Countless clients have come to GreenMellen with a similar challenge:
- Our website is confusing.
- People can’t find what they’re looking for on our website.
- The site navigation needs a serious refresh.
Do any of these sound familiar to you? You’re not alone.
Website navigation is an imperative part of a positive online experience. If users can’t easily find the information they want, they’ll leave frustrated or empty-handed.
This means structuring your pages and menus in a way that’s intuitive and clear. Easier said than done. To achieve that goal, let’s examine website menus and their role in online navigation.
Why Website Navigation Matters
To restate the obvious, effective navigation is vital to providing your audience with the right information without requiring too much effort. But there are even more benefits.
- Improved web analytics: Clear and intuitive navigation reduces bounce rates and keeps users on the site longer.
- SEO boost: Structured navigation helps search engines understand the site’s content and improves keyword ranking.
- Conversion optimization: Drive conversions by leading users to the most important pages with minimal friction.
As Donald Miller says, “When you confuse, you lose.” Don’t confuse website visitors with clutter and jargon. Clean up your menu items to maximize your website. Beautifully written and designed pages don’t matter if people can’t find them.
4 Key Elements of a Good Website Menu
- Simplicity is Key: Less is more. Fewer choices on a website menu increase the chances that users will click a page. 7 to 10 menu items are the recommendation.
- Clear Labels: Use words that people understand. Avoid jargon and insider language. Talk to your audience to figure out what’s clear and what’s confusing.
- Logical Hierarchy: To fit in large amounts of pages, it may be necessary to group pages into categories or mega menus. Map these out together to ensure this structure makes sense. Use dropdown menus sparingly.
- Visible and Accessible: Ensure that people can navigate these menus across devices—especially mobile devices or accessibility readers.
Common Navigation Mistakes to Avoid
- Too Many Choices: Discuss how an overcrowded menu can confuse users.
- Confusing Language: Don’t use jargon or unnecessarily creative labels that may confuse the target audience.
- Hidden Navigation: Hiding menus behind obscure icons (like “hamburger” menus) can harm UX if not used thoughtfully.
- Overuse of Drop-Downs: Avoid the dangers of over-complicating navigation with too many nested menus. Don’t add second or third-level navigation.
- Neglecting the search bar: A search bar is often your audience’s go-to resource. Make sure it works and can be found in a prominent place.
How to Test and Optimize Your Navigation
- A/B Testing: Encourage regular testing of different menu layouts to see what works best.
- User Feedback: Explain the importance of gathering user feedback to identify pain points.
- Analytics: Guide readers on how to use analytics tools to track how users interact with the main menu and identify improvement areas.
Examples of Effective Main Menus
Here are a number of types of effective main menus—each one built by the GreenMellen team.
Simple Navigation
Oakleigh Mortgage Advisors’ website features a simple main menu with only four options. This is a great solution for a lean site like this. It should be clear what each page means and how to immediately find relevant information.
Call to Action Buttons
The Friends of Forman website features a few more pages, including more predominant ones: Donate and Contact. Since these deserve more attention, they’ve been added as CTA buttons in the main menu. This draws the user’s eyes and makes them stand out from the other options.
Secondary Navigation
The website for Truist Plaza in Atlanta contains several pages. These are logically organized into secondary menus, easily accessible from the main menu. Subtle features like the down arrow with the drop-down menu make it simple to find each page. These sub-menus collapse into a hamburger menu on mobile and require a tap to open each secondary group.
Mega Menu
Organizing all of the pages for the Georgia Historical and Optima Signs and Graphics websites was a challenge. Many more pages needed to be shared with multiple audiences, which required a more extensive mega menu that opens in multiple columns when hovering over a menu item.
Note that there are still only a few main menu items—with a secondary menu above that with a search bar. This option should only be used sparingly on larger websites, but it can help compile a massive amount of information into the navigation.
Design Elements
On GreenMellen’s website, we’ve taken an even more creative approach. We use a variety of dropdowns and mega menus—including some with graphic elements to draw your attention. It’s still important to remember to be consistent and have a purpose behind each element.
How is Your Website Menu?
Now that we’ve reviewed the hows and whys behind website main menus, we have a question: how does your website menu look?
- Is it confusing? Outdated?
- Is it easy to understand? By your audience?
- Can people find what they’re looking for?
- Does your menu need a refresh?
You can use these tips and examples to rethink your menu and breathe new life into your website navigation. If you need more help, you can also talk to the GreenMellen team to put our experience to good use.
