User’s Defining Structure

There does not need to be much guess work when developing a site’s navigational architecture. With the deluge of information from search, internal navigation and site search queries, managing the volume of information is more of an issue than any scarcity.

Use user navigation data. Identifying under utilised menus and obscure categorisation terms is easy. Just look for the ones that are not being used. If a section of the site is especially hard to move through, you will find users will resort to Site Search more as well.

Look at internal search queries. This is a good guide to how the customer wishes to navigate your site. It is both a focus group and user testing run for free. User search queries are a good guide to alternative content categorisation as well.

Research the language customers use to describe your product and services. Monitoring the market online through the content they generate and the industry’s query space is important. This information is valuable for site development as well as creating copy, creative and other campaign choices.