Website navigation encompasses all webpage elements which allow your users to move easily around your site. In today’s busy world, the easier a website is to use the more likely your potential clients are to stay and read your content—and to return. In short, the success of your legal website can actually hinge on the navigation, and many experts feel it is even more important than a great design or exemplary content. If your user is unable to find what they want on your site, then even if what you have to offer is absolutely fabulous, they won’t be able to easily find it and will head to a more user-friendly site. Navigation on your legal webpages should be simple, clear and intuitive to be effective. Further, any time you update your pages, you must also update your navigational tools to reflect those changes. Let’s look at the elements of navigation in order to more fully understand just what great navigation is.
Mapping Your Navigational Tools
Start with a large piece of paper to put together your legal website’s navigation. For legal firms it is likely you will simply have free content rather than a private membership area, so make a large box at the top of your paper labeled “public home page.” You will then draw lines to every page your home page is meant to link to with another box at the end of each line. You will be using this exercise to determine your level one pages such as your home page, the level two pages which are the pages linking form your home page, and level three pages which link form your level two pages or other category pages. Once you have a rough model of your sitemap, sketch out your home page with all the links you want to appear within your webpages. The most important thing to remember when you are outlining your site is that over three-quarters of the people who land on your site will arrive at a page other than your home page. Your visitors must immediately feel comfortable no matter where they arrive within your site, and must be able to quickly find their way around to the area they most need.
Menus Contribution to Navigation
The most critical element of your navigational tools are the menus. Your main menu should either run across the top of your page or down the left-hand column and many websites also add a navigation bar at the page bottom. Your menus and links need to look exactly the same on each and every page within your legal website and must be visually presented in a way which allows your potential clients to have no trouble identifying the most important links.
Other Navigational Tools
Images which contain links, links with your content, floating menus and the use of individual buttons all contribute to your site’s ease of navigation. The individual buttons will be those with words such as “back,” “details,” “previous,” etc. Other elements which will contribute to great navigation will be an “About Us” area which will give an overview of your firm as well as a short bio of each attorney. Your contact form will be short, simple and will inspire trust in your web user, asking for just the right amount of information. Depending on your specialization you will detail your services, having an easy-to-find and use link to each different area. A privacy policy is always a good idea in order to reassure your users you will not use their personal information in any way except to contact them about their current issue or problem. Many legal websites now have a blog which gives your users high-quality, useful information about specific legal problems. You may also add testimonials from existing clients or news items, including press releases.
