Planning Your Website Navigation & Good Orientation

Ensuring that your visitors don't get lost

One of the top reasons people leave a website that they have just arrived at is that they get lost or can't find where they want to go.

Giving your visitors clear sense of orientation and navigation is a top priority.

When visitors land on your site they need to:

• Know what the page they are on is all about
• Know where they are within the site
• Know how to find other pages of interest
• Know how to get back to a page they have already visited.

 

Customers don't always walk through the front door

In a 'bricks and mortar' business like our fictional Chic Hotel in Bath, the customers will most often enter the business via the front door and into the main reception area.

They will already be orientated because they walked up to the hotel, knowing it was a hotel, they will walk into the reception area and they can see all the rooms that lead off it.

This is not the case on the internet.

Even though you may want them to land on your home page first, visitors might land on any one of your pages within your website.

This is because search engines like Google rank all of your pages individually and if they are optimised for different keywords, as we want them to be, any one of your web sites pages might land up at the top of the search results.

 

Every page must be focused and clearly state it's purpose

Lets land directly into every one of the rooms in our fictional hotel:

• If there's a bed in it - It's a bedroom!
• If there's a bath in it - It's a bathroom!
• If there's a bar in it - It's the lounge area
• If there are tables and chairs all laid out for service - You're in the restaurant!

So when you are planning your web site make sure that each page has a clear focus on what it is and what visitors will be doing there.

• Every page should clearly announce the website name
• Every page should have a clear title
• Home pages should lay out the website stall - Introduce the business
• Contact pages should have easy to find telephone, email or other info

 

Make sure all your corridors have clear signage

Lets say that we transported a guest into one of the bedrooms of the multi floor business hotel. They are fine they can see the bed and find the en suit bathroom.

But then they get hungry and want to go to the restaurant.

They step out of the bedroom.

However there are no signs on the corridor walls so they don't know whether to go left or right.

They choose left and start walking until they get to the end of the corridor.

They see a door and go through it.

Unfortunately this is the emergency fire stairs.

So they turn around and walk back but now they have become disoriented and not only can they not find the restaurant., they don't know what floor they are on or where their room is.

 

Don't disorientate your visitors, clearly navigate them

Good website navigation is simple:

• Use descriptive words to tell visitors where the link will lead
• Place navigation in the same place on every page
• Give visitors several ways to find each page
• Use top level navigation for sections and sub level for pages within
• Use 'buttons', 'tabs', 'underlined links', 'clear icons' to indicate navigation

Navigation is a top priority for anyone building a great business website.

Let's take a look at the next step of planning, writing the words and content for your business website.

Call us to set up your initial consultation: 07941 22 75 96

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