July 24, 2015
Website navigation plays a significant role in the success of your online business. It should be clear and intuitive with the ultimate goal of taking users to the desired page in the shortest possible time. If users are not able to find what they want, they might get exasperated and leave the website, subsequently affecting all your internet marketing efforts.
Given here are some of the common mistakes you should avoid while finalizing your website’s navigation:
- Being Too Creative: When users visit your website, they usually expect the navigation menu to be present either horizontally on the top or vertically across the side bar. Therefore, you should avoid being too creative with the site’s navigation and leaving the visitors confused. Placing your navigation menu in non-standard places could result in higher bounce rate and lower conversions.
- Not Targeting The Goal: The navigation should always represent the ultimate goal that you want to achieve through your website. If relevant web pages are not easily accessible, your visitors might leave the site. For instance, if you own a restaurant, your goal would be to get more reservations. Including a separate label to ‘Make A Reservation’ will provide an added convenience to the users for booking a table.
- Providing Too Many Choices: When it comes to designing navigation, most companies try to include all their products or services into the main menu. Although this may seem to be a good idea, being overwhelmed with too many options may leave the users confused and unable to make a decision about which one to choose. To avoid this, try to keep your navigation as simple and clutter free as possible.
- Incompatible Sizing: Website navigation is often designed for large screen computers. However, you must remember that such a menu may not aptly fit the screens of mobile devices. This can have a negative effect on visitor‘s experience and limit the site’s usability. You should make sure that your site is responsive so that the navigation can be restructured according to different screen sizes.
- Using Non-Descriptive Text: Your navigation labels should be able to direct users to the right page. For instance, if you are an online apparel seller, using a generic term like ‘Products’ instead of ‘Men’s Denims’ can make it difficult for users to find what they want. Your focus should be on using descriptive terms that can allow people to view the desired product through minimum clicks.
We, at Centex Technologies, provide web design solutions to the businesses in Central Texas. For more information, you can call us at (855) 375 – 9654.