Submitted on:  04/18/2007

How many times have you looked hesitantly at a website you have just come across, wondering where to go next? Basically, if the navigation of the website is confusing, all other efforts directed at improving the usability factor will fail. On the web, navigation is the key to everything.

Websites that are hard to navigate are quickly abandoned by visitors.

How do you navigate without a map?

In real life, navigating without a map is a hopeless task. The virtual world of the WWW has many things in common with the real world; that's why most websites also have maps.

The main purpose of a sitemap is to provide a clear and easy navigational option for website users who have failed to find what they were looking for using other means of browsing through a website. As soon as your site's page count has exceeded 15 or so pages, it's time to add a sitemap.

Sometimes I see websites that look very usable and intuitive at first glance. A standard small menu at the top seems to provide clear, one-click access to all the important pages on the site. Assuming the site contains only 8 or 10 pages, I start clicking on the top menu links one by one, and only on the 6th visited page I suddenly (and quite by chance) discover a lot of links pointing to important content pages and learn that the site, in fact, contains about 60 pages or so. Yet just from looking at the home page of the site, I would have no idea all these content pages existed.

Of course, you can't link to everything from your home page. It would look cluttered and perhaps even spammy if you do so. Having a sitemap is the best way to instantly give your visitors a basic idea of how large your site is, what are the most important sections of it and what kind of information they are likely to find if they take the time to explore it. Of course, when a site is large and has thousands of pages, you can only add the most important pages to the site map, but with a smaller site (up to 100 pages) there is no reason not to list all pages on the sitemap.

It's just as important to make the layout of the sitemap intuitive and scannable. No funny tricks that might make your visitor wonder what it's all about. No grey text on a light-grey background. Links should look like links and stand out clearly, and the colours and the font sizes should ensure good readability. More important pages can be highlighted using larger fonts, and it's a good idea to reflect the hierarchy of the site using indents.

To maximise the effect of having a sitemap, link to your sitemap from every other page of your website, and make this link easy to find.

Consistency

Consistent navigational patterns make it easier for a user to get acquainted with them. Different patterns on different pages can create a feeling of "running in cycles". On the other hand, too often different sections of a large site require different navigational patterns, to reflect the specifics of every section. Usually, visitors expect a total 100% repeatability from the left-side and top navigation, but if you have additional navigational links in the right column of your site, certain diversity is acceptable.

Breadcrumbs

Another standard way of optimising the navigation of websites (I mean optimising for users, though the search engines love it, too) is using so-called "breadcrumbs" - the short-cut links located at the top of the content part of every page and outlining the path back from the current page to the home page of the site. They ensure your visitors will never get "lost" on the website.

Unfortunately, so many websites neglect this very handy navigation element and make us wonder where we are.

Categorisation

Articles, tips or resources should be properly categorised. Please include resources in fitting categories and provide several alternative options for navigation. Remember, if you create a mess inside your categories, it will annoy visitors.

Help me find my way home...

The home page should be linked from every page of the site. The logo is traditionally linked to the home page, but please provide an alternative text link in the main navigation too, for better usability.

Page names

The page names should "speak" to your visitor. Ideally, it should be easy to tell what the page is about by simply looking at the URL of the page. A page name like 4867.html is not very helpful in this regard.

Often I see sites that just frame other sites, so whatever I click, the URL in the browser stays the same. Apart from being confusing, it makes it impossible to bookmark particular pages. That's yet another reason not to use frames for regular sites.

Love and respect your visitor...

... and the visitor will love and respect you.

About the Author:

Name:  Irina Ponomareva Irina Ponomareva has been a practising SEO consultant since 2004. She joined Viscomp, a Russian web design agency, in February 2008. Find out more at http://www.viscomp-dev.com/