Thinking about giving your site a quick once-over? Well, you'll want to get started right away when you hear this: Studies show that well-planned navigation can help boost your sales by more than 50%!

The next time you do some revamp work on your site, pay special attention to its navigation. Navigation can really make or break an online business. It’s just as important as the visual design of your site -- if not more so.

Your navigation should be structured with only one thought in mind: making it easy for your visitors to find information and buy your product or service. You have to make sure your customers are guided toward the action you want them to take, whether it’s signing up for an opt-in offer, filling out a survey, or making an actual purchase.

The better your site is at helping visitors find the information they’re seeking, the more likely it is that they’ll view extra pages and return for another visit.

With well-planned navigation, you can increase the number of page views AND the amount of repeat traffic you receive.

Read on to learn more about four simple strategies you can use to improve your site’s effectiveness and get your sales to soar!

1. Streamline Your Architecture

Your web site should contain as few pages as possible. Web sites that have a lot of pages can quickly become a tangled mess if they’re not well designed.

Believe it or not, studies show that 30% to 60% of visitors drop off with every click they’re made to take! The deeper visitors have to dig to find what they’re looking for, the less likely they are to stick around and see what your site has to offer.

Here's how to streamline the architecture of your site:

Cut down on the number of pages on your site

For example, if you sell only a few products, make sure they’re featured on your homepage. Don’t make your visitors look for them. People are always one click away from leaving a site -- don’t give them an excuse to make that click!

If your products are featured on the home page, include brief descriptions beside each one. Provide links to more information on separate pages. That way, customers can learn more about the products that interest them without having to wade through a lot of extra content.

If you can’t fit all your products on your homepage, organize them into categories and include the links to each category on your homepage or navigation bar menu. The same goes for any newsletters or articles featured on your site.

Don't let visitors click more than three times!

Make sure that none of your pages are more than three clicks away from any other. People should never have to click more than three times to find what they’re looking for.

If you’re not sure how the pages on your site relate to each other, map them out on paper. Your diagram should look something like this:

Any site that has more than two pages should be nonlinear in design. Your visitors shouldn’t have to click back and forth through a whole series of pages to get where they’re going -- especially if they’re looking to buy something!

Make sure that your visitors can easily find their way back to your home page, no matter where they are on your site. And, most importantly, make sure they’re always within one click of making a purchase!

If your web site is large and content rich, provide links within your content to other pages on your site. It’s an easy way to persuade visitors to check out those pages as well. Just be sure to include an easy-to-locate “back” button that will return visitors to the page they were on before.

2. Standardize Your Navigation Menu

Your navigation HAS to be consistent! Navigation features exist to help your visitors figure out how to get around on your site. You don’t want to make this difficult for them. Otherwise, you’ll lose far too many potential customers.

Make sure your menu is located in the same place on every page of your site

Your menu should be instantly recognizable to your visitors, with the same buttons, size, and color on every page.

The menu should be placed across the top or along the left side of the page. Those are the first places people look when seeking information. Whether you choose top navigation or a left-side menu depends on what kind of web site you have.

If you’re featuring plenty of products on your site, the navigation menu should go at the top. This gives you more horizontal space to feature your products.

If your homepage is a salesletter, you may prefer to position your navigation menu to the side so that visitors aren’t distracted from your headline.

Keep your navigation menu as simple as possible

Don’t include dozens of links on your navigation menu or it will be too visually confusing for your visitors.

If you have a large site, organize the pages into categories. Include only the main category links on the navigation menu. A good rule of thumb is to have no more than eight options -- maximum!-- on any one menu.

You should also make sure that your navigation links have obvious names. Avoid clever or “cutsey” headings. They can confuse people. Always choose clarity over cleverness!

Your navigation links or buttons should be easy to understand. Your visitors shouldn’t have to guess where the links are going to take them. Don’t use words like “More,” or “Extra Info,” or “Select” -- such vague terms aren’t very useful in letting people know what they’ll find when they click on the link.

Also be sure to include a direct call to action in your navigation whenever possible. Tell your visitors exactly what you want them to do. For example, if you want them to learn more about your product, include a call to action like this:

Learn more about Product X!

This type of call to action encourages visitors to click through to another page to read more information your product.

3. Cater to Your Customers

In order for your web site to turn visitors into buying customers, it has to cater to their needs. Focus on what your potential customers want and make sure they can easily locate it on your site.

Help them find what they're looking for

Here’s a scary statistic for you: studies show that more than 50% of online sales are lost because visitors can’t find what they’re looking for on a site. If your site is poorly organized, you could be losing more than half your sales!

Visitors always want to know...

• How they got to the page they’re on
• Where that page is in relation to the rest of the site
• Where they can go from there

Be sure to provide them with these three important pieces of information. Your visitors should always know exactly where they are and how they can get back to earlier pages they’ve visited.

If you have a large site, leave a trail of breadcrumbs! Include a navigation bar that shows your visitors the path they’ve taken from your homepage to the page they’re currently on.

For example, if your business sells hand-crafted wooden furniture, someone who’s looking for a dining room set might leave a breadcrumb trail like this:

home >> furniture >> dining room >> tables and chairs.

This makes it easy for visitors to make their way back to pages they’ve already viewed.

