allow your website users to find what they want regardless of the words they type into the search box.
#21 Make sure you can do a cross-domain search through your internal site search
If your website has got multiple sub-domains then a cross-domain search allows your website users to search across primary and sub-domains.
Related Articles
- Schwartz five stages of awareness in marketing
- Product detail page design best practices
- Product images best practices for ecommerce websites
- Product pricing strategies for ecommerce websites
- Writing product descriptions that convert
- 12 ecommerce best practices for your category pages
- 25 web form design best practices – Optimizing forms for conversions
- Shopping cart design best practices
- Website navigation best practices
- Brand reputation audit to find conversion issues
Register for the FREE TRAINING...
"How to use Digital Analytics to generate floods of new Sales and Customers without spending years figuring everything out on your own."
Here’s what we’re going to cover in this training…
#1 Why digital analytics is the key to online business success.
#2 The number 1 reason why most marketers are not able to scale their advertising and maximize sales.
#3 Why Google and Facebook ads don’t work for most businesses & how to make them work.
#4 Why you won’t get any competitive advantage in the marketplace just by knowing Google Analytics.
#5 The number 1 reason why conversion optimization is not working for your business.
#6 How to advertise on any marketing platform for FREE with an unlimited budget.
#7 How to learn and master digital analytics and conversion optimization in record time.
My best selling books on Digital Analytics and Conversion Optimization
Maths and Stats for Web Analytics and Conversion Optimization
This expert guide will teach you how to leverage the knowledge of maths and statistics in order to accurately interpret data and take actions, which can quickly improve the bottom-line of your online business.
Master the Essentials of Email Marketing Analytics
This book focuses solely on the ‘analytics’ that power your email marketing optimization program and will help you dramatically reduce your cost per acquisition and increase marketing ROI by tracking the performance of the various KPIs and metrics used for email marketing.
Attribution Modelling in Google Analytics and Beyond
Attribution modelling is the process of determining the most effective marketing channels for investment. This book has been written to help you implement attribution modelling. It will teach you how to leverage the knowledge of attribution modelling in order to allocate marketing budget and understand buying behaviour.
Attribution Modelling in Google Ads and Facebook
This book has been written to help you implement attribution modelling in Google Ads (Google AdWords) and Facebook. It will teach you, how to leverage the knowledge of attribution modelling in order to understand the customer purchasing journey and determine the most effective marketing channels for investment.
About the Author
Himanshu Sharma