Navigation and Sitemaps

It is necessary to think of a proper navigation system for your website. Some visitors may land directly on to some page other than your index page from a link on some other website or a search engine. Even if a visitor enters your website through your home page, he must not be left at a dead-end.

The best way to accomplish this is to provide clear navigation throughout your page systems and to have at least a "HOME" link on each page (never, never leave a viewer at a dead end, where they will have to work their way back through your system in order to go ahead). If possible, provide navigation on each page that includes the key elements and areas of your message—even if this means that the viewer will have the ability to jump around without viewing each section in its entirety. It's better for someone to get a partial view of the overall message than to get a full view of the partial message, and then leave thinking they've seen it all.

It will be advisable to design your website layout with the main links placed clearly on all pages. The links may be placed at the top or right or left or even towards the bottom of your webpage.

"Previous" and "Next" Navigation

It would be nice to use "previous page" and "next page" navigation in order to preserve your viewer's simple, linear navigation concept, but it really doesn't lend itself well to the power of the WWW. This type of navigation should only be used when there is one and only one way to go through the system, or when the linear navigation is relevant to a prechosen path through the system (as in a guided tour). In the latter case, the forward and back navigation should be an option, not the primary from of navigation (think of it as a bonehead way through your system). If you do choose to provide "back" and "next" links, always tell the viewers where they will be going if they choose the link (for example, "back to customer service," and "next: ordering").

Site Maps

A Site Map is a page dedicated entirely to presenting your entire website navigation. It's not a bad idea to provide this off of your home page, or as an alternate navigational system listed within a header or footer, but it really shouldn't be relied upon as the primary form of navigation.

Here are some problems with relying on a site map:

You lose your sales argument—the order in which you'd like potential clients to receive information for the best effect, or the way you'd like to lead viewers through your system. (For example, company, quality, product and price might be a better order than price, company, product, quality.)
You lose the ability to rely upon main pages for general information (so that you may have to repeat it on each page).
You must update the map constantly, rather than simply changing relevant links transparently.

Alternately, here are some strong points for providing a site map within your system:

It provides rapid navigation within large and/or complex sites.
It gives people an overview of your system content and design.
It provides a reference point for repeat visitors.

Overall, we feel that site maps are often used as an easy way out of carefully planning site navigation. They are best used for sites that deal strictly with technical information and documentation, rather than those designed for overall marketing. In the case of a site that presents both a marketing section and technical documentation, you may opt to provide a map that only lists the pages you would wish a viewer to access directly. If you do this, you should make it clear that the site map is only a list of key areas, and not a complete page structure diagram.

Google Sitemaps

Recently, another dimension has been added to the benefits of having Site Maps on a website. The popular search engine Google has launched Google Sitemaps, a service which promises to get you better coverage in the Google search engine results. According to Google, "Google Sitemaps is an easy way for you to help improve your coverage in the Google index. It's a collaborative crawling system that enables you to communicate directly with Google to keep us informed of all your web pages, and when you make changes to these pages."

The necessity of having a good search engine positioning in Google can not be denied. A good Google ranking might increase your website visitors many times over. Hence, it will be a good idea to use Google Sitemaps and gain the benefit of a navigation tool on your website as well as a better Google coverage.

Some Navigation Tips

Following are some key tips for designing navigational tools. These will help make navigation simpler for the viewer, and will also help you approach the broadest audience.

If you're using graphic navigation buttons or image maps, use edundant text links as well, to make things clear.
Make the clickable regions in an image map easily identified when information is the main focus of the site (you can make things more esoteric if you want people to spend time "discovering" your site).
Always supply alternate text (in the image tag) for graphic navigation buttons.
In a long document, provide a brief table of contents with internal links at the top (and possibly the bottom) of the document.
Select a title that accurately summarizes the content within that document and matches the header.
Always use a header on the top of each page, indicating the viewer's location within the site (this can be graphical, text, or both).
Provide a site map if your site is large or sprawling, or if your main focus is on providing easily accessible, specific information.
Consider duplicating navigational tools at the top and bottom of your pages.
Avoid using Next and Back buttons and links without saying where the links are going.

Your navigation doesn't need to be clearly defined text links, nor does it have to be a series of shadow buttons, but it does have to give the viewer the impression that they have a complete tool for getting around your site.