Site Structure and Navigation

Main Navigation

Readers should be able to intuit your site content from your tab headings and page titles. Consider the order of tabs across the top and then down through the pages below – is the most important content higher in the hierarchy? Is the language in your menu clear, concise? Will users intuit where to click?

Pages listed in your main navigation should link to pages within the site, not out to pages on other sites. Links to other websites can be hosted and highlighted in page content instead.

Planning ahead: Before you start building your site in WebPublish tool, ensure that you have a plan for your site structure, on paper or in a spreadsheet, and get input from as many stakeholders as possible. There are many ways to do this. Consider this example of a structural plan for a website.

 Download a detailed site map example (PDF 70KB)

Orphaned pages

“Orphan pages” are those that are not linked to at all from your site's pages or navigation. Avoid this, and be aware that these pages can still be found through a search.

Menu links versus page links

A good rule of thumb to keep in mind is that if a page is important enough to create, there should be a way for people to find it through your main navigation structure. Exceptions to this requirement can include news articles or event listings for which there is an index page or "aggregator" area.

For some sites with a large number of content pages, though, having a link to every page of the site available through the menu can start to feel cumbersome for the user. In case where you do not want to make pages available in the main menu, ensure that these pages are still nested under parent pages in your site structure (see Structure > Menus > Main Navigation in your admin menu) and uncheck the "enabled" box. Also, in for these pages, also ensure that the URLs for each page are similarly nested. (For more, see "URLs and File Naming" info)

Hierarchies: flat versus deep

Consider a flat approach to hierarchy (limited to about 3 levels deep) before a deep deep one. There are pros and cons to each, and both still require attention to category labelling, but a deep hierarchy requires more understanding of broad-category labelling from your user at the outset. A flat hierarchy allows you to get more specific in your labelling of menu items sooner.

Resource: Nielsen Norman Group: Flat vs. Deep Website Hierarchies