Navigation Notes
Ease of navigation is very important to your site. Provide a navigation bar at a consistent location on every page that links to all of the major pages of your site. Make it easy to get from one page to any other.
Search engines can index any page from your site, so your home page might not be the first page visitors come to. Never have dead ends where viewers scroll down a screen or two of information only to find that they must scroll all the way back to the top to move on (because you have no links at the bottom of the page). A consistent-looking and wellpositioned navigation bar with functioning links is the key to efficient site navigation.
Your visitors should be able to get anywhere they want to go on your site in three clicks or fewer. Develop an effective navigation bar as previously described. For very large sites (i.e., sites consisting of more than eight to ten major sections), it is a good idea to include a site map that users can access from any page in your site. Site maps are usually text-based lists that name all of the site’s pages and their content. Site maps make it easy for users to access the information they are looking for without causing them much frustration.
Include a link from your main navigation bar to the site map for the easiest possible reference. Site maps are great for submission to the search engines as they provide links to every page of your Web site ensuring, as much as possible, that every page of your site gets included in the search engines’ database.
An additional feature you might wish to include is an internal search tool. This allows users to enter their query and have all relevant matches returned, based on their query. This is a particularly useful feature if you sell many products directly on your Web site or if your site contains many pages of content. It allows the user to quickly search for the desired item or information using the product’s name or a relevant keyword.
Intel, the computer chip manufacturer, operates multiple sites and offers many products and services. To help users locate the information they’re looking for, Intel has integrated a useful search tool.
Keep the design of your site consistent. Font types, headers, footers, navigational bars, buttons, bullets, colors, and so on, should be consistent throughout the site to maintain a polished, professional look.
Ease of navigation is very important to your site. Provide a navigation bar at a consistent location on every page that links to all of the major pages of your site. Make it easy to get from one page to any other.
Search engines can index any page from your site, so your home page might not be the first page visitors come to. Never have dead ends where viewers scroll down a screen or two of information only to find that they must scroll all the way back to the top to move on (because you have no links at the bottom of the page). A consistent-looking and wellpositioned navigation bar with functioning links is the key to efficient site navigation.
Your visitors should be able to get anywhere they want to go on your site in three clicks or fewer. Develop an effective navigation bar as previously described. For very large sites (i.e., sites consisting of more than eight to ten major sections), it is a good idea to include a site map that users can access from any page in your site. Site maps are usually text-based lists that name all of the site’s pages and their content. Site maps make it easy for users to access the information they are looking for without causing them much frustration.
Include a link from your main navigation bar to the site map for the easiest possible reference. Site maps are great for submission to the search engines as they provide links to every page of your Web site ensuring, as much as possible, that every page of your site gets included in the search engines’ database.
An additional feature you might wish to include is an internal search tool. This allows users to enter their query and have all relevant matches returned, based on their query. This is a particularly useful feature if you sell many products directly on your Web site or if your site contains many pages of content. It allows the user to quickly search for the desired item or information using the product’s name or a relevant keyword.
Intel, the computer chip manufacturer, operates multiple sites and offers many products and services. To help users locate the information they’re looking for, Intel has integrated a useful search tool.
Keep the design of your site consistent. Font types, headers, footers, navigational bars, buttons, bullets, colors, and so on, should be consistent throughout the site to maintain a polished, professional look.
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