If you have our proprietary iWi CMS, then you have the benefit of being able to change your navigation completely around at any time in a few minutes. However, most other CMS options don't offer this flexibility, so it is a good idea to put a lot of thought into your navigation to avoid costly changes down the road.

Be Conventional:

There are a few conventions when it comes to site navigation and its a good idea to follow them, because users expect certain navigation items to be in certain places. If they aren't there it can harm user experience. So let's look at what those conventions are. Typically your home button comes first and your contact page link comes last. Another common convention is putting your about page as the second link, but this isn't as hard a rule as the previous one. Other than that, the order of navigation is pretty much up to you, however a good rule of thumb is to put your most important pages first.

Be Specific:

Be as straight to the point when naming your links as possible. You want the navigation to clearly convey what is on each page to your users. If they don't understand your naming structure or the page doesn't contain the information that the navigation link leads them to believe it would, they will likely become frustrated and move on to the next site.

Be Organized:

If you have a significant amount of navigational links (more than seven or eight), you need to make sure they are organized in a way that will make it easy for your users to find what they are looking for. Don't list all your navigational items in one big list if you have too many. That will make it difficult for your users to find what they are looking for. Instead, group related pages together and place them in a drop down on the main navigation. This will split up your navigation into easily digestible pieces to help your users find what they are looking for.

Following these steps will ensure that your users will have an easy time navigating your site and will be able to find what they are looking for.