KNOWLEDGEBASE
Website navigation best practices
Website navigation best practices
Think about the last time you landed on a website and couldn’t find what you were looking for. Chances are, you clicked away within seconds.
That’s the power of navigation. It’s one of the most important elements for creating good user experience. It's the map that guides visitors through your content, and often the deciding factor in whether someone converts or bounces. In fact, studies consistently show that poor navigation is one of the top reasons users abandon a website.
And, good website navigation doesn’t just help people, it helps search engines too. Clear structures make it easier for Google to crawl and index your site, which directly impacts your SEO performance.
We're going to talk through some of website navigation best practices, covering structure, design, usability, and SEO, so you can build a site that’s easy to use, appealing to search engines, and conversion-optimized.
What is website navigation?
Website navigation is the system that helps users move around your site. It includes menus, links, buttons, and the overall structure that connects your pages together. It's basically the roadmap that determines how easily someone can find the information they need.
At its core, navigation should answer three questions:
Where am I? (current location on the site)
Where can I go? (available options to explore)
How do I get there? (the shortest path to the goal)
If your navigation doesn’t provide these answers quickly and clearly, users will get lost, frustrated, and leave. This is especially true for B2B sites, ecommerce stores, or service businesses where visitors often come with a specific intent, such as finding pricing, booking a demo, or reading case studies.
Good navigation design not only improves user experience but also reduces bounce rates, strengthens trust, and increases conversions.
It's one of those things that no one should ever notice. If it's done well, the entire experience feels smooth and intuitive, and no one gives it a second thought. When done poorly, however, even the best content and design elements won’t stop visitors from abandoning the site.
The guiding principles of good website navigation
Before diving into design details, there are a few guiding principles to use as your North Star, when thinking about website navigation.
Clarity over cleverness: Labels should be simple, familiar, and descriptive. Don’t reinvent the wheel, users expect “Contact,” not “Let’s talk.”
Consistency: Keep menus and layouts the same across all pages to avoid confusion. Usually, this is at the top of the screen.
Hierarchy: Organise pages logically, from broad categories to specific subpages.
Accessibility: Navigation should be usable for everyone, including people using screen readers or keyboard-only browsing.
Scannability: Users should be able to find what they need in seconds, not minutes.
Types of website navigation
Not all sites are structured the same way, but most fall into one of these types:
1. Top/primary navigation
The main menu at the top of your site. Usually includes core pages like home, about, services, blog, and contact.
Best practice: Limit to 5–7 items. Too many choices overwhelm users.
2. Secondary nav
Appears under the primary nav, often for related or support pages. For example, under “services,” you might list “web development” and “SEO”.
Best practice: Use drop-downs sparingly as nested menus can quickly become messy.
3. Sidebars
Common on blogs, knowledge bases, or ecommerce sites (where you'll find filter items like sizes, colors, and material types). It helps users dig deeper into categories.
Best practice: Keep it collapsible on mobile to avoid clutter.
4. Footers
Often overlooked, but critical. Footers provide access to legal pages, FAQs, careers, and other supporting information.
Best practice: Use footers to give users a “safety net”, a place to go when they reach the end of the page.
5. Breadcrumbs
A trail of visual cues that show users their current location (e.g., home > blog > contact).
Best practice: Essential for large sites, and they boost SEO by creating internal linking.
Website navigation best practices
When it comes to website navigation best practices, the goal isn’t just to create a menu, it’s to design a clear path that guides users through your website with ease. A well-structured nav system improves user experience, lowers bounce rates, and makes sure visitors can always find the right content without frustration.
Below, we’ll break down the core principles every business should follow to make navigation intuitive, effective, and built for both users and search engines.
1. Keep it simple (stupid)
Simplicity is non-negotiable. The goal isn’t to impress visitors with creativity, it’s to help them find what they need.
Avoid jargon in menu labels (you'd be surprised how many people use the menu as a chance to invent a new term that no one's ever heard before).
Stick to 1–2 words per item, sum up what that page is in as few words as possible.
Prioritise the most important pages, not every page on your site should be linked in the menu. Some are only found by following a specific user journey.
If someone can’t find your product or service within 2–3 clicks, you’ve lost them.
2. Mobile-first navigation
With mobile traffic dominating in 2025, web design must take smaller screens into account first.
Use sticky menus for easy access.
Replace long menus with an expandable hamburger menu or a bottom nav bar
Test with your thumb, can a user reach core links without stretching? A strange little experiment, but an important one!
3. Use descriptive, but simple, labels
Generic terms like “Solutions” or “Stuff” don’t tell users what they’ll find. Clear labels improve both UX and SEO.
