Don’t Be a Diamond in the Rough, Let your Website Shine

You and your organization have what it takes to help your audience (and potential audience) achieve their goals. Don’t hide those skills behind an unnavigable website.

“The point of your website is to help someone accomplish a goal,” said web developer Chris Kostelec of CWS. Keep your audience’s goal in mind while setting navigation and organizing content.

Guide your audience with clarity:

• Keep navigation simple and straightforward.
• Main Navigation is best kept to 7 options or less.
• Using a Utility Bar and Sub-Navigation can help further organize your site’s content.

Setting navigation:

• What are the main reasons/ideas/topics people visit your site for? These may be the best items to include in your site’s main navigation.

• Remember learning how to construct a paragraph? The first sentence had the main idea and the 3 following sentences were to support the first one. It’s another way to think about setting navigation. Main ideas go on the Main Navigation bar with sub-navigation/drop down members supporting the main idea.

• Still lost? Write down all of the potential pages and/topics you think you need on your website on index cards. Begin sorting them by what seems to be natural groupings. Establish your own focus group of stakeholders or website visitors and ask for their opinions.

Do you need Utility Navigation?

Maybe. If you think your site needs more than 7 items on the Main Navigation, but fewer than 15, a Utility Navigation bar might be the fix. The items can be split between the two.

If you are unsure of how to make your business or organization shine on the World Wide Web, seek expert advice. Our team at CWS has established itself as a go-to resource for clients across the country. We can help your audience gain the information they need from your website, so they seek your help when they need it.