Navigation is an important part of keeping people on your website and improving the user experience if done right. If it is a disaster it is bad for SEO. Here are some tips to help you improve navigation on your website.
1 – Have at least three internal links that point to one of your web pages
Pointing out three links on each page is a good way to ensure that each page stays very well connected to the site. Organize your internal links for three different pages linked to all the pages you have. Some pages get more connections than others, but at least three each is a good place to start. If one of the internal links breaks then you have two backups. It will also help you keep people on your website and help you get your pages indexed a little faster. It also helps Google understand what its internal pages are about since each one has at least three anchor texts that describe each of them.
2 – Establish navigation in an easy to understand the hierarchy
Think of your browsing as a family tree with the home page on the first line, followed by categories and then sub-categories. You can add as many sub-categories as you like, but remember it can be confusing for a user. However, if you have a hierarchical structure in your browsing and people will be able to move back and forth in the knowledge that if they want to expand their options then all they have to do is go back, either with the “back” button or by clicking on the category or website.
3 – Make your internal link anchor text human-readable
Your anchor text must not consist of a code or a non-informative word or phrase. It also should not be a keyword string. The original use of anchor text is supposed to be what people might guess what the linked page is about. Google even reads your link text to try to find out what the linked page is about. So make sure it is made up of one or more words that are human-readable so that the human reader can interpret what kind of page contains the link points to.
4 – Describe your page linked with the text anchor
Your anchor text has to be readable by a human being, as it improves the navigation of your site. There is a current trend that emerges is to let the surrounding text explain the relationship so that the anchor text can say something like “Read more. However, this ignores the fact that most people do not read websites and will not know what type of “More Information” page goes. It could go to a very relevant site, but the user is left to guess, as the search engine may not have picked up the point of the previous text.
5 – Make your URLs human-readable
If the name of your URLs is non-informative, search engines and human users will not be able to guess your content. Your navigation improves a little if you describe your page in the URL like Commercial Licence in Abu Dhabi. Many people use the page title as a basis for their URL, and this is often a great help to search engine friendly searches because the main keywords are found in the title and the URL. It also means that the human reader is able to look in the direction without the text anchor covering it and still be able to guess what the web page is about.
6 – Place the search bar at the top right of the screen
To improve your web usability, user interface, and user experience, you need to put the search bar at the top of the page. That’s where people expect you to be from the search bar and they’ll automatically assume you don’t have one if it’s not there. Your website becomes a little more intuitive if you put your search bar at the top of the page. There is no reason to have a search bar if people are not going to use it because they don’t know it exists.
7 – Remember the three-click rule
The three clicks rule says that if a person cannot find what they are looking for within three clicks of the website, the user will leave the website. It is not really a true rule since the way of using the websites is very variable. However, it is a good reminder that browsing should be effective enough that a person can find what they are looking for quickly. Keep this in mind when uploading your navigation system.