How To Improve Website Navigation For A Better User Experience?

Trust us when we say website navigation is mandatory to improve your web user experience. One of the first things your website users will notice is how easy your website is to navigate and explore.

These user needs are enough to assume that better website navigation is quintessential for an improved web user experience. The primary focus of eCommerce solutions is to build better relationships with the users and it is impossible when you are offering them poor experiences.

To generate more traffic, sales, and interactivity, improving user experience is paramount, and out of many methods, one is improving website navigation.

Let’s get a deeper look at what website navigation actually is and what factors contribute to improving website navigation for a better user experience.

Keep scrolling this blog for a better understanding.

What Is Website Navigation?

The word navigation means to move from one place to another. Similarly, in the world of websites, this term refers to the ease of moving from one page to another.

It is not just limited to moving from page to page; it also refers to how easily web users can locate their desired information. To make it easier for the users to find their required information, you improve the navigation practices and that is possible when:

• You add text links to navigate
• Display menus to switch to the desired website section
• Display relevant categories and labels
• Avoid cluttered categories
• Less is more

These are a few ways navigation can be made simpler and easier for your web users.

Why Improve Your Website Navigation?

If you want to know what harm poor website navigation brings to your website, then the only word that can describe the answer is irrecoverable loss. Poor site navigations are overwhelming for your store visitors and not every web user has the patience to bear with these issues.

If your website is not improved for better navigation, then you could be facing these issues:

• Less website traffic
• Fewer conversions
• Less user stay time
• Fewer website rankings
• Fewer sales
• Increasing bounce rates
• Poor user experience

These are some of the problems you may face and your online store is surrounded with catastrophes just because site navigation was neglected.

Effective Ways To Improve Site Navigation

It is not just a single factor that creates hurdles for improved website navigation; there are a lot that you have to consider. Keeping an eye on all these affiliated factors will help you improve your website navigation for a better user experience eventually. Improved user experiences are not the sole outcome of this essential website practice, but there are a lot of benefits.

We will not get into the details of what benefits you get but how you can improve your online store’s navigation for a better experience.

1. Clear Website Design and White Spaces

Keep your website design as simple as possible. Opting for a complex website design adds more to the complexity for web users to navigate from one page or section to the next. The elements that are a part of website design should be placed clearly and visibly.

This clarity of design comes with:

• Fewer but useful website elements
• No information overload
• Play smartly with color palettes
• Use actions to collapse or expand information

Besides all these factors, one significant element is the white spaces. White spaces are crucial for design clarity and a better understanding of the website for the users. Including white spaces reduces the clutter, which makes it easier for the user to navigate.

2. Include Sub-Navigations

On a website that has multiple product categories and sections, adding menus and submenus becomes a requirement. Websites have menus and submenus for the user to jump directly to the point where they want to.  You must have menus defined based on the similarities and differences.

But with menus, sub-menus are also required, and here is why:

• Related sections are clustered under the same menu
• Related information can be found in one place
• The time to search for relevant items or information becomes easier
• The entire website space is no mess

You can add menus and submenus for better navigation on your homepage or any other page you want. The choice is all yours.

3. Make Labels Clear and Visible

One of the major contributors to improved website navigation is the labels. These labels could be your home page, category page, about us page, services page, contact us page, or any other. But this navigation is not improved if these labels are not clear and visible.

These are some of the ways to make the labels clear and visible:

• Pay attention to the color gradient
• Leave some space between each label
• The font of the label should be prominent
• Do not choose the same color for the background and the text of the label
• The label text should give a hint on what the user will find clicking on it

With clear, concise, and visible labels on your website, you can ensure that the web user finds no difficulty in navigating.

4. Include HTML Sitemap

HTML sitemap is for the web users and their understanding of the website. Without a sitemap with too many web pages, the user will be clueless. With an HTML sitemap, the user can have a clear picture of the website no matter how many pages are there.

Some key benefits of adding HTML sitemaps are:

• Website content is accessible
• Makes navigation simple for complex sites
• Clickable options of the webpages to visit effortlessly
• Also useful for the optimization

If you own an eCommerce site with multiple web pages, then you must include a sitemap for your web users for easy navigation and a better experience.

5. Include Search And Filtering Options

Today, WooCommerce stores are all a combination of advanced features and functionalities. When advanced features of a website are discussed, then neglecting the search and filter options will be unfair. These options make the user’s search for a particular information or product swift and effortless.

The types of search and filter options you can add to your site are:

• Search by text
• Search by image
• Search by product attributes
• Voice search
• Filter by price
• Filter by size
• Filter by last updated
• Filter by most popular

With these advanced options and features included in your eCommerce store, you can make it easier for your web users to interact and navigate.

6. Pay Attention To Accessibility Needs

The first and foremost step in improving website navigation is understanding your web users and their needs. If you know your web users well, you will better understand how they interact with your websites and navigate.  Understanding the accessibility needs of your web users is crucial; you must design websites that are easier to navigate for every type of user.

The types of users for which you need to consider the accessibility needs are:

• Users with disabilities
• Users with visual impairments
• Web users with mobility impairments
• Hearing impairments
• Age-based impairments

These are some of the users that you may come across with different accessibility needs, and you must keep them in mind for offering painless website navigation.

7. Sticky Navigation Bar With Infinite Scroll

There are situations where WooCommerce infinite scroll options are required and it adds to a better user experience. The experience is improved by unbothered scrolling and exploring the website. But these experiences are ruined when the navigation bar is not static. Do not interfere with the scroll of the web users with such an issue, and make the navigation bar static.

Some perks of a sticky navigation bar are:

• The navigation bar remains visible even after the user reaches the end of the page
• Makes navigation possible irrespective of the user’s position on the web page
• The website speed and performance are unbothered, as there is no need to reload the navigation bar each time

Make sure there is a navigation bar on your website in the first place; secondly, it should be static to offer better experiences to your users.

8. Use Breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs are useful website elements that are a sigh of relief for websites with too many pages. Websites with a number of interconnected web pages and the user is directed from one page to another struggle to offer better user experiences. With breadcrumbs, you can resolve this issue.

Breadcrumbs are:

• Way to tell where the web user is currently
• Way to switch back and forth between different pages
• Consisting of text and links to navigate

So, to improve the ease of navigation for your web users without feeling lost, adding breadcrumbs to your site is helpful enough.

9. Useful Calls To Action

A clear call to action is another website element that is important for easy website navigations. A call to action can be in various forms and types, but the primary goal is to urge web users to take a certain action.

These calls to action help the users to get certain information that they are looking for. For instance, a download now call to action enables the users to download any form of useful information or even an extension to install.

These are some types of call to action you can use:

• Contact us
• Download
• Sign up
• Read More
• Click here for a free demo
• Forms

You can use other types as well, depending on what actions you want the user to take and what information you want them to receive for each action.

The Bottom Line!

It won’t be wrong to say that user experiences can make or break your online stores and there should be no stone left unturned to improve these experiences. When improved user experiences are the matter, we cannot neglect the contribution of improved website navigations. So, it is pivotal for the online store to look into every detail and identify the factors that could result in improved site navigation for the web users.