Your thoughts on page navigation

[TataSinke]

Hi again SEOmoz community.

What are your thoughts on mainpage navigation. How it should be handled?

Scenario 1.

- links to the main sections with a mouse rollover feature where it shows subsections of the main sections

Scenario 2.

- links to the main sections, but the subsections are hidden and only visible on the click

Scenario 3.

• links to the main sections and subsections allways visible

I would like to hear you oppinions on this. What did you find as the best featrue, or did you try to find someting new entirely. What do you think would be the best scenario SEO wise and in the light of keeping links on page in decent numbers

Imo, Scenario 2 is the option to go with.

Tnx in advance for all your replys.

Sincerely,

sinisa

[NaescentAdam]

Are you asking that in terms of how it would affect your ranking on Google et al, or how users would better interact with your site?

Adam

[TataSinke]

Well both...

what would be the best scenario for Google and for users. Then maybe try to find some best-option-for-all...

[NaescentAdam]

On my site I had 117 links with sub-navigation and external links, ended up being way way way too much.

There is another scenario too you could try that I was thinking of applying to my own site which is keep the navigation in place but put nofollows on the sub-navigation. I dont know the pros and cons this completely and maybe someone could say, but maybe you could use that so your link juice isnt diluted by minor pages and you direct your link building strategy to those pages that need it regardless of location.

In your situation though (and I'm a novice), I'd be looking at the number of links you have and how diverse your sites PA/DA and other metrics. High links and not very diverse PA/DA (or profile that doesnt suit your current strategy) and I'd hide them.

In mine, I have to try and get them to the site then I have to keep them there for as long as possible as it increases the likelihood they'll buy, so I turned off third level tertiary links so only primary and secondary links were present then watched the pages per visit and time on site.

It didnt end up changing much. Maybe if the site isnt that old or well established or you can afford to experiment, build the site with all links turned on or a primarily UX strategy. Record user interaction over a couple of weeks and then remove that extra level of navigation and add it as a side bar or something that is only shows each section not the whole site on each page.

Specifically on your question though you are asking about whether you should hide a menu or not, but Google doesnt care (correct me if wrong) about whether you can see it (it knows whether you can see it or not I think) its more its presence (they can tell its part of the navigation).

I like hidden menus with obvious points of entry as it gives a less cluttered feel. The only issue is mobile. But then you server up a media specific css file and turn the drop down menu in to a select statement and you solve that one.

Adam