How To Organise Your Website's Navigation Menu As An Author
When you create your author website for the first time you may feel like you need to keep every option in the main navigation thinking this will make it easy for your visitors.
However, this actually has the opposite effect.
If you have too many items in your main navigation, website visitors feel overwhelmed and don't know what to choose from.
And what do they do when they feel overwhelmed? They click out of your website and you've lost them forever.
I know it seems a bit counterintuitive but the less items you have in your main navigation the better. You want your visitors to be able to quickly find and access what they were looking for.
How Many Pages Should Your Main Navigation Have?
I usually recommend a maximum of 6 pages.
And quite honestly, for most authors that actually ends up being more than they need and they end up having around 4.
Now before you all start freaking out and saying that's crazy talk, you have a lot more pages than that and it's a bit insane to only have 6 pages, hear me out.
Having a maximum of 6 pages in the top navigation is completely doable.
BUT that doesn't mean that you only have a total of 6 pages in your entire website.
That wouldn’t be enough for authors, unless you’re a debut author. Most authors have multiple books, series and information that you need to share with your readers.
HOWEVER, what it does come down to how you organise that information on your website.
Have you ever visited a website to look for some specific information - an address, contact info, about the business/author, their books etc and trying to find the right info is a nightmare because the navigation menu is so confusing that you can't figure out where to go to find what you want?
There are so many options you're not sure which one to look at?
Or the navigation names themselves aren't descriptive and don't describe the page or what you can expect to find on the page?
I bet you've been so overwhelmed trying to find the information that you've simply given up and clicked out of the website completely, haven't you?
I know I have.
Nobody wants to have to click into multiple pages to try to find what they need.
They want a clear, easy path to follow.
And it's your job as the website owner to provide that.
Before you start to design your website you need to think about how you want your visitors to move around your site, what pages you most want them to see as well as what pages they'll be most interested in.
And the best way to do that is if you plan your website's visual sitemap out in advance, instead of as you go.
Once you've established that, then you can move onto the design.
What Is A Sitemap?
A visual sitemap in website design is a map of the site structure of your website. It details all of the pages/content you need for your site and where they are laid out in the design.
It doesn't need to be complicated either. You can create one with pen and paper.
Write down all the pages you need on your website
Once that's done you can start to lay out where they all need to go/be accessed. Will they be in the main navigation? The footer navigation? Or will they be accessed through links on internal pages?
A lot of your pages won't end up in the main navigation or footer navigation and instead will be accessed via links or buttons on specific pages.
This is to make it easier for your website visitor to find what they need quickly and easily without overwhelming them with too much information, too quickly.
Common pages on an author website include:
Home
Books (All)
Individual Book Pages
Series Book Pages
About
Contact
Other pages your website might need are:
Events
Shop
Extras/Bonus/Freebies
Blog
Newsletter
Series Reading Order
Pages you'll need that you might not think of are:
Instagram links
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service
404 Error
So now that you know all the types of pages that you'll need to create your author website, it's time to think about where to place them.
Should they go in the main navigation? The footer navigation? Or perhaps they're best suited to be links within another page?
What Is The Main Navigation Menu?
The main navigation menu is the list of website pages, generally located right at the top of every website page, that your site visitors can easily see and use to access the rest of the pages on your website.
These menu items need to be clear and concise so that all your site visitors will understand exactly what will be on the page if they click on it.
Now is not the time to be funny or too descriptive with your text.
Don’t describe your blog as ‘Musings’ or your About page as ‘Who Am I’.
Not only will this lead to confusion with your website visitors but it’s also bad practice for SEO (Search Engine Optimisation - how your website is found via Google etc).
Keep your page titles short and to the point.
What Is The Footer Navigation?
The footer is a section of content right at the bottom (or foot) of the page. This section runs across your entire website and remains the same for every page.
Since this section is located on every page of your website it's a great place to house your navigation as well. Since most websites these days utilise a long scrolling format, it's a good idea to replicate your main navigation in the footer so that website visitors don't have to scroll all the way back up to the top of the page to access your main navigation. This is especially helpful for mobile website visitors.
Plus you can include some items here that may not have made the cut into your main navigation.
These should be pages that your website visitors might need to visit but aren't the main focus of your website.
The footer is also where you'll add links to your privacy policy, any terms and conditions you might have if you sell from your website, plus links to any affiliate information and/or an affiliate disclaimer.
What Is Internal Navigation?
Sometimes you need to convey some information to your website visitors but it's not relevant to the majority of your site visitors. This is where internal links come in handy.
You can place these on any page of your website where you need to link out to other information.
Say for example you have a page on your website for the media to get in touch about interviewing you. It lays out all of your author info and has a specific contact form so they can get in touch directly.
This isn't a page that all of your site visitors will need but it is something that has to be there since you are contacted by media periodically and this makes the process easier for you.
Now where do you put this form?
It doesn't make sense to put it in the main or footer navigation as the vast majority of people don't need this info.
But if you think about the person who does need the information - the media looking to contact you.
Then you’ll realise that the perfect spot to link out to this page is from your general contact page on your website since that's where they'll most likely go first.
You can add a little section on your general contact page directing the media to contact you via the Media page you've set up and link to it here.
And now you've now set up a perfect internal navigation link.
Now that you better understand the different areas where you can list your website pages and how to use them you can now go and create your own sitemap.
Just remember: you need to lay out your website as if your website visitors have never heard of you and are learning about you for the first time through your website.
The main navigation should guide a viewer through the website - you should be leading them to the content you want them to read + the most popular things that readers want to see.
I hope you're feeling more confident about creating your own author website now that you know how to set up your site structure and navigation.
But if you’d like some help, take a look at my Squarespace templates available in the shop. These templates have already been created with authors in mind and take care of all the little details like site structure, navigation and design. All you need to do is replace the photos and text with your own and you're ready to go.
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Have I made you curious? You can sign up for a free Squarespace trial here << Yes, that’s an affiliate link - thanks for supporting my book obsession, my kindle and I thank you ;)
