Organizing Your Web Site Navigation

Somewhere between listing every page in your web site down the side of the page, and making users click through layers and layers of sub-menus to find what they need, there is a happy medium. Your average user wants to find the information they are looking for in 3 clicks or less. If they can't they will most likely leave your site and look elsewhere.

Consider the primary goal of your site - do you sell a product, a service, or is your site primarily informational? Can you organize your pages into general information and specific information? Do you have sub-categories of information?

In order to organize your links, make an outline of your site. Group them by general company info, product and/or service type, additional info or resources. If you find any one category has multiple sub-items, consider making it a top level item.

You can keep general information links at the top of the page and make more product/service specific links in a side navigation area. Another option is to use drop down menus from the main categories. If you feel you need to have all your navigation links showing, consider grouping them and separating them with graphical category names, putting them in boxes, or separating them with spacing.

There is no absolute right or wrong, but these are a few tips to help you create a more organized site.