This post is part of a five-part series about creating better blog pages. You can see all the posts in this series here.
In this series, we already talked about the most important page on your blog, the contact page. However, before we go even farther in talking about specific pages you need on your blog, let’s take a moment to talk about navigation to these pages.
After all, pages do not matter if no one can find them!
Top Bar Navigation
The most common place people will look for pages (like your contact page) is on a top navigation bar. You can put this bar above or below your header, depending on the other navigation needs you have on your blog, but I highly suggest having one, even if you like to your pages other places, like on your sidebar.
Don’t rely on drop-down menus here, at least for your most important pages. The five to ten most important pages on your blog should be spelled out in your navigation bar. It’s about making your blog idiot-proof. You don’t want people to have to spend time trying to figure out your contact information or other information you might need.
Interlinking Your Pages
We often link to our own posts, but most bloggers don’t remember to link to their own pages. Where appropriate, you should definitely do this to allow for easier navigation. I often see people say something like “contact me for me details” within blog posts, but then leaving it up to their readers to figure outhow to contact.
You pages shouldn’t just be linked within blog posts. They can also be linked to one another. It might make sense to link to your About page on your Contact page, for example. Google cares about how long people are on your site and how many pages they visit when there, so definitely take the time to link as much as possible.
Other Navigational Considerations
It might also many sense for you to include navigation to pages at other places on your blog. For example, some people will look for this information in your footer. Others will browse your sidebar. It’s important to have a well-designed site, and you don’t want to compromise the look of the blog, but wherever you can put more page navigation, do it. When in doubt, it’s always better to link to your pages as often as possible than to make readers search for the information they need.
Join us tomorrow for Day Three of our Better Blog Pages series!
This is a great post and I am a huge stickler on navigation… everyone starting a blog should read this.
One other point I might add, is when using dropdowns, make the top link in the nav bar a dead link, in other words, it becomes more of a “subject title” for the pages in the dropdown and avoids anyone clicking on that link initially.
And I do like that you mentioned page links in the footer. It use to be those were good for Google, then the SEO experts said no, and then others argued they still are. In any case, it gives the reader the option to visit another page without having to scroll up.
Good stuff here.. thanks!
That’s great advice about drop-down menus, Bob! To be honest, I tend to ignore Google for the most part. Basic SEO is fine, but everything changes so often that I usually don’t pay it *too* much attention. Instead, I focus most on what will help my readers. In time, Google always rewards that and shuts down anyone trying to game the system.
I agree. It is wild that some people don’t think about how I may move around their site if I come in on a direct link somewhere. I’ve seen several that you had to go back to the homepage to get navigation. the effort to move around is rarely worth it. There are some easy fixes as you mentioned above. I’m sharing with some beginning bloggers!
Thanks for sharing, Janice! Sometimes, we’re too close to our own blogs to see the problems.