Emilie, our Senior Content & UX Strategist is a master of all things user experience. She’s a creative problem solver with a stellar ability to find innovative solutions to all your UX problems.
Here are Emilie’s five tips for improving your site’s navigation:
1. Limit Primary Navigation to Seven Labels
Avoid analysis paralysis as much as you can. When users are exposed to too many choices in the primary navigation, it becomes harder to make a decision. So in this instance, less is best.
2. Use Active Voice
Using an active voice in your labels involves constructing your sentence so the subject ‘acts’. It makes you sound more direct and also creates a sense of urgency, which helps drive the user towards action and deeper engagement.
3. Include Calls-To-Actions
Try to include a call-to-action on every page. A call-to-action specific to each page’s content goes a long way towards achieving your goal. It helps let the user know where to go and how to keep engaging.
4. Provide Relevant Crosslinks with Anchor Text
Guide users through the site with internal links using relevant anchor text. Utilize low keyword density (so not overly used keywords) in your anchor text and choose links that are related to the topic of discussion. Link to deeper level pages and not just your home or contact page. This not only will help improve navigation, but it will help your search rankings.
5. Don’t Forget About Content Hierarchy
Determining what content a page should prominently feature, and in what order, helps push the user towards a certain direction based on your overall goals. This helps improve navigation because it allows users to easily determine what the primary calls-to-actions are, compared to the secondary or tertiary ones. Users become less overwhelmed when content is prioritized. When page content is the same size and appears to compete in prominence, you get what was mentioned before, analysis paralysis.
Want to learn more or chat UX & content strategy with Emilie? Drop us a line!
