Kevin's Papers

Technical Papers by Kevin Morrison

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2 minutes reading time (340 words)

Setup Proper Site Navigation

When setting up a websites navigation a rule of thumb that I try and follow is to have between 6 and 8 wide and no deeper than 3. However this can be difficult to do with larger websites but the smaller your navigation list the easier it will be for your sites visitors to navigate and find what they are looking for.

The first step to take when in the R&D phase of a project is to take all the content and categorise it into relevant blocks with category titles that make sense to what content is in it. Once you have the content organized write out the navigation that you will need to get it on the site. If the content does not fit within the limits stated above then it is time to get creative and see what measures need to be taken to simplify it. If it looks confusing to you on paper then chances are it is going to be even harder for your visitors to find their way around.

On sites with huge amounts of content I like to break up the top navigation into the blocks that we laid out in our categories. Keep the top navigaton to get the visitor to the block area of content and then create sidebar navigation within each block to navigate that area only. It wont take long for your visiotrs to catch on htat when they are in an area to look in the sidebar for relevant links to what they are looking for.

Taking this approach to keep your site clean and simple will not only help your visitors but you as well. There may be areas that you will not visit for a long time and if it has a solid structure from the ground up, you will be able to find what you are looking for months or even years later without much effort. Of course the golden rule of SEO says you will not neglect updating your content on a regular basis though.

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