Website navigation is often overlooked as being something boring but essential, yet it is a key factor in the way visitors respond to your site.
According to a recent article in Forbes, poor website navigation is one of the top six reasons for overhauling your website or even completely redesigning it from scratch.
It is vital to keep your website visitors happy and onside with your brand, so let’s look at three navigation errors you really must avoid:
1 Thinking outside the box
Sometimes it can be a good idea to look at things in a different way, but website navigation should never come into this category. People expect a site’s navigation to conform to certain rules, so do away with those rules at your peril!
Menus are almost always found across the top of a page or down the left-hand side, which is where website visitors expect to find them. You may think it looks cool to introduce a menu down the right-hand side or perhaps at the bottom of a page; however, if you make your web visitors work to find your site’s navigational tools, they certainly won’t thank you for it. They will often leave without making a purchase, which defeats the purpose of your site completely.
2 Making navigation too complex
As a website design company in Gloucester such as https://www.net9design.com/ will tell you, a website’s navigation should be simple and intuitive to use. There should be consistency of navigation across every page of your site, so never be tempted to introduce new colours, buttons or fonts halfway through your pages.
3 Offering too many options
Overwhelming your website visitors with choices will not make them happy; instead, it will simply frustrate them. If you have thousands of products in your online store, pare down the categories as much as possible for your first tier of menus. You can always add more choices to subsequent levels of navigation.
Think of your navigation as a journey that your customer goes on. You need to make this journey as safe, comfortable and easy as you possibly can, as this will always lead to the best outcomes. Presenting too many options too early will cause frustration and confusion, which will not encourage your visitor to conclude a sale.
