In many cases a website’s navigational functionality is not considered during the initial stages of development. Before developing a website one has to think about the users’ needs as well as how the visitors are going to be ‘guided’ to complete the website’s goals (i.e. sales, increase leads, provide users with information) whilst satisfying the user’s need.

Ideally a website’s navigation should aim to enhance visitors’ browsing experience. If visitors are having trouble finding the information they are looking for it is likely that they will click away from your website and find the information elsewhere. The goal is to make your website as user-friendly as possible. Below are a few things you can do to ensure that visitors enjoy an optimal browsing experience.

Name your menu tabs descriptively

Let users know what type of information they can expect to see when they click on a certain menu tab. In other words, once they land on the menu tab page, the information has to be relevant to the tab’s name.

Where are they on the website?

Let users know where they are on your website by highlighting the menu tab they’re currently in.

Include a sitemap

A sitemap in the footer of every page will help visitors to easily navigate your website to find the specific information they are looking for.

Make use of interlinking within your website copy

Provide visitors with easy access to more information on your website by making use of inter-linking within your website copy.

Lastly, avoid drop-down menus. In general drop-down menus are not easy to navigate and therefore not very user-friendly.