Many people overlook the organization of their content and present it to their visitors reflected in their navigation. What does the visitor do once they've made it to your website and want to read more? If they can't find what their looking for, they'll leave.
3. 1. WRITE DOWN ALL THE
THINGS
IT WILL LOOK LIKE A MESS, BUT THAT’S OKAY
Photo by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash
4. 3-5-7 PRINCIPLE
• 3 CLICKS TO WHERE YOU NEED TO BE
• FEW (VERY FEW) EXCEPTIONS
• NO MORE THAN 5-7 ITEMS IN A LIST.
• THIS INCLUDES MENUS AND LISTS
5. PAGES VS. POSTS
PAGES
• STATIC INFORMATION FOR THE MOST PART
• “ABOUT US” IS A GREAT EXAMPLE
• DOES NOT USE CATEGORIES
• CAN HAVE SUB-PAGES
POSTS
• DYNAMIC INFORMATION
• TIME SENSITIVE
• USES CATEGORIES & TAGS
• “UPCOMING EVENTS” OR “EVENTS
ATTENDED” ARE GOOD EXAMPLES
6. CATEGORIES VS. TAGS
CATEGORIES
• MAJOR CLASSIFICATIONS FOR INFORMATION
• “EVENTS” IS A GREAT EXAMPLE
• CAN HAVE SUB-CATEGORIES (MUCH LIKE
PAGES)
• HIERARCHICAL
TAGS
• DESCRIBES THE CONTENT USING KEYWORDS
• WORDPRESS RECOMMENDS 5-7 PER POST
• NON-HIERARCHICAL
7. 2. PUT CONTENT TO EITHER CATEGORIES OR PAGES
PAGES CATEGORIES
8. 3. CHANGE THE COLOUR OF ONE OF THE TWO
PAGES CATEGORIES
Most people don’t. I’m not talking about SEO, which leads people to your site, but what people do when they get there.
All the things or topics that you might want to put on your website. Some suggestions: About, Contact, Recipes, speaking articles, etc. Don’t use blog!
The point here is two fold: setting up your navigation (Comes later) but more importantly, finding your focus. This method helps you with both.
I’m using WordPress here as the basis, but this applies to any website.