Your menu is prime website real estate, we take a look at optimizing your menu to improve your website navigation to boost your conversions.
This is part 3 of a 6-part series on increasing sales through your website by improving its look and feel.
What 80% Of YOUR Users Look At
Is It What They Want?
Do you remember that a while ago I shared some research about what is the most important area of a website according to web psychologists?
What Research Shows Us
Their research shows that 80% of a users engagement happens ‘Above The Fold’!
I also explained how
‘Above The Fold’ is that area on a website you first see before you need to scroll down.
This part of your website real estate is CRITICAL!
It also offers us some truly great opportunities to increase user engagement and conversions!
Where People Are Looking
Take a look at this image and see where people spend most of the time looking.
The red area is where people spend the most of their time.
Did you notice this heatmap is a universal heatmap?
Notably, many countries read from left to right, while in many other countries, people read from right to left, which is why the red is spread out uniformly at the top.
If this was a heatmap of English speaking countries, you’d see much more red in the TOP LEFT hand corner since our eye scans from left to right!
Basically it should look like the letter ‘F’ for left to right language countries.
What Does This Mean For You?
It shows us that this is such a prime piece of real estate that we should maximize it’s value!
Here are 2 tips that you should be aware of.
- Have a great logo and place it in the top left to create brand familiarity.
- Use this website navigation menu to maximum benefit.
If you want to maximise this prime real estate you need an incredible logo and a website navigation menu with a strong call to action.
Have a great logo and place it at the top left of your website to create brand familiarity.
Let’s look at the first point. Ensuring that you have a great logo!
Life is all about making choices! Here’s a list with 11 Good Choices that you will never regrat making!
Your Next Step
There really isn’t too much to say about your logo except that if you last tweaked the design 10 years ago, there is no faster way of creating an impression of an outdated website!
There are subtle and not-so-subtle changes in design over time and site visitors will know this.
Just have a look at the history of Coca Cola and Pepsi logo and notice the subtle changes!
Even if you think it looks great, you should seriously consider a logo refresh where you keep the look and feel of your logo, but maybe just change the font and bring it up to more modern design practices.
Check Our Logo Design App
Now that we’ve looked at your logo, let’s take a look at…
1 Method Experts Use To Get More Customers
If you recall the fascinating graphic about where users spend most of their time looking on a website you’ll remember that it’s the top left corner and the website menu bar.
This is prime real estate that should be maximized!
Let’s take a look at what’s a bad example and what some of the major brands with big marketing research budgets are doing so you can see the difference.
A Bad Website Navigation Menu Example
Notice how it’s just functional with no clear call to action?
Leading Website Navigation Menu Examples
Foodnetwork.com – notice how the website menu has GREAT images that hold your attention and make you want to find out more?
Callaway.com – notice the use of images for each category? It really makes it easy for the user to navigate and thus improves the time on site of the user.
Golf.com – using images (to catch your attention) they direct people to a certain page they want you to go to.
Porsche.com – the use of great images makes it a pleasure to navigate this website menu. There is absolutely no ambiguity how to navigate the website.
What Does Your Website Navigation Menu Look Like?
If the leading brands around the world are using the menu to capture users attention, we can be certain there is a reason they are doing so!
Imagine what the cost of designing and maintaining these stylish menus is?
2 Amazing Tips To Help You Make It Easy For Your Visitors
I want to revisit the menu that is used by Porsche and look at why it’s so smart.
Just to remind you here it is.
A Great Website Navigation Menu Example:
I want you to notice TWO things.
#1 – Strong Call To Action
They want to sell cars. The more the better. Since the top left hand corner is where most people spend time looking, they have used this area to quickly direct users to the cars.
They really have employed some smart web psychology here!
#2 – Eye-Catching Imagery
Did you notice the use of great images?
Again it makes it really easy to navigate and see the difference between the various Porsche models as well as grab our attention.
What About Your Website Navigation Menus?
I want you to think about what is the MOST important function of your website and if your are using this prime real estate wisely?
Maybe take a look at your menu and decide if there is a strong call to action you could include that would vastly improve your websites conversions.
Have you maximized this area with a strong call to action?
Is it EXTREMELY EASY for your visitors to navigate your website?
Have you used images to GRAB and hold your visitors attention?
Are You Like Most Website Visitors?
In the dark ages, with an average website menu, that doesn’t drive you extra business?
If you do, don’t you think it’s time you did something about it?
This really is such an important part of a website, I just don’t understand why it’s not properly utilized.
If you don’t believe me, look at Adidas.com, Nike.com, Puma.com, and any other international retailer to see what they have done.
You’ll quickly realise it’s not something to ignore.
We’ve recently looked at the use of a styled website navigation menu and it’s overall impact.
Want To Fix This?
We’ve recently looked at where users spend most of their attention on a website and showed you it was in the top left hand corner and website navigation menu. If you’d like a little help with this, take a quick look at our,
Website Menu Design App
I want to briefly explain what you can do with your menus! What I suggest is grouping your visitors into groups.
- Visitors
- Customers
- Staff
- Etc.
Then decide if there is a specific action you’d like each group to take. We can then create a unique menu for each group to promote that action!
Most commonly a logged out user will see a strong call to action in the menu to get them to convert/sign-up/inquire.
Whereas, for somebody who is logged in, they’ve already completed this action, so you’d want to drive them to do another action. Maybe cross-sell or up-sell? Or highlight a new product/service?
The best thing to think about is what you want your different groups to do and that will help you know how many styled menus you need.
What’s Next?
Read our next article in the website optimization series:
