What’s the most important feature of your author website design? You may think it’s the home page image, or the email signup form, or even the typeface used throughout the site. While these are all vital to the success of your website, Web Design Relief knows that perhaps the most essential—yet overlooked—element is your navigation menu. The navigation menu of your website shows your visitors how to find the information they’re looking for, so it needs to be easy to find, understand, and use.
There are several website navigation styles you can choose from to suit your overall design requirements while still making it clear where to find everything with just a few clicks.
Horizontal Menu: Straightforward and reliable, this is the default choice for many web designers. This menu design is typically found at the top of the web page, either below or above a banner. Sometimes the menu and the banner can be side by side.
A horizontal menu is usually the best option for websites with a long list of drop-downs and submenus under each category.
Vertical Menu: If you want to try something different, you may opt for a vertical menu. The vertical menu has seen a rise in popularity in recent years: Here are WordPress themes that use Vertical Menus. You’ll often find these menus on the left-hand side of a website.
A vertical menu is a smart choice for author websites that feature a lot of blog articles. This menu style leaves space in the center of the webpage for a grid-like display of blog posts. You can also use a vertical menu for a website that showcases a portfolio of images. Make sure to keep your menu links short, since the longer they become, the more center space your vertical menu will take up.
Fixed-Header Menu: This menu style is perfect for an author website with a lot of information. A fixed-header menu stays at the top of the page—no matter where your visitor scrolls to on the website. Your visitors can easily navigate through your website since the menu follows them and remains accessible wherever they are on your site.
Floating Anchor Menu: Websites that want to be extra mobile-friendly or are overly long will benefit from a floating anchor menu, which allows visitors to quickly scroll to the section of the page that the navigation refers to. Anchor menus function in the same way as the fixed-header menu. If your website is one page, this type of navigational menu may be your best option!
Icon Menu: Rather than using the typical, spelled-out text menu options, you can shake things up by using icons to represent your navigational links. A visitor looking for a store page would click on an image of a shopping cart; someone interested in contacting you would click on a mailbox image.
Bottom-Page Menu: Want to turn visitors on their heads? Try a bottom-page menu! This style is ideal for a website that wants to immediately focus attention on a main image or on a splash page.
And once you’ve determined the best look for your author website’s navigation menu, you may want to consider redesigning your website’s footer!
Question: Which navigation menu design do you think your visitors would prefer?
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