Website Menu and Site Level Search by Don Pedro

First you make your Menu for the whole website. Then you continue and make a list of contents for each page (= page menu). Last you start hanging contents to your page structures, which is little bit like pushing the toothpaste back into the tube!

The second way is when you start with writing about your subject. Once you have written some 6-7 pages you start making subheadings for each and every paragraph. Then you take a pair of scissors and cut each paragraph (incl. the subheading) to separate pieces. These you then collect into several units, each unit making a separate minor whole (= a page). Now the structure for each page is ready, as well as your website structure too. You only need to put more "meat on the bones".

Naturally I recommend the second way to build a site. You will get a logical structure both for your whole site as well as for each page. With a logical structure it is easy for both search engines and human visitors to find specific detailed information on your site.

When you start making your menu there are a few things to keep in mind. Before you start working on it, surf the net for a while checking those big commercial sites. Look at their menus but don't try to copy them. Note what words they use to describe their pages, that's what you use as model.

Keep your Menu ( including the HTML code ) as simple as possible. Use words that are easily recognized and understood. Not only humans are using your Menu but the search engines are reading it too. Big and/or more complicated / numerous menus increases problems for users, it gets harder for them to find what they are looking for.

The more options you present the visitor the more time everything takes and most Internet users act as if they had a time limit. People want their information straight away, if possible without searching for it. They definitely want their information without having to think or learn something first. Your website's users want to save time.

Do not use icons or pictures. The search engines cannot "see" pictures, they "understand" only text. If your site is covering a large subject, split it up into several sub-subjects, each one on a separate webpage. Then you interlink (= cross reference ) those pages. People want to find the information quickly and easily.

"Drop-down menus" can be self-defeating. It's difficult for the search engines to read the contents of a drop-down navigational menu. Google indexes the text of those menus, but it doesn't see them as links, and therefore doesn't index the URLs of the pages contained within them. If the only way to find your pages is through the drop-down, it's unlikely they will get indexed.

Once you have made your menu, test it. Try to navigate your site with your wrong hand, i.e. use left hand if you are right-handed. If it's difficult to put the mouse arrow exactly in the "click area" - make your text longer or the area itself bigger.

Search engines use your website menu to find your pages. A complicated menu, for instance a "menu tree", can look very accomplished with parts of the menu floating here and there, up and down. But the code! First it requires a part script in your <HEAD> section and that is not allowed on free and low cost servers. Second, inexperienced surfers can get confused and you should treat search engines equal to inexperienced human surfers. The JavaScript can confuse the search engines with the result, may be they can find only your "index" page ( Home page ).

Page Menu

For long pages ( more than one print-out page ) I suggest you include a list of contents on the top of the page (= page Menu). You write the code reference:
<a href="#keyword">Sub-heading</a>
On top of each sub-heading you put (in the HTML code):
<a name="keyword"></a> The number sign (#) indicates to the browser the reference is on the same page.

A list of contents like the one on top of this page gives the important keywords to the search engines as well as makes it easier for your visitors to find exactly what they are looking for.

I started with the page menu from the very beginning with the fist pages on this site in 2003. Originally the intention was to make it easier for the visitor - for you - to find specific information. I can only suppose it has worked well because extremely few people use the website search.

In the middle of September 2009 I suddenly noticed a jump in number of visitors. Total for that month, number of visitors from Google increased about 70%, which means more than double for a full month. I was wandering until later in the month Google published a blog. Google had started to include anchors [ example: <a href="#page-menu"> ] in the search results when the relevant information was found under a specific subheading deep in the page.

Site Map

A site map is a detailed menu, some times including short descriptions of each page. Think of it as the list of contents in a book. When you get about 20 pages or more you should add a site map, not only for your visitors but also for the search engines. A simple text version works best, it's the most efficient. See, for instance, the Site Map on this site.

Usually the site map is on its own page. That one then has a link from every menu. Try to follow established conventions both for your main menu and for your site map. If you try something "cool" to show how skilful you are, then many visitors will be confused and leave your site. The search engines read only HTML, which means they cannot "understand" anything "fancy" and therefore they wont find all your "cool" pages.

In 2007 the "visual" search engine Quintura offered an "interactive search cloud" to replace site search and navigation [ site map ]. This would, of course look "very cool", but I think many mature searchers and Internet surfers could be confused and irritated. May be it could be tried out on a website intended for very young people (10-12 year olds ?). Such a site map wouldn't work very well for the search engines.

Both with the site map and with the menu, remember a simple code doesn't necessarily mean simple and tasteless.

What are Breadcrumbs ?

Many big websites have the pages organised in categories, each category in it's own folder. Then these folders can be further divided into several sub-categories each, again each in it's own folder.

