When it comes to navigation, remember, less is more! If your viewer cannot figure out how to navigate your page they will immediately click away.
Navigation placement is possibly the most important part of running a blog or website.
De-clutter your navigation. Instead of having 12 links to all the pages on your website, use 3 or 4 links with sub navigation on those pages. Not only will this help your viewer find what he or she is looking for, but it will drive up the page counts and clicks!
Example. You have a blog on your travels. You also include travel writing and photography from your adventures. Instead of having a navigation that has every place you've been too and links to your photography and writing from those places, put up just three links, Travel, Photography and Writing. Under your writing link, put a page with links to the different cities, countries and places you've been and the writing from those place. Do the same for photography.
By doing this it will help your viewers navigate around what they are not interested in and find what they do want to read. Those interested in your writing can directly find it, instead of having to click through the different places you've been, same for those interested in your photography.
When working on content pages and post, make sure and include links outside of your navigation bar to other pages on your site. If we take our travel blog as an example, at the end of one article leave a link to the next article or a link to view photos from the place that you wrote about. By doing this you will keep your viewers on your page longer and exploring more and more of your website.
Navigation placement is key. Many blogs have links, and archived articles all on the same page. The human brain naturally lends itself to the left and to the top of a web page. Place your most important links on the top of your web page, and keep them simple. Place your ancillary links, such as an archive or outside websites on the left. Stay away from the right side of your page when it comes to important links or information, most viewers tend to skim over those parts.
Summary
- Keep it simple!
- Use as few links as possible.
- Use sub navigation pages.
- De-Clutter your navigation.
- Link to the next article at the bottom of every page.
- Keep important links on top and ancillary links on the left side of the page.
Hopefully these tips will help your viewer navigate your page easier and keep them on your blog longer! Check out my other articles in this series, on Blog Aesthetics, advertising and content! Happy Blogging!
