Navigation
Get To The Right Information Quickly
 

With a good website it should be easy for people to find their way around the site and to get to the right information quickly. If you only have 6 or 7 web pages then this should be simple as each page can have a link to other pages.

Most websites will have a greater number of web pages and this is when it is important that visitors can navigate around the website with ease. The best way to work out your navigation is to start with listing all the web pages you are planning to create and then create a sitemap to plan where these pages should go.  Either do this on a blank bit of paper or a word processor/spreadsheet as a visual aid will help you plan and see it in front of you.

The site map will then help you to create a first level menu and then any sub-sections as well. With the site map you can play around with moving the order of the different sections, but do remember to keep sub-sections together under the relevant first level items.

Ultimately you do not want too many first level menu items but 8 at the most.  If you look at the menu structure we have here on Charity Edit then you will see how we have then used sub-sections to further categorise the website content.

If your website has been live for years then this can also be a useful exercise to do every year or so. Just create a list of your pages, and then without looking at your current website, work out the best way the navigation should be used by creating a site map. Then when you have completed this, just compare it to your current website and decide if the navigation/menu on your current website is still the best way to help people find their way around. 

If you are using Charity Edit then even after you create your webpages, you will find that it is very easy to move pages from one section to another. See our helpful tutorials here.