Is Your Site Easy to Navigate? Six Ways to Put an End to Dead Ends

Site navigation is one of the more important pieces to successful website management. Unfortunately, there are far more ways to do it wrong than right. If users can't navigate or even struggle to find what they're looking for, they'll move on with the click of the "Back" button - one of those nasty navigation buttons that works all too well. Site navigation doesn't have to be complex, even if you have a great deal of content across lots of categories. With a few simple best practices in place, you can dramatically improve how your site visitors are able to find information and continue interacting with our site.

1. Search bar

Probably the most under-discussed and under-rated feature that every site should take advantage of is a search bar. This allows users to quickly type in product names or anything else they may be looking for specifically. Make sure you check your own search results on occassion to be sure that the feature works and is easy for users to work with. Also, put your search bar in a prominent place in or near the banner of your website. The search bar sometimes gets lost along a sidebar, which can be frustrating for users who just want to find information quickly.

2. Horizontal navigation tools

A common mistake in navigation design is to put the primary links only in a vertical menu in a sidebar. A navigation best practice for modern sites is to use a horizontal menu bar at or near the top of the page. You don't have to put every link to your site in the navigation bar. The key is to provide quick, consistent access to the main pages on your site. If you have an "About Us" page, make sure that this link is always in the nav menu. If you have sub-pages, you can list these links within the "About Us" page, for example, or in a drop-down menu.

3. Common naming

Avoid odd naming of links to primary pages. While this might seem interesting, it confuses some website users and all search engines. For example, avoid calling the "About Us" page something like "Our Info". This could mean your contact information, your address, your "About Us" page - "Our Info" could means lots of things. But we all know what an "About Us" page is. So stick with the standards on this one so that your visitors can find what they need right when they need it.

4. Use arrows for drop-down menus

If you use drop-down menus in the horizontal navigation bar, include a visual cue like a downward facing arrow for these menus so users know a drop-down menu is present. It's annoying when you go to click on an "About Us" menu item and it springs open to reveal several sub-pages, but it's too late - you've already clicked it and now the site is taking you somewhere else. The same goes for sub-sub-menus. You know, the drop-down menus that then open up into another set of options? Yeah, those. From a navigation standpoint, these are fine, but make sure the menu has an arrow that points to the right so users know another menu is about to open.

5. Breadcrumbs

If your site includes multiple categories or a progressive experience (such as filling out a multipage form or a shopping cart), provide breadcrumbs along the top but below the main navigation window. This allows users to tell where they are at in the heirarchy of your site and can quickly jump back a few steps without starting over.

6. Logo goes home

And for those visitors that need to zip back to your home page, make sure the logo links back to your home page. This is just a common practice, but studies are showing that this logo link is used far more often than realized. A common example is after a user has placed an item in their cart, they want to start over and find another item. While many users tend to just go to the search bar or use the breadcrumbs, another prominent set uses the logo link to get back to the home page and start over.

Conclusion

Site navigation is very important and these few, simple best practices can make navigating your site all the more easy. Often it just takes a few small changes to make a big improvement, so get out there, review your site's navigation, and make it easier for your visitors to find what they're looking for.

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What’s Your $5 Comedy Special?

In recent months, three popular comedians have taken an innovative approach to releasing new material.

Thumbing their noses at traditional media distribution labels and cable networks, Louis C.K., Aziz Ansari and Jim Gaffigan opted instead to cut out every middleman possible by offering their latest comedy specials directly to the public. For $5. As digital content available exclusively on their own websites.

And how did they fare? To cite just one example, in the first 12 days after Louis C.K.’s “Live at the Beacon Theater” special was released, it grossed over $1 million. Even factoring in production costs, bonuses for his staff and charitable contributions, that still leaves a sizable chunk of change for C.K. himself.

This is certainly not the first time that someone – or a few someones – have eliminated the costs and barriers associated with the old school rules of media and marketing. Bands like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails have released albums directly to their fans with no help from record labels.

However, this is the first time we’ve seen this trend cross over to other artistic endeavors, and it presents a compelling model for any company that’s interested reaching their customers more effectively.

Here’s what you can learn from the success of the $5 comedy special:

Direct communication

What business doesn’t want to hear directly from their customers?

Granted, you might not always like what they have to say. But in both good times and bad, the benefits of direct communication are immeasurable.

It’s a fact of doing business that your customers are going to talk about your products or services. When you open the lines of communication and give them ways to funnel that feedback directly to you, you can learn exactly what they want and what they need.

And the flow of this communication doesn’t run in one direction only. When you build a solid foundation of trust with your customers, you’ll earn their permission to command their attention when you have something important to share with them.

Ease of use

How easy is it to go to a website, pay $5, click a link and download a comedy routine?

When you remove the barriers to acquiring your product or services, you’ll instantly increase the number of people who are interested in obtaining those products or services.

Make it easy for your potential customers to find and access what they need, and they’ll reward you by buying what you’re selling.

Lower costs

The rise of social media has allowed artists like bands and comedians to forgo (or at least lessen their dependence on) traditional vehicles for advertising and promotion and the burdensome expenses that go with them.

By “marketing” directly to their fans, these digital media pioneers can offer their release at a lower price point while keeping the lion’s share of the revenue in their own pockets. It’s a win for both the artist and the fan.

In the same manner, when you can find creative ways to eliminate the traditional middlemen of marketing and distribution by promoting and selling your products directly to your customers, you can drop your prices while simultaneously improving your profit margins.

The power of evangelists

The fundamental element underlying the success of this no-middleman approach is having a tribe of people who love what you stand for and will help you spread your message.

Louis C.K., Aziz Ansari and Jim Gaffigan all have loyal fanbases that not only bought their comedy specials but boasted about doing so to all their Facebook friends and Twitter followers.

Before you can cut out the middleman, you must invest in cultivating a community around your brand.

Before you can cut out the middleman, you must invest in cultivating a community around your brand. You need to build strong relationships with your customers and fans so that you have an army of enthusiasts who will not only buy from you but will be your advocates as well.

Doing this requires caring for your customers in ways that are more than pocketbook-deep. You must approach the task of fulfilling their needs with authenticity and passion and give them reasons to feel passionate about it, too.

Survival of the smartest

The takeaway here is this: to compete effectively in today’s marketplace, you must identify your tribe and give them what they want, in the way they want it and at the price they want to pay for it.

No matter what you’re selling, there’s a good chance you can streamline the methods by which you promote and distribute your products or services so that the process of acquiring them is faster, easier and more direct.

So the challenge we leave you with is this: What is your $5 comedy special?

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