Bad: “Products”
Better: “Organic Skincare Products”
Bad: “Resources”
Better: “Guides & Tutorials”
Whilst it's great to have a little bit of personality when it comes to your navigation menu, it's really not the place to show off your endless vocabularly list. We'll let you in on a top UX secret that sounds counter-intuitive: consistency beats cleverness every time.
Users rely on familiar patterns, menus at the top, buttons on the right, labels they recognize, because it reduces cognitive load and helps them move through your site efficiently. Trying to be overly creative with names or layouts forces users to pause, think, and hunt for what they need, which increases bounce rates and frustrates your audience.
In short, good UX is about meeting users’ expectations. Use clear, descriptive labels for items, stick to standard placements for buttons and menus, and avoid jargon or internal language that only makes sense to your team.
By designing with your users’ expectations in mind, you make the website easier to navigate, improve engagement, and even give your SEO a boost, because search engines favor sites that are structured clearly and logically.
4. Limit menu items
Cognitive load is real. When users are presented with too many options at once, their brains have to work harder to process everything, which slows them down and often leads to choice paralysis.
The more decisions they have to make, the greater the chance they’ll leave without taking action.
As a rule of thumb, aim for 5–7 items in your main navigation menu. This keeps the structure simple, scannable, and easy to digest. Anything beyond that should be placed in a clearly organized sub-menu or in the footer, where users can find it without overwhelming the primary navigation. Streamlining your menu in this way not only improves user experience but also guides visitors toward your most important pages and actions more efficiently.
5. Be scan-friendly
Users don’t read the menu, they scan. That means your navigation needs to be instantly scannable and intuitive, so visitors can find what they’re looking for without thinking too hard.
To make this happen:
Group related items: Keep similar pages or sections together to create a logical flow that matches user expectations.
Use visual hierarchy: Employ bold text, spacing, icons, or subtle color differences to help users quickly identify key options.
Prioritize placement: Place the most important items at the beginning and end of menus, since these positions naturally attract the eye and are noticed first.
By designing your nav for scanning rather than reading, you reduce cognitive load, help users move through your site more efficiently, and improve overall user experience.
6. Optimise for accessibility
Navigation must work for everyone, including users with disabilities. Accessibility isn’t just a legal or ethical requirement, it also improves overall usability and user experience for all visitors.
Follow these best practices:
Ensure proper color contrast: Text and background combinations should be easy to read for users with visual impairments.
Make menus keyboard navigable: Users should be able to access all items using only a keyboard, without requiring a mouse.
Add ARIA labels for screen readers: These help visually impaired users understand the purpose of menu items, dropdowns, and buttons, making the navigation fully interpretable by assistive technologies.
By prioritizing accessibility, you make your website inclusive, improve usability, and often enhance SEO performance as well.
7. Integrate search
Even with well-structured navigation, some users prefer to go directly to the content they’re looking for. Integrating a search bar prominently into your website ensures visitors can quickly find specific pages, products, or information without unnecessary clicks.
Best practices for search integration:
Place it in a familiar location: Typically, the top-right corner of your header or nav bar is where users expect it. This placement maximizes easy access and reduces cognitive load.
Use predictive search: Autocomplete suggestions can guide users toward the most relevant pages or products, improving their experience and reducing bounce rates.
Include filters and categories: On larger sites, allow users to refine results by categories, tags, or product attributes. This is especially useful for product pages or content-heavy sections.
Keep it mobile-friendly: Make sure the search bar is visible and functional on mobile devices, consider using a magnifying glass icon that expands when tapped.
A well-integrated search function complements your main nav by giving users an alternative path to content. It reduces frustration, improves user experience, and helps ensure visitors find what they need, no matter how complex your site’s information architecture is.
8. Use sticky navigation
Sticky navigation (sometimes called a fixed or persistent navigation bar) stays visible at the top of the page as users scroll. This ensures your main navigation is always within reach, providing a smoother and more intuitive browsing experience.
Why sticky navigation matters:
Improves usability: Users don’t have to scroll back to the top to access the menu, which reduces friction and keeps them engaged.
Supports conversion goals: With important navigation items or CTAs always visible, users can take action at any point, whether that’s visiting a product page, signing up for a newsletter, or accessing your search bar.
Enhances mobile experience: On smaller screens, a sticky hamburger menu or compact navigation bar ensures users can move through your site efficiently without losing context.
9. Test, test, test
Even with the best navigation design, assumptions about what works for your users can be wrong. That’s why usability testing is critical to ensure your website navigation actually supports real users in finding what they need. Testing helps uncover friction points, confusing menu items, or overlooked navigation elements that slow down or frustrate visitors.
