A very important point to consider while designing a website
is proper navigation. You must ensure that potential clients
or customers are able to find the information they are looking
for without too many clicks. As a quick rule of thumb,
visitors to your site should be able to visit all your pages
by using, at most, 3 clicks. This is also important when
considering search engine optimization (SEO) because search
engines will only spider (or index) pages that are 3 clicks
deep into your site. Not only does proper navigation allow
users to find information they are looking for, but it also
allows search engines to spider (or index) the information
they are looking for. This is essential if you want high
quality search engine traffic directed to your website.

Different types of websites employ different navigation
styles, so it is probably best to visit websites similar to
your own to see which navigation structure they have chosen.
The most common locations for your navigation menu are either
on the left side of the page or at the top of the page. When
internet users view a website, they do so using what is
termed as a "Z scan". As soon as a page loads, most people
scan from the top-left, across to the top-right of the page,
then down to the lower-left, and eventually across to the
lower-right of the page. So, it makes the most sense to
locate your navigation menu in the area where the user is
going to first look.

Smaller sites usually only require a static menu on either
the side or top of the page. However, website that contains
10 - 15 topics on different pages may require a drop-down
menu. These menus may use DHTM, __JavaScript, or some other
programming language. When the user's mouse moves over a
main topic category, boxes containing subcategories will
drop-down, allowing the user to quickly find the information
they are looking for. I f this type of menu is used, it is
best to also include text-based navigation in another
location on the page. Older browser versions may not support
drop-down menus, and therefore a small percentage of people
may not be able to navigate your website. Even more important
though, is the fact that search engines will not be able to
navigate and index your site if there is no text based
navigation.

Another concern is accessibility by assistive technologies.
For example, blind Internet users literally read the code of
your page. Therefore, if a navigation menu is image based or
uses image maps, alternate text must be used to allow the
user to properly navigate the website. To make things easy,
no matter what type of navigation I choose for a client's
website, I always include text-based navigation links at the
bottom of every page to ensure that they are accessible to
all Internet users and search engine spiders.

A Few Important Tips

*Plan your site navigation structure before designing your
website to ensure that you are not forgetting any page links.
It may be cumbersome to fix every page you have created
because you a missing a link or two.

*The navigation menu must be clean-cut and uniform.

*Do not make the user scroll down the page to see the
navigation menu.

*If you have too many links, use drop-down menus or create
a site map.

*The navigation structure should be flexible enough to allow
the inclusion of a additional links at a later date.

*Use short, clear and concise words in your links so your
customers know exactly what type of information that page
will contain.

*Make sure every page has a link back to your homepage. This
can be achieved by providing a "Home" link in the navigation
structure, and / or linking your logo image to the homepage.

*For larger sites, breadcrumb trails can be used to let the
user know what section of the website they are in. For
example, at the top of a certain page, the user would see:

"Home / Products / Widgets / Green Widgets"

Article Written by Paul Coulter.