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Top Seven Tips to Improve Navigational Structure of Your Site

In order to make it convenient for your visitors to explore your website, it is important to pay attention to your navigational structure. A website with better navigation improves the user experience, which now plays a big role in improving your business and search engine rankings. Here are few important tips that will go a long way in improving the navigation on your website.


Add a Few Internal Links to Every Web Page

In order to make your web pages look well connected, it is important that you add a few internal links to every page that helps visitors jump to another page. A good idea is to add links to three different pages on your website on every single web page – you can definitely add more, but don't stay under three. It is so because even if one internal link isn't working, you will still have your pages indexed, as there are a couple of backup links on every web page. With the help of this internal linking strategy, it becomes easier to make Google understand what your website and pages are all about – your anchor text will also play a big role here.

Make your Navigation Easy to Understand

For this, you have to find a way to set your navigation to a hierarchy. Imagine your navigation is a family tree and the homepage is at the very top, followed by different categories and subcategories. While it is possible to add as many subcategories as you want, it may get a little confusing for the users. With a proper hierarchy structure, it will become easier for your visitors to move back and forth. This is usually the most common and simplest way of designing an effective navigation system.

Pay Attention to the Anchor Text of Your Internal Link

Internal linking is important not only for the users but also for the search engines. For this reason, it becomes important to have a few internal links on every web page along with a readable anchor text. You will be better off avoiding non-informative word as well as a string of keywords. The anchor text should tell the readers where they link would take them to – it should offer some information about the landing page. Google will also read your anchor text to understand the theme of your website and web pages.  Therefore, it is of immense importance to take your time, conduct extensive keyword research, and find such phrases that are effective and readable by humans.

Have Relevant Content around Anchor Text

Using anchor text that is readable by human is a good way of improving your navigation structure, but to make things even better, it is important that you have your anchor text surrounded by relevant content. It means the text should keep your visitors from guessing exactly what they are going to see on a page where the link will take them to – keep them informed, and if the landing page is relevant, they will definitely follow the link.

Make URLs Readable by Humans

Selecting a URL that is informative and readable by humans is useful not only for your navigational structure but also for your search engine rankings. Opting for an uninformative URL text will leave people in confusion. The best idea is to give some information about your page in your URL text – you can use your page title as your URL to make it more informative and clear for the readers. With this strategy, you will be able to inform the human reader about the basic theme of your web page, which will help them make a decision.

Place Your Search Bar Sensibly

In order to improve the usability of your website, you should consider placing your search bar at the top right corner of your webpage – this will also improve the user interface and user experience. It is the best place for your search bar because most people expect it to be here, and if you change its location, your visitors will think you don't have a search bar at all. Remember, it makes no sense to have a search bar in place if people will fail to find it. If it's there, make it visible.

Use the Three-Click Rule

The rule implies that if a visitor cannot find required information within three clicks on your website, they will leave and look for a better alternative. It's not always true, but it's definitely an indicator that your site's navigation needs some attention. So, keep this important point in mind when making changes to the navigation system on your website.

Kate Funk is a freelance writer at She is mainly focusing on technology, gadgets and all the latest trends which are interesting for networking enthusiasts.

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