New menu

[Alliance]

Hi guys

We are going to be changing the top navigation menu on our site soon to be something like the johnlewis.com one.

My worry with this new menu is the massive increase in links per page and the extra code pushing the page content a lot further down the page.

So, should I...

1. Use css to position the menu at the bottom of the page when you view the source code?

2. Leave it at the top - otherwise it will look like a spammy footer full of links.

3. Stop worrying about nothing.

Cheers in advance for any help!

[fisicx]

#3.

I've never been a fan of dropdown menus (they require me to think), there are some usability issues but in general the johnlewis one is pretty good and has an excellent selection system on the product pages. So you need to consider not just the dropdowns but how you are going to help the visitor once thay have made a selection. Your current system isn't going to work as it relies on secondary navigation within the sidebar.

[OldWelshGuy]

The navigation menu (and more importantly structure of the site it creates) is one of THE key elements.

I honestly wouldn't recommend making such a large change without taking some SEO advice.

OH! HANG ON.... You are doing that now :D

Just remember when you increase links on a page you reduce the importance of the links already there.

[fisicx]

Agree, should have mentioned that. There is a good possiblity you will lose some ranking but if the conversions increase then that's a better bonus.

A major navigation change will impact on every aspect of the site as it's going to need all sorts of changes to the product pages so that your visitors don't get lost.

Are you going to test the new site before it goes live?

[Alliance]

Cheers guys.

We have such a massive product range that this style of menu makes sense from a usability point of view. I'm just worried about the effects on the seo - such as the one OWG mentioned.

I wonder if there would be any advantage in sticking the menu in an iframe?

[Alliance]

Sorry fisicx, replied before seeing your post.

We can test it in house but that's really just testing the technical aspects. As for seeing if it works, I think we'll just have to keep an eye on the sales...eek

It's a bit of a redesign so we have plans for the side menu and promotional space etc.

[Latitude-Express]

Rather than using such a large drop down why not consider just having the top level categories in the drop down and then have a sub menu on the category pages which has the individual items as text links? It wouldn't harm navigation and would provide you additional pages (the category pages) for SEO purposes and the text links would improve your internal linking structure.

If you are already committed to this option I would say don't worry too much about it, as mentioned already, much better to have a website that is easy to navigate and converts well and take a hit in the SERPs, than to have a top ranking site which doesnt convert.