SEO Best Practices for Website Navigation

You wouldn’t begin a journey without a destination or directions to guide you. Yet without clear navigation, that’s exactly what many websites ask their visitors to do. 

Site navigation menus serve as digital signposts, pointing users in the right direction and guiding them smoothly to the pages they’re looking for.

In this blog, we’ll discuss why site navigation plays a crucial role in user experience and SEO, explore the different types of navigation, share best practices for a navigable website, and common mistakes to avoid. 

We’ll also share examples of where we’ve improved site navigation for our clients, and give tips on how to audit navigation.

What is Website Navigation?

Website navigation is a series of website features – such as menus, links, and buttons – that guide users around a website from page to page.

Website navigation menus are often the main way of navigating a site, and they usually appear at the top of the site (main navigation menu or mega menu) and a smaller menu at the bottom (footer menu).

Why is Website Navigation Important?

Navigation for a website should be clear and easy to use. Strong site navigation is important for several reasons.

Provides a Good User Experience (UX)

Site navigation that’s easy to understand provides a good user experience. UX and SEO go hand in hand, and ensuring users have a good experience on your site can lead to repeat custom, more conversions, and better overall SEO performance metrics. 

Google and other search engines use engagement metrics to decide how to rank websites.

Easier Search Engine Crawling & Indexing

A well-structured website that interlinks pages is easier for search engines to crawl and subsequently index your pages. 

Web crawlers are able to discover new pages through internal links. A logical site hierarchy can also help crawlers understand the importance of pages. 

Internal Links Pass Authority

Internal links help to guide users between pages, and they also pass authority to those pages. Links act as a signal to search engines that the linked pages are relevant and valuable.

Learn more in our internal links guide.

Makes a Site More Accessible

Websites that are easily navigable for users are also good for accessibility. 

Sites that are properly structured with headers, sitemaps, links and good navigation help to support users with disabilities who may use assistive technologies (such as screen readers).

Take a look at our free accessibility checklist.

Different Types of Site Navigation

There are several different types of webpage navigation. The main navigation type is website menus, but that’s not all.

Site Navigation Bar (Main Menu)

Usually, the main menu sits across the top of the website in the header. It should include the most important pages of the site. 

The main menu usually includes a dropdown menu. For example, on the SEO Works’ website, the Services link drops down to reveal SEO Services, PPC Services, etc., and then drops down again for further related pages.

For mobile usability, menus will often collapse down into ‘hamburger menus’ (so called due to their appearance).

The main site navigation bar may sometimes be presented as a vertical menu. This can be a design choice, or it may just be more practical for larger sites.

Footer Menu

The footer menu sits at the bottom of the website (unsurprisingly in the footer!) and is used to house less important pages. These may include policies, FAQs, or career information.

Breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs are automated internal links that help users to see where they are in the site structure.

Breadcrumbs can be used alongside navigational menus and help users to hop between pages.

Find out how to use breadcrumbs in our blog.

Internal Links

Internal links are also a useful navigational tool. Placed throughout a website, they can guide the user to other relevant content – and help search engines discover pages.

Navigation Links vs Internal Links

It’s worth noting the difference between navigation links and internal links so we don’t confuse the two.

Navigation links are structural and site-wide, helping users and search engines understand how a website is organised. 

Internal links are contextual and page-specific, and work alongside navigation to reinforce topical relevance and pass authority to important pages.

Search Bar

Search bars can present a quicker way for visitors to search a website to find specific information.

Not every site needs a search bar but larger sites, such as ecommerce, can benefit from them.

Tip: If your site does have a search bar, it’s worth enabling site search tracking in Google Analytics. You can find this in Admin > Data Streams > Enhanced Measurement > Settings.

What Should You Include in a Site Navigation Menu?

What to include in a site navigation menu depends on the website type.

Generally, navigational site menus should include:

• Services or Products
• About Us
• Resources and/or blog
• Contact page
• Call-to-action button, such as ‘Get in touch’ or ‘Book an appointment’

Specific website types may include the following.

Ecommerce navigation menus should include:

• Categories
• Subcategories
• Products
• Your account
• Basket or shopping cart
• Checkout

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) navigation menus should include:

• Products 
• Solutions – this could be split by industry, who it’s intended for, company size, or solution to a pain point
• Pricing or package options
• Resources
• ‘Book a demo’ button

Restaurant navigation menus should include:

• Chains/locations
• Food & drink menus
• Jobs/careers
• Click & collect (if relevant)
• ‘Book a table’ button

Example

We have worked with many clients to simplify the user journey and improve their navigation.

For example, when we started working with an online grocer, their products were all grouped into a Groceries category.

After further research, we discovered that different chilli types had a lot of searches per month. This presented an opportunity to target each type with a separate page (thus increasing the chances of ranking for these keywords).

We split the Groceries category out into subcategories based on keyword research and created further categories for each of the chilli types.

From an improved navigation, it made the site easier to browse, improving engagement time and UX, and allowing the site to start ranking for high search volume keywords.

Website Navigation Best Practices

Follow these best practices for creating a strong navigation system on your website.

Concise & Descriptive Menu Labels

Keep menu labels clean, concise and descriptive. Your menu shouldn’t look too cluttered. 

Include keywords where possible. Do research to see how your customers search, as users may not recognise technical terms. 

For example, on software-as-a-service (SaaS) sites, it can make sense to list solutions by the problem they address. 

However, if pain points are too wordy for navigation menus, header tags are the ideal place to explain what each software type solves.

Simple, Clear & Consistent Navigation

The key thing with navigation is to keep it simple and clear to follow. Avoid a navigation bar that’s too busy and complex to use. 

