Navigation is "Key" to any website. In absence of proper navigation, the visitors to the website might get misguided in the mess of webpages of your website. This might make them feel bored and they might prefer to go to some other website rather than staying in your website. Designing effective navigation can also entice your visitors to try out the other things you offer through your website.

There is no specific guidelines regarding navigation that one needs to follow while designing the website. But below are some points that the web developer must keep in mind while designing a website in order to make an easy navigation throughout the website.

# The navigation buttons should be clear, consistent and prominent throughout the website. The best place to put them is on the top of each pages or onto the right/left hand side of the webpages so that it can be easily located by the visitors of the website. It is discouraged generally to put them on the bottom of the page where users needs to scroll down in order to see them. The primary buttons, e.g. link to product page, link to contact page etc. should be kept high and prominent for the easy access of the users. Make your primary keys highlight so that it gets the attention of the users as soon as they land on that particular page.

Note: Keep your navigation utilities consistent throughout the website for the visitor's easy identification. Don't confuse your visitors by putting your navigation links in different places in different pages.

# Make the links in such a way that it can be easily understood by the visitors to the website. Make your link description wisely so that the visitor can easily make out what is that link all about. Navigation images should be seamlessly integrated into the website design. Make the links visible throughout the webpage and if possible make them prominent in so that the user can find it interesting to click on in order to see that.

Note: Don't make the links to those portion of the webpages where it is not easily located by the visitors to the website. Don't put them down the page where it escapes the vision of the visitors.

# Organising the links on your website properly is also an important rule to follow. Location of the links must be in accordance to their importance. For a website design company like us, it is important to put "About Us", "Services", "portfolio" etc. at the top most position.

Note: Related links are also very important as visitors coming to a particular page will probably be interested in more information you have under the same topic.

# Site map is also very important link which will help the visitors when they find themselves lost in the website. It also help visitors, specially second time visitors, to go to the exact page of their interest. This saves them some valuable time which they would have otherwise wasted navigating throughout the website in order to locate a specific webpage.

# If you have got large number of links on your website, then it is advisable to use "navigational menus" that are found on the web with some nominal charges. This will help you organise the navigational links of your website. You can just install these navigational menus for managing the links of your website.

These are some logical and effective tips that one needs to keep in mind while website design. It is important to know that "navigation" is the key throughout your website. Like the contents, similarly the navigation can make your website lively and interesting.