Is your website's navigation loosing you visitors
Scenario 1: You
are in your vehicle and you are in unfamiliar territories. You use the road
signs to help you reach your place of destination. After 20 minutes of driving
you have still not reached your destination so you ask a passerby for further
directions. After another half hour of driving you finally arrive at your place
of destination angry and frustrated because of the time it took you to get there.
Scenario 2: I am in my vehicle ( my PC ) and I am in unfamiliar territories
(your website ). I use the road signs ( your links ) to help me reach my place
of destination ( your content ). After 30 seconds of driving in vain I ask a
passerby for directions. Problem - there is no passer by to ask for directions,
I move on angry and frustrated for wasting my time.
Analysis: Like the driver in scenario 1 I got lost. The difference is
I got lost in your site. The driver from scenario 1 eventually got to his/her
destination I didn't because unlike the driver I have a patience span of about
30 seconds so therefore I give up and moved on
What the hell has this got to do with my website?
Nothing if your website has an excellent navigation structure, if it doesn't
then it has everything to do with your website.
But my website has a great navigation structure!
Well done, you don't need to read this article.
Hey, my websites navigation is in a bit of a mess!
Well carry on reading because scenario 2 is more than just a scenario its a
reality.
You: How is it a reality then!
Your visitor: Its a reality because if I cannot get to where I want to
go quickly and with out difficulty I will abandon your site and move on.
You: So my navigation isn't the best in the world I'm sure you will find
what you want just keep looking!
Your previous visitor: That's true I probably will find what I want,
but it will be a struggle and I know that there is a site around the corner
with similar content to yours that can be reached quickly and without difficulty.
You: I guess you wont be coming back then!
Your previous visitor: You guessed right, see above.
You: What can I do to get you visiting my site again!
Your previous visitor: You could give me a million pounds
You: I don't think so!
Your previous visitor: Then you have little chance of getting a return
visit from me
You: How can I stop visitors from leaving my site then!
Your previous visitor: Wow, I thought you would never ask. How about
improving your sites navigation.
You: Ok, how do I do that.
Read on....
First to get a good grasp of how to improve your navigation you need to remember the following.
1. Never assume that
your visitors will simply stick around in the hope of finding what they are
looking for because the majority of people will give up after 30 seconds of
trying.
2. Always assume that your visitors are blindfolded (hey get back to
the navigation issue-saucy)
Now with the above in mind you can start improving your navigation. A good navigation consists of conciseness, quickness and simplicity. Your navigation needs to guide people along, it should get them there in quick time. People do not want to have to go through 5 or more pages to get there. 3 pages is acceptable to reach sub sections.
Your whole site needs to be accessible from every page.
Here is a structured navigation method that can make your site accessible from every page.
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1. I am on your home
page and below is your sites navigation. I decide to go into products.
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| 2. I am now in your
products section. I know this because products is in bold and unlinked.
I also notice how home is now a link, giving me the option of returning
to your home page |
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| 3. I am now in your
product prices section. I know this because product prices is in bold
and unlinked. I also notice how products is still bolded, this
tells me that I am still in the products section products >> product
prices |
||||||||
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| 3. I am now in your
product demo section. I know this because product demo is in bold and
unlinked. I also notice how product prices is now a link, this tells me
that I am in products >> product prices >> product demo |
||||||||
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This navigation may seem tricky to implement and it does take a bit of practice because you will be inter-lining pages. But believe me, your visitors will find this to be very simple, and that is the main key to any navigation, simplicity-keep it simple. You can vary the structure of this navigation but remember to give your visitors the option of getting to where they want to go using the shortest route. If your site has only 5 pages don't think that structured navigation wont work on your website because it will.
When I built Webdevstore
I implemented the above navigation method and with Webdevstore being a large
site it needed a structured navigation to make every part of the site accessible
from every page. Have a good look around and delve deep in to the pages.
You will find that this form of navigation is very simple to use.
I Hope this article has been
of help and remember keep learning.
Article copyright @ webdevstore.com