Blogging Sueblimely

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Is your navigation system plain sailing ?

image: by Today is a Good Day on Flickr

Now we have considered where we want readers to visit on our blogs we need to look at how easily they can find their way there.

This is where a good navigation system makes a difference. The more time readers need to search for where they want to go the less likely they are to stay on your site. We want our regular readers to easily find all the content since their last visit and new visitors to find content that interests them.

Is your navigation system your weakest link?

Blogs with minimal additions and default templates/themes tend to have a more intuitive basic navigation system but give little choice as to where to find more content - especially content you wish to direct them to.

However, all the addins, plugins, widgets we use on our sites can make our blog sidebars as difficult to navigate as the north west passage.

Blogs littered with too many above the fold ads hide the internal blog navigation systems below deck.

Posts easily get lost in archives so it is important your still relevant older posts can always be found.

Give Your Readers a Smooth Cruise

Show me the way to go home!

If you have tempted your readers to delve into your older posts or individual post pages, make it easy for them to travel back to your main page with an obvious link to your home page. As you can see from the image Captain Cook traveled far and wide but found his way home (apart from his last voyage, through no fault of his own!)

Ensure your blog heading image or text leads back there - have a home link in your main menu and consider a duplicate menu in the form of breadcrumbs in your footer:

Home | About | Contact | Archives | Sitemap

Do Follow

This is one occasion when it is wise to follow others. Sticking to more conventional navigation layout methods means that readers often expect to find certain things in certain places. It makes sense to them. Although you may prefer to be different, remember you are laying out your site for your readers.

The F heat pattern

A study of eyetracking by Neilson show that users often read Web pages in an F-shaped pattern: that is,two horizontal stripes followed by a vertical stripe.

Pointer Institute’s Eyetrack III study found that people looked at navigation more when it was at the top of the page than either left or right. Right navigation was looked at slightly more than left. Their 2007 study shows that online news readers first look at navigation bars and teasers whereas in printed news it is headlines and photos. See EyeTrack07: The Myth of Short Attention Spans for more details.

Don’t forget your sitemap!

Add a detailed sitemap for easy browsing of post titles. Mine is far too long and I need to turn the categories into drop down menus.

Categories and Tags

Always categorize or label your posts and use a category list list in your sidebars - a tag list or cloud too if your topics lend themselves to this. This not only makes it easier for searching but clearly indicates your blog topics for new readers.

Consider a search box to make it easier to find more specific topics or posts.

Make the most of your sidebar space

• Consider using drop down or scrollable menus.
• The use of tabs can keep important content within easy view.

Post navigation is important too.

• Use different colors and slightly larger fonts on links you want your readers to follow especially for comments but also for previous post/next post.
• Use a plugin to add similar posts to the bottom of your current post if possible and if not create one manually, at least where you think them most relevant.
• I am not a fan of comment links placed at the top of posts as it takes me time to search for the link. Make commenting as easy as possible.

Tips

• Ask someone to review your navigation system. You are familiar with finding your way around and may not spot problems.
• Do not neglect readers who leave comments - try to fit in a recent comments list alongside your recent posts.

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