Over the past several weeks we’ve shared with you some of the advice provided in our downloadable “Big Book of Navigation Tips.” Perhaps one of the key take-aways in the Big Book is that your job of enhancing navigation is never done – there are always more improvements that can be made. Product catalogues, buying trends, and customer behaviors all change, and a good retail site is one that keeps up with these shifts – whether seasonal or otherwise.
In the last section of the book, we provide some tips for how you can keep up with the trends and continuously improve your site’s navigation to engage visitors and convert them into happy customers. Below are a couple tips to get you started. You can find the complete set of these and other tips in the “Big Book of Navigation Tips“.
1. Run multivariate tests to continue improving your navigation — As you go through the process of updating your site navigation, you will need to test, test more, and test again. It’s a good idea to test different layout options, refinements, categories, and results orders to make sure you’re providing your visitors an optimal user experience and improving your chances to convert them into customers.
2. Examine your search logs for site navigation option cues — If you’re having trouble deciding what categories you should select for site navigation, looking at what people are searching for on your site is a great place to start. The search terms visitors are using in the search box is a good indication of how they may want to navigate on your site. For example, if there are a lot of queries with manufacturers’ names then manufacturer (or brand) should probably be a navigation option. If people are searching for waterproof products, consider adding this as a navigation option. Your analytics or site search software should be able to provide this information. It’s also important to look at your analytics on a regular basis, as new trends may dictate the need for new categories.