It should be intuitive to use and get site visitors to where they need to go in as few steps as possible.

The nav menu should also be consistent across the site and match your branding.

Be Mobile-friendly

Your site needs to be mobile-friendly, and the same goes for your navigation.

There’s much less space on smaller screen sizes, so you don’t want menus to look crowded on mobile.

Use a responsive design so that menus ‘collapse’ down to neatly fit smaller devices. 

Test your site on mobile devices and use crawling tools like Sitebulb and Google Search Console’s Experience report to identify any issues. 

Order Menus by Importance

Your main site navigation bar should be ordered by importance. You should put your most important items first on the left – such as Solutions, Services or Products that you offer. 

Less important items can go in the middle. These may include Resources or Pricing. 

The Contact button should be at the end of the menu on the right. You may also want to include a call-to-action button to the right of the Contact button. 

Remember that links added to the footer menu carry less weight, so include important pages in the main menu.

Show Where You Are

Another important consideration is to show users where they are in the navigation to avoid disorientation.

Simple visual indicators may include underlining and/or a contrasting colour to show which page the user is on.

Breadcrumbs are another way that this can be achieved. 

A visual indicator on the menu is also important for accessibility, so that visitors using keyboard navigation can use the tab key to navigate menu options.

HTML Links

As a technical consideration, webpage navigation links should be served in HTML. 

When Google crawls new content, the first step is to parse the response HTML, where any links are added to the crawl queue. So if links are not served in HTML, this may prevent them from being crawled and indexed.

Also, some large language models (LLMs) – such as ChatGPT – can’t yet render JavaScript content, so any links or content served in JS instead of HTML could get missed, impacting search visibility.

You can test your links with JavaScript disabled using tools such as the Chrome add-on Web Developer.

Click Depth

Click depth is the number of clicks it takes a user to reach another page from the homepage. In other words, how deep in the site the page is. 

As a general rule, any page should not be more than three clicks away from the homepage. If they are, this can make content harder for users and search engines to find. 

Consider your overall site architecture and hierarchy when designing your navigational structure.

Hover Link Matches Destination

In cases where the link destination changes, it can be tempting to add a redirect and keep links as they are.

However, this can add an extra ‘hop’ to the request when the link is clicked, which may take longer to load. Users may also be confused if the link they clicked doesn’t match what loads. 

Conduct an internal linking review regularly, and especially after any site structure changes. Update any links to the new destination, paying particular attention to navigation menu links.

Navigation Menu Checklist

In summary, here’s a checklist to create a good navigation menu:

• Are menu labels concise, descriptive and do they include keywords?
• Is navigation simple and clear to follow and consistent across your site?
• Does menu navigation work on mobile devices?
• Are items in the mega menu listed with the most important first?
• Is there some sort of visual indicator as to which page users are on?
• Are links and main content served in HTML and can be crawled by search engines and AI crawlers?
• Starting at the homepage, can users reach each page in three clicks or less?
• When you hover over menu items, does the link URL match the final destination?

Common Site Menu Mistakes to Avoid

Not all websites get it right when it comes to navigation that provides the best user experience. 

Here are a few common mistakes to avoid:

• The menu is too busy – This makes it confusing and overwhelming to use, and increases the chance of users bouncing back to search results. 
• The menu is too sparse – The reverse problem of menus being too sparse can mean that key pages aren’t linked. Again, this leads to users not finding the content they need.
• Click depth is high – The more clicks it takes from the homepage, the harder it is for users and search engines to find. This can provide a frustrating experience for users and cause search engine crawling issues.  
• Orphan pages – Orphan pages stand alone with no links pointing to them. This can occur if not linked in navigation menus or across the site. It makes it nearly impossible for users and search engines to find the content. 
• Links aren’t clickable – We’ve seen numerous cases over the years where some links, like key category pages, are not clickable from the menu. This can present a problem if a user is unsure which product they need and can’t access the main category. 
• Style over substance – Choosing design over functionality is not a good idea. First and foremost, menus should be easy to navigate. This doesn’t mean that style has to be compromised.

How to Audit Navigation Menus

You should audit your site regularly for broken links and other errors using crawling tools like Screaming Frog and Sitebulb.

You should also use performance tools like Google Analytics and Search Console to track how users engage. 

Heatmapping tools like HotJar and Microsoft Clarity allow you to see how site visitors behave, and identify any drop-off points or potential barriers so you can create a navigable website.

Key Takeaways

A site that’s easy to navigate is more likely to result in repeat custom and encourage users to take the final step in making a purchase or enquiring. 

A navigable website that’s good for users is also good for search engines to understand, crawl and index. 

Get in touch to find out more about our SEO services and audits.

FAQs

Where should the navigation be on a website?

The main navigation menu sits in the header at the top of a website, either as a horizontal bar or as a sidebar. The main menu contains links to key pages.

The footer menu sits in the footer at the bottom of the website and contains secondary links, such as social media links.

How important is website navigation?

Website navigation is very important because it gives users direction as to where they are going on the website. It acts as a roadmap, and good, clear navigation should allow users to find the information they need quickly and easily.

What’s the difference between site navigation and site structure?

Site navigation is a series of website features, such as links, buttons and menus, that guide users around a site. Whereas site structure refers to the overall architecture of a site and how pages are organised and linked.

What’s the difference between site navigation and sitemaps?

While site navigation is a series of website features that guide users around a site, a sitemap is a file that lists all the pages and content on a website. 

An XML sitemap helps search engines to understand the site structure. An HTML sitemap is another tool that can help with user navigation.