10 March 2016

Web Design

Navigation, Navigation, Navigation: Part 1 - Why is Navigation an important part of website design?

SEO can come from a variety of efforts and are not confined to any single element. However, we need to ensure that all of the SEO techniques that are utilized all work in synergy and that there aren’t any web design flaws that counteract or even hinder the SEO you are conducting.

The way your website works, and the way in which a user can navigate around your site is a crucial web design element that can determine how well your SEO and Google crawling can take place. The structure of your website, in other words, needs to be well thought out and is something that the web designer needs to take into consideration and place a lot of emphasis on when designing the website.

Why is website navigation so important?

This may seem like a question that has obvious answers, but it isn’t always quite as straightforward as you might think.

The obvious part to the answer is that good navigation and website structure can enable a user to find what they are looking for more easily, thus increasing user experience and keeping them on your website Remember that how long a user stays on your website is also something that is taken into account when your website is ranked in Google.

In addition, if the website speaks for itself and also what the customer is looking for, good navigation can also ensure that the user keeps coming back and, possibly even buying things if you have an E-Commerce website. After all, you don’t want to spend hours trying to figure out where everything is when you visit a site and, chances are if you are struggling to find what you are looking for, you will not come back, as the reason so many people shop online is because it is easier, quicker and just more convenient.

A good web design and navigation is also something that is essential due to the fact that you will have a lot of competition online – more so than if you had a physical store by a long shot. As a result, the last thing you want to do is to let your competitors outshine you in any department. If you want to be ranked among the highest in your industry online, then you need to make sure you're pulling out all the stops and not forgetting the attention to detail that is required – it is obvious that may at first seem insignificant that can actually make more of a difference than you think.

As the second most important thing when it comes to ranking is how easily and well Google can crawl a website, having a good website structure also ensures that Google is able to recognise how a page plays a role in the entire website. All of the features that make a good website design help with great organization.

Let’s think about folders – Imagine you are Google. When you are filing a piece of paper away in one of several folders, you want to ensure that all the folders are marked accurately and correctly, and that all the documents inside are relevant and applicable to that folder. If those folders are also attached, you also want to ensure that they are in a logical order, and that everything relevant to one another is connected in a sensible way. If not, you will struggle to find where everything is and, in the end it won’t make sense to you.

Google is a robot, remember, so it can’t just sort everything out for you. Its job is to crawl and rank.

For more information on any of the above, you can contact FDC for a free consultation. We will be able to go through all the different elements of SEO that can be integrated to ensure you get the best results possible.