HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH
ON YOUR WEB PAGE?

A visit to your homepage should enable users to find as much information as possible using the minimal number of clicks necessary. Putting yourself in the shoes of your prospective customers should give you an idea of what they will expect from your products or services and how they will search for them.

Oftentimes, shoppers' searches are led by highly particular goals. This is why the composition of your navigation menu plays an important part in your messaging as it can convey very specific details of your brand in a succinct and instantly visible form.

Furthermore, the placement of navigation menus can not only enhance the usability of your site, it can also help it achieve higher rankings on SERP's by employing relevant keywords. For an example of a navigation menu that reflects insight into user needs, talk to Joel Perkowski, owner of Grand Party Settings.

"A potential customer planning a wedding or a Bar Mitzvah is usually going search for party supplies with a specific theme and 'look' in mind. Another individual seeking disposable plates and utensils for a barbecue or a small birthday party may prefer what's cheap and sturdy," Perkowski explains, "either way, they come to our site with a set idea of what they want. Rather than making them dig through the pages of our site, we present them with both the basics and specifics of our party supplies."

INTUITVE AND HELPFUL NAVIGATION MENUS
CAN GUIDE VISITORS TO ACT ON YOUR SITE

Perkowski is referring to the vertical and horizontal menu bars on his homepage: the former displays the main product categories of Plates, Drinkware, Bowls, Cutlery, Napkins, Table Cover, and Serving Utensils; the latter offers the subcategories therein, like Flair/Scalloped Party Bowls and elegant Stemware.

Both general and specific terms are linked to product images so whether your party supply search is being driven by a clear-cut need or by curiosity, you are a single click away from viewing a vivid photo, dimensions and volume, and pricing.

Along with showing that your business is professional and customer-focused, the use of multiple navigation menus can help in your efforts to steadily climb the first page of Google. Much in the same way you don't want to be coy with offering information about your products and services to users, you want to take a similar approach with search engine spiders.

Your navigation menus are another opportunity to give them basic knowledge about you by placing keyword-rich text in a prominent location on your site so that you get indexed more easily and accurately. Search engines will then utilize the links to access additional pages within your site, thus enhancing your page reputation and page relevance.

By composing two instantly visible navigation menus of both general and specific terms that prospective customers will use to search for their products, Grand Party Settings anticipates what party hosts, wedding planners, not to mention Google, Bing, and Yahoo, will look for.

Perkowski's site currently ranks at #2 for "disposable tableware" and #1 for "square plastic plates" on Google.

We think that's cause to celebrate.

To review 3 key purposes multiple navigation menus can fulfill:

1.) Enhances messaging by making general and specific details of your brand instantly visible to users.

2.) Increases usability and customer-friendliness of site by offering information instead of making users search for it.

3.) Aids SEO efforts by giving search engines keyword-rich text to index you.

Thanks for reading. Jason.
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