Ways to test your navigation:
User testing sessions: Observe how real users travel around your site, noting where they hesitate, click the wrong links, or get lost.
A/B testing: Try different options, layouts, or menu structures to see which versions improve bounce rates or click-throughs.
Heatmaps & analytics: Tools like Google Analytics or Microsoft Clarity can show which navigation items get the most interaction and which are ignored.
Website menu best practices and SEO
Great nav isn’t just good for users, it’s good for search engine optimization too.
Internal linking: Helps Google understand relationships between pages.
Breadcrumbs: Create structured paths that improve crawlability.
Descriptive anchors: Use meaningful text for links (not just “click here”).
XML sitemaps: Back up your nav with a technical map for crawlers.
The result? Better rankings, more organic traffic, and a smoother experience for both humans and bots.
Website navigation best practices: Useful tools
Figma: Figma is a collaborative interface design tool that allows you to create interactive prototypes, including navigation menus, with ease. Its real-time collaboration features make it ideal for teams working on navigation design.
Justinmind: Justinmind is a prototyping tool that offers a range of features for designing website and app navigation. It allows you to create interactive prototypes with complex navigation flows, making it suitable for testing and refining navigation structures.
FlowMapp: FlowMapp is a UX planning tool that helps you create sitemaps, user flows, and wireframes. It's particularly useful for mapping out website structures and navigation paths, ensuring a logical and user-friendly navigation experience. flowmapp.com
Axure RP: Axure RP is a comprehensive wireframing and prototyping tool that allows you to design complex navigation systems with dynamic interactions. It's suitable for creating detailed navigation prototypes that can be tested and iterated upon.
Maze: Maze is a usability testing tool that integrates with design platforms like Figma and InVision. It enables you to conduct remote user testing on your navigation designs, providing valuable insights to inform improvements.
Google Analytics: While not a design tool, Google Analytics provides data on how users interact with your website's nav. Analyzing metrics like bounce rate and click-through rate can help you identify areas where your nav may need optimization.
Common nav mistakes to avoid
Even experienced businesses can make mistakes with website menus, and these missteps can seriously impact user experience and conversion rates. Here are the key pitfalls to watch out for:
Overstuffed menus: It’s tempting to show every page in your main nav, but more isn’t better. Too many menu items create choice paralysis and overwhelm visitors, slowing down decision-making. Keep your main navigation concise and push less critical links to dropdowns or the footer menu.
Hidden nav bars: Some sites hide links behind unfamiliar icons, animations, or hamburger menus without clear labels. While this might look sleek, it makes it harder for users to navigate the website, especially first-time visitors. Ensure that nav elements are visible and intuitive.
Inconsistent layouts: If your navigation bar changes position, style, or structure between pages, users can become disoriented. Consistency builds trust and reduces cognitive load, helping visitors feel confident that they know where they are and how to get where they want.
Poor mobile experience: A desktop-first menu that doesn’t adapt can ruin the mobile experience. Responsive design, hamburger menus, and touch-friendly buttons are essential to maintain usability on mobile devices.
Ambiguous labels: Generic or clever terms like “Stuff” or “Solutions” don’t tell users what they’ll find. Use clear, descriptive menu items that match what visitors expect. Clarity not only improves UX but can also support SEO.
By avoiding these common mistakes and following navigation best practices, your website nav becomes a tool that guides users smoothly through your content and drives engagement.
Website navigation best practices checklist
Here’s a quick reference list you can use while building or auditing your site:
No more than 7 main menu items.
Labels are short, clear, and descriptive.
Nav is consistent across all pages
Mobile-first web design with thumb-friendly controls for mobile users.
Accessible for screen readers and keyboards.
Sticky menus for long pages.
Footer includes key secondary links.
Search bar available on large sites.
Bread crumb navigation on multi-level content.
Tested regularly with real users, based on real user research.
Logo in the top left always links to the home page.
The bottom line
Effective website navigation is about creating a positive user experience that makes it easy for website visitors to find what they need. By prioritizing clear menus, grouping links logically, and using familiar terms that align with your target audience, you guide users smoothly through your site.
Providing a well-structured list of links, intuitive menus, and consistent navigation elements ensures that visitors can move through your content quickly and confidently. The result is a good website that not only keeps users engaged but also supports your broader goals, from lead generation to conversion rate optimization.
Ultimately, investing in navigation best practices benefits both your users and your business. When your target audience can effortlessly explore your site and find relevant content, you create trust, reduce bounce rates, and encourage meaningful interactions, turning casual visitors into loyal customers.