Cater to browsers and searchers

Online shoppers fall into two general groups: browsers, who like to explore and click on links that take them deeper into a site, and searchers, who would rather focus on the specific item they’re looking for. Do what you can to cater to both types.

If your site has a lot of pages, consider adding a search function to make it easy for people to find what they’re looking for.

For example, say you sell cookbooks, and your site features a wide selection of recipes submitted by members of your discussion forum. Without a search engine, finding a particular recipe can be time-consuming and difficult. People looking for a “prawns in black bean sauce” recipe might have to look under “Asian Cooking,” “Chinese,” and “Seafood” before they find what they’re looking for.

With a search engine, however, all they have to do is plug in “Prawns + Black Bean” and they should be able to find a matching recipe right away.

Consider adding a table of contents

If your site is large, consider adding a table of contents (organized alphabetically or by topic) or a site map that features links to all your site pages. This should be clearly accessible from every page on your site. That way, if visitors want to find out whether your site includes certain information, they have an easy reference tool at their disposal.

(Hint: Search engine experts speculate that including a site map can really help to optimize your web site!)

4. Test Your Site’s Usability

In order to discover exactly how usable your navigation is, conduct a usability test. Bring together a sample group of “test customers.” These could be actual customers or honest friends and family members who will tell you the truth instead of what they think you want to hear.

Choose your test group carefully

Try to make sure your test group is representative of your target market. Consider their age, the level of schooling they have, and their familiarity with computers. Do they seem like the kind of people you’re trying to get to buy your product?

Try to find people who have never been to your site before and aren’t familiar with the products or services you sell. Don’t worry about getting a large group -- you'll only need five or six people to produce meaningful results.

If they’re not friends or family members (or even if they are!) you may want to consider paying your test customers a small fee (say, $40 or so) for their time. It’s a small price to pay for useful test results.

Assure your testers that they’re not the ones being tested. Remind them that if they experience any difficulty finding information on your site, it’s not their fault, it’s the fault of the site -- and that’s exactly the kind of problem you’re trying to solve.

Ask your visitors to complete the actions you want your visitors to take

Once you have your sample group, take a moment to consider your site and its chief functions. What are you trying to get your visitors to do?

Create a list of all the preferred actions you hope your visitors will take. Your list should include actions such as:

• Subscribe to your free newsletter
• Fill out a survey
• Learn more about your products
• Become a member
• Make a purchase

Ask your testers to visit your site and perform specific tasks related to this list of actions. Sit with them and monitor their progress. Observe them carefully. Their behavior will provide you with a lot of insight into how your real visitors fare as they surf through your site.

Watch for signs of confusion

How easy is it for your test customers to perform the tasks you’ve set for them? Do they browse through the different categories on your site or do they scan the page, looking for a search function? What difficulties do they encounter on the way?

Keep an eye out for the following types of behavior:

• HESITATION: If your testers pause or hover their mouse over a link, it probably means they’re trying to figure something out. Ask them what it is. On a perfectly designed site, everything should be perfectly obvious. Your visitors shouldn’t have to think!
  
  
• BACKING UP: If your testers quickly back out of a page, it could mean they didn’t find what they were expecting to see on that page. Maybe they thought the link was going to take them somewhere else. Or maybe they’re just lost. Ask to find out what the problem is.
  
  
• UNEXPECTED ROUTES: Carefully watch the route your testers use to make their way through your site. Did they take a path that’s surprising to you? It might be because the simplest route wasn’t the most obvious to them.
  
  
• EXTENDED READING: Do your testers take more time than you thought they would to read through the information on any given page? This might be because they’re having to read
  through too many instructions. Or it might indicate they can’t easily find what they’re looking for. Ask to make sure.

If you see your test customers having difficulties or becoming confused, don’t assume you know why. Be sure to ask them exactly what the problem is then paraphrase the problem in your own words to confirm you fully understand what they’re saying.

Finally, ask them for any suggestions they might have about how you might improve your navigation. Between their comments and your own observations of their surfing experience, any problems on your site should become readily apparent.

Final Thoughts

Always organize your navigation with your customers in mind. It should be easy for them to find what they’re looking for. Keep your navigation menu consistent on all pages, and include a clear and obvious link back to the home page on every page, so your visitors don’t get lost.

Above all, make sure it’s easy for visitors to buy your products or services!

Your navigation should guide your visitors toward the action you want them to take, whether it’s signing up for an opt-in offer or making a purchase. And, if a link takes visitors off your site, make sure the new page opens in a separate window so visitors can easily get back to your site.

Finally, be sure to check out your Web logs and analyze your site’s metrics to see what’s working and what’s not (your logs are available from your Web host, if you don’t already have direct access to them).

If you see that a lot of your visitors are exiting your site from one or two particular pages, that may be a sign there’s a problem on those pages. You’ll want to identify that problem and resolve it as soon as possible -- especially if those pages are part of your sales check-out process!

Remember, navigation isn’t the same thing as design. Your site may look really great, but if it isn’t easy for people to find what they're looking for, you're losing potential sales -- guaranteed.There are more than a few beautiful sites out there that have won design awards while still costing their owners thousands in lost sales!

A site with well-structured navigation, on the other hand, can increase the number of page views you get as well as the amount of repeat traffic you receive. By streamlining your navigation and increasing its usability, you can send your sales shooting right into the stratosphere!