Like you, I often visit websites that overwhelm me with options. I had a client show me this website the other day and it’s a great example of how not to organize your website content.

At a glance, I can see that this site has been built on-the-fly and no clear plan was developed for the continued growth of the site. Sites such as this are notorious for getting pretty large over time due to the range of services and information they provide. When a customer comes to us, we like to develop a plan to deal with the immediate needs they have and develop a comprehensive strategy for dealing with the inevitable growth of the website over time. I think we are all familiar with the saying, “the only thing constant in life, is change”.

How would I fix the mbon.org website?
I could recommend about a dozen simple fixes for the site but, for the sake of brevity and to stay within the topic of this article, I will stick to the content structure.

The first step is to list the main objectives of the site and list all the types of visitors who will be utilizing the website; from an accidental web surfer who happens to land on the site to a Certified Nursing Assistant who just moved to the area looking for licensing requirements in the state of Maryland. Once I determine this criteria, I would develop a concept map for the website. This concept map will serve as the basis for developing a multiple navigation structure. The strategy behind a well planned website navigation is to grab a website visitor by the hand and lead them through the site without making them click more than 3 times or presenting so many options that they abandon the website due to frustration or information overload. I like to call this the fluster effect.

What is the fluster effect?
By definition, being flustered means, to put into a state of agitated confusion. I see this a lot, especially with non-technical people who are not comfortable using computers. Most of these people need to be led through a website, you can not assume they will use a site search or click around enough to find what they are looking for, they become flustered and leave.

Multiple Navigations
A website with more than 8 main areas should have multiple navigations, not one strip down the left or right hand side with 10-30 choices, that is too overwhelming for visitors. Common items such as “Home, About, Contact, Privacy Policy, Return Policy” can be placed in a separate, but common navigational element within the website. A popular area for this “sub-navigation” is in the top right-hand corner of the website.


Example sub-navigation image from: http://www.delaware.net

Multiple Choice Menu Structure
Websites with multiple navigation choices often utilize drop-down or fly-out menu structures. Properly designed, these drop-down menus can lead customers directly to the content website owners desire. More importantly, website visitors can find information based on 6-8 main choices versus 10-30 as mentioned above.


Example drop-down navigation from http://www.delaware.net

Common website usability annoyances
We have all been to websites that leave visitors with no option to navigate back to the home page. For this reason, website developers started making standard design features, such as making the logo a link back to the main page of the website. Also, we have all been to websites where the page color, navigation and even orientation change randomly, depending what page you are on. I personally prefer websites which are centered, have a fixed width, common navigation structures and the correct year (if used) is located at the bottom. A small line of easily available code can automatically change the date of the website each year.

Think like a customer
In order to develop a proper navigation structure, it is necessary to think like a customer. Some companies use focus groups for this task. A focus group does not need to be a large expense. You have friends, family members, co-workers and even loyal customers who can be utilized for this task. Remember, the goal is to make every item in your website available to users quickly, in less than 3 mouse clicks.

Wrapping it all up
Now that you have all of the navigation elements laid out, its time to start writing the content. A professional website copy writer should be consulted for this task. There is a big difference between someone who has been a copy editor/writer for print media and someone who has experience with website copy writing. The reason for the difference is Search Engine Optimization. The number one rule in website search engine optimization is, “Content is King”. Your website text is the key to coming up higher in Google and Yahoo. A professional website copy writer knows there is a balance between writing content for visitors and writing content for the search engine spiders. There are common code structures that the search engines prefer but, the text on the page is your number one tool for search engine performance. Watching performance in the search engines and making slight changes in response to ranking fluctuation is necessary to a successful website venture these days.

Delaware.Net, Inc. has a full time website copy writer and provides search engine performance monitoring for clients all over the United States. Contact us today for more information by visiting http://www.delaware.net or call me directly at (888) 432-7965 ext. 126.

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