How to implement a navigation redesign on an e-commerce website

Analysis of the current navigation

Introduction to navigation analysis

The navigational structure of a website is the fundamental that guides user traffic (conversion paths) and impacts the user experience (UX). This is why a detailed understanding of site traffic is crucial. Proper navigation analysis increases content accessibility, improves conversion rates and ensures better user engagement on the site.

Why does a navigation analysis matter?

Navigation is the first element a user encounters when visiting a website. It affects how easily and effectively visitors can find the information they are looking for. Improperly designed navigation can lead to frustration, resulting in higher page bounce rates.

Key steps in navigation analysis

1. Research user behavior

Analytical tools such as Google Analytics will help you understand which navigation elements are most frequently clicked on and which are skipped. You can also use heat maps to monitor mouse movements and user clicks. At this step, it is useful to use the right tools for competitive analysis. Reinventing the wheel is often wasted energy.

2. Usability testing

Conducting usability tests with real users gives an insight into how visitors use the navigation. This allows you to identify problems that may not be obvious during internal reviews.

3. Analysis of the navigational structure

Checking that the navigational structure is logical and intuitive is key. Attention should be paid to the depth of menus, the number of levels and the legibility of labels. The three-click rule is worth mentioning here. In large e-commerce sites, duplication of content is worth keeping in mind — an extensive category structure is a serious risk of duplication and simply chaos.

Optimisation of navigation based on analysis

1. Simplify navigation

In general, less is more. If menu analysis reveals unnecessary or barely clickable elements, it is worth removing them or combining them with other sections.

2. Use clear labels

The user should know immediately what is in a section. Avoid technical language, jargon and complicated terms. Exceptionally, if your site presents content for a very narrow, highly specialised audience, then jargon perceived as specialised language can have a positive effect within EAT.

3. Optimise mobile navigation

Given the limited space on mobile device screens, navigation needs to be simple and effective. It is worth considering the use of a so-called 'hamburger menu'. Often principals lose the 'mobile friendly' aspect by working exclusively on desktop. Google analyses websites in a specific way — skipping mobile compatibility will result in a decrease in traffic and conversions.

Planning the new navigation

Before starting to design the new navigation, it is important to identify the key steps in order to carry out the changes effectively and dynamically.

Define the goals of the site

The website has to make money and sell. I can't tell you how many times I've heard this. I drill down, asking who is supposed to buy, what is supposed to buy, how the customer gets to the website. Whether your website is a blog, a shop or a portfolio — in each case the menu will be different. As a digital marketing consultant, I always start with this question before touching any navigation structure.

Target group research

Here, it is not only important to determine whether customers are men from Poland or women from France. Behind the definition of the so-called persona, there is also an understanding of user needs. It is helpful to use surveys, heat maps, but also simply to analyse sales.

Creating a site map

A site map, which is a graphical representation of a site's navigational structure, helps you to understand how the different sections connect to each other, and how deep a user has to 'step' into the structure to find the content they are looking for.

When planning your navigation, it is worth keeping the following aspects in mind:

• Keeping it simple — the best menus are simple and easy to understand. Avoid over-complicating things.
• Using clear labels — keep menu content short, concise and descriptive.

During implementation, it is a good idea to create something like a navigation prototype and run tests on a selected group of real users.

Implementation of new navigation

CMS integration — if your website uses a CMS, the new navigation must be consistent with that system. Correct integration will ensure easy content management.

During implementation, it is crucial to keep SEO in mind. Correct URLs, titles, working internal linking, redirects to new addresses are important to start with. Ultimately, the new menu is a great opportunity to perform a site audit and seal the full optimisation. This connects directly to the quality of content itself — good content on the website and a well-structured navigation work together to guide users toward conversion.

In most cases, it is a good idea to write out the menu in the form of a table where the before and after versions of the changes are in two blocks. You can include a summary of the information — what needs to be done, who is responsible, a link to Trello. When creating such a table, it is worth taking the time to re-examine the phrases. Often, the 'old' menu was created quite some time ago and search trends have already changed. A more accurate selection of phrases translates into increased positions in the organic results and reduced costs for adverts.

In practice, menu changes are best performed on a copy of the site, on a so-called virtual local machine or on a draft domain. Once the desired changes have been made, the finished page can be transferred to the current domain in the form of a backup restore, or by replacing a section of the database. In such a solution we minimise the time on "open heart" operation time.

Testing the new site navigation

As a digital marketing consultant I recommend testing in two ways. The first aspect is to analyse and check the correct implementation of the new navigation. Such tests include an analysis of the creation of orphan pages:

• minimise the number of redirects to the new URL, detect redirect loops
• detect overlooked duplicates, detect drops in SERP position and enable dynamic action to remedy this.

Another way to test changes to a page is to analyse sales funnels, the overall performance of the conversion path, and the product purchase process itself.

These two ways of testing a new menu ensure that losses in visibility, traffic and conversions are minimised. They are certainly worth implementing periodically — especially the analysis of category SERP positions on the new URLs.

List of the most common mistakes

• Lack of usability testing — navigation should be intuitive. If you make changes without testing, the elements introduced can be confusing or frustrating.
• Failing to include a mobile version — a lot of traffic comes from mobile devices. If you're unsure what mobile-friendly actually means in practice, it is worth reading about what does it mean: Mobile Friendly.
• Overly complicated structure — the introduction of too many levels, complicated categories and unclear labels is discouraging. Navigation should be simple and direct.
• No tracking of results after changes — without measurement, you cannot improve.