Any website design can be called to be excellent only when it is not only attractive but also generates revenues by converting the visitor into buyer. A successful website needs to user friendly as well as search engine friendly.
Navigation is a terminology that refers to traveling by sea from one port to another. When this terminology is used with reference to websites it refers to the way a visitor has accesses to the different pages of the website.
Navigation mainly depends on the layout of the website. If the layout is confusing and the visitor is finding it difficult to locate the page having the require information then it is supposed to irritate him/her. The consequence will be that the visitor will just move to a different website. This is a great loss for the business. In this case the website is not serving the purpose of its existence.
If the layout is simple and clear, the visitor can easily come to know whether the product/service/information that he/she is searching is available. This saves a lot of time of the visitor. If the offerings of the website are clearly stated and visible the website is going to sound very professional.
This could be compare to a situation in which you go to a shop and ask for a particular item. What would be your attitude if the shopkeeper would say that he/she has the product but not able to find it? Totally unprofessional, isn't it?
Nowadays web designers have come out with different ways to make the navigation easy.
There are websites with a special webpage showing the layout of the whole website. The exhibit of this page is also called website mapping. This page shows the overall outlay of different pages.
A search box on the home page can make the things very easy for the visitor. The visitor has to just enter the words related to the product or service that he/she is searching for. As a consequence of this if that product or service is being offered the webpage having that word will be directly opened.
Every page of the website should be linked to each other directly or indirectly. The links should work. The visitor should not find himself/herself landing in no man's land on clicking those links.
Most of the websites have the web pages arranged in a multi tier system. The arrangement in different layers should consider the functionality and its relevance. The visitor should be able to access the designer webpage with the least number of clicks.
Easy Navigation facilitates the movement of the spiders and crawlers of the search engines and this has a positive effect on the indexing of the search engine list. Navigation makes the website more search engine friendly.
Easy Navigation will let the user move easily and speedily from one page to another and one part to another in to the websites. This type of navigation will reduce the complexity of the website and make it user friendly.