When a visitor comes directly from a search engine to one of the content pages and the content isn't exactly what he/she was looking for there's a problem. The "Back" button doesn't help because it takes the visitor backwards in his/her browsing history. It doesn't help with the hierarchy at that special website.

For this purpose one can on many big websites see, at the top of each page, a text line like this (these are not working links):
Home >> Cat. B >> Sub-Cat. 5 >> Current Page name
These are called "breadcrumbs". They show the visitors current place in the website's hierarchy. If the visitor wants to go one step up in the hierarchy he/she clicks on the link immediately preceding the current page. May be that's where the information is hidden?

The breadcrumbs are therefore not a "Menu", they help the visitors to find what they are looking for in a similar way as the site level search. Because the breadcrumbs are getting very common on the Net, very many people are now accustomed to them and they use the breadcrumbs.

The last "address" in the breadcrumbs, the current page, is usually not a link. Because there shouldn't be any link that doesn't do anything on a page. Even in the regular Menu the current page should not show up as a link.

With a hierarchical structure and several layers of folders you run a great risk of creating duplicate content in your breadcrumbs when cross-linking between different categories. Duplicate content is by the search engines defined as identical content ( i.e. same webpage ) at the end of two or more different URLs. To avoid this - especially if you are also employing "siloing" - you should in such cases always use the full URL for every link to your internal pages. Both in your breadcrumbs and in other text links.

Placement of Website Menu

When you are planning the placement of your menu ( top-bottom, right-left ?), there are some research reports on website usability (not same as "accessibility"). Usability measures how easy it is for your visitors to use your site. These are American studies and are not, as such, readily adaptable all over the world. Where do you normally look for the Menu ?

There's already like a "tradition" on the Net, that the place for the Menu is on the left. Most surfers expect to find it there, so I suggest that's where you put it too. As "names" ( or titles ) for your pages, try to make short and to the point descriptions of what there is to be found on each page (max. 4-5 words = 2 text lines). The search engines read both page names-headings and page file names.

With regular lay-out tables the menu would come first before or in the middle of your text, which could mix up some smaller search engines. You can, however, arrange the code so the menu is last - after the text - but still appears at the left hand side. See Don Pedro's "Advanced" Layout Tables.

Left or Right alignment ?
Normally people scan down the page along the left side, except for Hebrew and Arabic, which are written from right to left. They scan through lists in the same way, including menus, reading only the first two words of each list or menu item. These should of course then be the important ones.

The menu should therefore be left justified ( for instance in English ), not right side justified. May be I should change the layout of my Menu? Does anybody have an opinion on that? (Source: www.useit.com) I have changed the layout of the menu on this page accordingly to this. Does anybody have any opinion about this menu compared with the menu on my other pages ?

Site Level Search

If you have a lot of information on your site - may be even several "sub-subjects" - try to add site level search. You can treat the site level search box as an extension of your menu. On this site you find the search box immediately after the menu.

When your visitors use site level search it's because they cannot find what they want in your regular menu. The number of visitors using your site level search is therefore a kind of indicator on how good or "bad" navigation you have. Try always to make it as simple as possible to find your information and leave the site level search as a "last resort". The site level search tells you directly what is difficult to find on your site.

There is some research (Wichita University) indicating people expect a search box at the top of the page. I would say it depends on what the visitor's intention is.

When a searcher is coming to a Search Engine his/her intention is obviously to search and consequently the expectation is to find the search box at the top. But when coming from a search engine's results page he/she expects to find the information he/she is looking for. When coming down to the bottom of the page without finding what he/she is looking for, then what?

My intuition tells me the visitor first looks around at the part of the page that's visible. Is there any indication on where to go? If the Menu is visible that's probably the next object of interest. An other possibility would be the site level search box.

Site level search is thus an extension to the Menu. I suggest you use it if you have a lot of information on you site. In such a case it's not possible to cover everything in a simple and short Menu.

Probably only a few visitors will use the site level search. If almost nobody do so, may be you should be congratulated. It's possible you have made such a logical site structure with such a detailed Menu, that everybody finds his/her information without the search box.

Especially you should study those keywords not found on your site. These keywords suggest what you should add in your content. Site level search also provides you with a backdoor into some search engines' data banks.

Free find search, limited to 3.000 pages/32 MB per site. You get weekly report by e-mail on number of queries and keywords not found.
What U Seek, limited to 1.000 pages/site.
Google Custom Co-op is a new kind of site level search. When you customize you can restrict it to show results only from your site, or you can add certain relevant websites or just different webpages from other sites.

You can even let your visitors add their favourite pages to the search engine. I wouldn't do that, when spammers find out you have that option, it could easily get out of control.

Site level search is a complement to your menu, even if very few visitors use it.

Website Menu and Site Level Search

Building your Website Menu

Page Menu

Site Map

What are Breadcrumbs ?

Placement of Website Menu

Site Level Search