Navigating Your Way into Your Visitors` Hearts
(Page 1 of 4 )
I hate getting lost, whether it’s on the road or online. Guess what? So do your visitors. Just as we expect to see signs on the road to help us find our way, there exist “rules of the road” for web site navigation design. Break these at your peril.
This topic is slightly unusual, and not as widely discussed in SEO circles as other topics, so let me break things down by describing the elements of a web site, at least the way I see them. The first element is content, and it is the most important. The second element is the “frame” in which that content is placed, whether that’s a cookie-cutter template or something you’ve built especially for your site. (For purposes of this article, I mean both the visual appearance and the code behind that appearance). The third element is the site’s structure, or navigation, and that’s the focus of this article.
Why is your web site’s navigation important? It’s very simple: when your web site is easy for visitors to navigate, they can find what they’re looking for more quickly. When they can find what they want more quickly, they’re more likely to trust you and see you as a professional. That positive experience will make them want to return again and again. Happy visitors who think well of you are more likely to do what you want them to do: sign up for a newsletter, fill out a form, buy your products and so forth.
Does that sound a little far-fetched? It shouldn’t. Think about your own web surfing experiences. But if you need another reason to make your web site’s navigation user-friendly, consider this: it might improve your position on the search engine results pages. Don’t believe me? Okay, let me give you an example.
Say you have a web site that sells, among other things, digital cameras. You have a “digital cameras” main category, with subcategories for “point and shoot digital cameras,” “professional digital cameras,” or whatever terms a typical searcher would use to find those kinds of cameras (which you know because you did your keyword research). When Google’s spider comes along to index your site, it will see the main menu page and take note of the main categories and subcategories, along with the structure. Because you’ve made sure that your navigation is text-based rather than image-based, Google can read it, and assigns strong relevance to those pages for those particular words. This means you’re more likely to make a good showing in the SERPs, be seen by someone searching for those keywords, and attract more traffic.
Next: Give Them What They Expect >>
More Search Optimization Articles
More By Terri Wells
/ 5 
