How to Design Your Website’s Main Menu

Written by on August 10, 2017. Posted in Marketing Blog.

Your website’s main menu is extremely important and should be treated as such. It needs to be both definitive and expandable, and it needs to remain as unchanged as possible in order to gain the trust of your visitors. With that said, there is a simple way to determine how your website should be structured if you follow these steps.

Step 1: Observe Your Favorite Websites

Your job is not to reinvent the wheel! Your job is to create a website that is attractive and easy to navigate. With that said, never be afraid to look at your favorite websites and observe how they are structured.

What you’ll find is that many of them have some very consistent structures, especially the ones that you routinely visit. Get a pencil or pen (or create an excel sheet) and simply write down the main navigation links of each website.

STEP 2: OUTLINE YOUR EXISTING CONTENT

You probably have something already created. Even if it’s something as simple as your company description, your personal biography, and some links to your favorite fitness resources, list them out. Starting is the hardest part and this list will get you on your way.

STEP 3: SELECT A WEBSITE STRUCTURE

Use the guidelines in this marketing book to select a website structure that will fit your needs for the next 12 months. If you’re insanely busy, you might not be able to facilitate a full Content Marketing Structure; there is nothing wrong with that!

Basic Structure	Content Marketing Structure
Home About Services Schedule News Location Contact	Home About Services Knowledge Category 1 Category 2 Category 3 Contact

If the Basic Structure is all that you can manage right now, so be it. Select the structure that works for you right now, then outline how your existing content fits within the example structures. Plan on creating at least three pieces of content for each informational category in your first month (you don’t want to tempt your visitors with cool categories that don’t contain information).

Review your favorite website structures from step 1 and apply them to the outline as well.

website basics, website design, website menus, website structure