A website that has easy navigation is not just about a good menu, although this is a major factor. Other very important navigation elements of a good site are a site map, breadcrumb trails, contextual menus and a footer. All of these need to be working in harmony to create an easy-to-navigate experience for your users.
It's not enough to just put up a list of items that will become your menu. Haphazardly and stereotypically placing the words 'home', 'about' and whatever else are what everyone does. Make no mistake, you shouldn't change these tried and tested words. When people go to a webpage they expect to find information quickly, so if your 'about' page is listed as something else in the menu, people will become frustrated when they can't find it or have to think about that extra step. You could have the coolest concept for your menu items, but if it's too vague and obscure, not many people will understand what you're trying to say. On the other hand, if you stick to the basics, then people don't have to think about it and can automatically click what they want to get to the information they want.
When you've decided on a page structure, then it's time to place your menu. The website builder makes this a cinch with readymade menu buttons that link automatically to your site’s pages. You can make really cool effects that change the menu item based on whether the mouse is hovering over it or not. The menu should be either on the top of the page as a drop down list, or on the left hand side of the page (in some cultures this will be the right hand side). The menu should be designed in a way so as to not obscure too much of the content below or to the side of it. It's best if it is also part of a unifying color theme and design of your website too.
Footers and content navigation links
Another important aspect to consider when you make a website for easy navigation is the footer section. This will usually contain links to the main items in the menu and lets your users move to another section on the site when they have finished scrolling to the bottom of the content. This is important, because a lot of people are frustrated if they have to scroll up again to the top of a page when they are finished with it. A good footer usually has links to important items such as the home page, the about page, contact details, terms of service and perhaps some of the main sections of the site. It can also contain a lot of information and links to archives if there are a lot of written articles or blog entries.
Navigation links throughout your content are also a very important feature of any easy to navigate website. The most common of these is for example in a multi-page article, you will find links to every page, the first page, the last page, as well as 'next' and 'previous' buttons. Other common and useful navigation links can be provided at the start of a very long article. Section titles can be presented as a 'table of contents' with hyperlinks to each section. It's also important if you do this to add a link at each section to go back up to the top of the page as well.
