Website Navigation: 7 Things To Consider
Website navigation is the roadmap for your visitors. When that map is confusing, difficult to see, or hard to use, people quickly lose trust and leave.
Poor navigation doesn’t just frustrate your average visitor; it creates massive, often invisible barriers for screen reader users, keyboard navigators, and people with low vision who rely on structure to find their way around.
The good news is that you don’t need to be a developer to fix this. If you use a website builder like Squarespace, Wix, or WordPress, most accessibility improvements come down to simple design and structural choices rather than complex coding.
In This Article
What is the True Purpose of Website Navigation?
How to Keep Menus Simple and Predictable
Best Practices for Dropdowns and Sub-Menus
Understanding Color Contrast in Navigation
Why Hover and Focus States are Critical
Providing Multiple Ways to Find Content
What to Remove from Your Main Menu
What is Website Navigation Really For?
Navigation isn’t just a list of links; it’s a guide that answers two vital questions for your visitors
Where am I right now?
Where can I go from here?
When navigation is built around the way a business is structured internally, it often becomes confusing for the customer. Strong navigation should reflect how they think, not you. For example, a visitor is usually looking for “Services” or “Pricing,” rather than a branded term like “Our Specialized Solutions Strategy.”
If a total stranger landed on your homepage, they should be able to explain exactly what you do and how to take the next step just by glancing at your menu. If they can’t, it’s a sign that your structure is too complex.
If someone landed on your site for the first time, could they understand what you do and how to take the next step just by looking at your navigation?
How to Keep Navigation Simple and Predictable
Complexity is the enemy of accessibility. To keep your menu user-friendly, you should aim to limit your top-level links to between five and seven items. Once you go beyond this number, the human brain begins to “filter out” options, leading to decision fatigue. It is much more effective to group related pages under a single, logical category than to clutter the header with every page on your site.
Predictability is just as important as simplicity. Users expect navigation to behave consistently across every page of your website. If your menu changes position, structure, or labels depending on which page a user is viewing, it creates unnecessary “cognitive load.” This is especially difficult for users who rely on muscle memory or screen readers to move quickly through your content. Stick to “boring” but clear labels like “About Us” or “Contact.” These are the terms your users (and search engines) are actively searching for.
Best practices
Aim for five to seven top-level menu items
Group related pages together logically
Use clear, familiar labels instead of clever or branded terms
Best Practices for Dropdowns and Sub-Menus
Dropdowns are often where web accessibility breaks down. In many popular site builders, menus are designed to appear only when a mouse hovers over a link. This is a significant issue because it makes the menu completely inaccessible to anyone navigating with a keyboard or certain assistive technologies.
When setting up your sub-menus, try to keep them to a single level deep. Avoid mega menus or deeply nested links — like a “Services” menu that leads to “Residential,” which leads to “Kitchens,” which finally leads to “Faucets.” This creates a mouse trap effect where the menu disappears if the user’s cursor slips even a few pixels. Instead, ensure your site builder allows users to click to open a menu, or that the menu remains open whenever it receives keyboard focus.
DO
Use sub-menus only when pages naturally belong together
Keep labels short and descriptive
Ensure dropdowns stay open long enough to read and interact with
AVOID
Deeply nested menus with multiple layers
Hover-only menus that disappear easily
Mega menus on small or simple websites
Why Color Contrast Matters in Menus
Low-contrast navigation is one of the most common accessibility problems we see. Light gray text on a white background or white text on a busy image might look “modern,” but it can be nearly unreadable for users with low vision or anyone viewing your site on a mobile device in bright sunlight.
According to current WCAG requirements, small text like menu links must have a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 against the background.
To implement this correctly
Prioritize using your darkest brand color for text on a light header or vise-versa.
If you want to place menu text over an image, you should use a solid or semi-transparent dark overlay behind the text to ensure the letters remain sharp and legible regardless of the image’s colors.
If you use an adaptive header (the color/design takes on the background of the hero/first section), be sure to verify the contrast of your navigation links on each page.
Hover, Focus, and Active States Explained
Visual cues are the feedback loop that tells users they are successfully interacting with your site. Without these states, navigating a website feels like walking through a dark room, you know there are things to interact with, but you can’t tell when you’ve found them. To ensure your navigation is accessible, you need to account for three distinct interaction states.
Hover States
The hover state is specific to users who navigate with a mouse or trackpad. When a user moves their cursor over a link, the hover state should trigger a visual change—such as a color shift, an underline appearing, or a subtle change in the background. This transition confirms that the element is clickable and that the user’s cursor is accurately positioned.
When designing these, ensure the change is obvious but not jarring. For example, changing text from black to a medium blue is effective, but changing it to a very light blue might cause the contrast to drop below accessible levels, making the link disappear for some users just as they are about to click it.
Active States
The active state (sometimes called the “current” state) is a vital orientation tool. It highlights the link for the page the user is currently viewing, helping them stay grounded within your site’s hierarchy. If you are on the “Services” page, the “Services” link in your menu might be bolded, underlined, or shown in a different color. This simple visual cue prevents users from getting lost or accidentally clicking back to a page they are already on. Ensure your site builder supports “active link styling” so that visitors always have a visual “You Are Here” marker on their map.
Focus States
Focus indicators are perhaps the most critical but most often ignored accessibility feature. These are the visual outlines (often a blue or red box) that appear when a keyboard user presses the “Tab” key to move through your menu. Because keyboard users don’t have a mouse cursor, the focus indicator is their only way of knowing which link is currently selected.
Many designers disable these outlines because they feel they disrupt the brand’s aesthetic, but removing them makes a site completely unusable for anyone who cannot use a mouse. When reviewing your site (pressing the “tab” key to move to each interactive element), ensure that your focus indicators are highly visible and have a strong contrast against the background.
In many website building platforms you have no control over changing this without using code (which is good because they are generally setup to work correctly right outside the box). But if you do find settings to play around and change the focus indicator, we HIGHLY suggest leaving it alone!
Providing Multiple Ways to Find Content
Not everyone navigates a website in the same way. While some people prefer to use the main menu, others find it easier to search for a specific keyword or browse a sitemap. Because of this, WCAG standards require that you provide at least two different ways for users to locate content on your site.
For most websites, this means providing the main navigation menu alongside a secondary option. This could be a search bar in the header or a full sitemap link in the footer. Providing these “backup” options ensures that if a user finds your main menu overwhelming, they aren’t stuck with no way to find what they need.
Many small business websites rely entirely on a single menu. If that menu is confusing or overwhelming, users have no backup option. Providing multiple ways to locate content improves accessibility, usability, and even SEO.
What Not to Put in Your Main Navigation
Your main navigation should be reserved for your highest-priority pathways. Including too much information actually makes it harder for users to find the important stuff. Items like social media icons, secondary services, and sometimes even login links for existing members are better suited for your footer.
Avoid using vague labels like “Learn More” or “Click Here” within your menu. If a page is important enough to be in your main navigation, it deserves a clear, descriptive label that tells the user exactly where they are going. If you find yourself wanting to link to an external website or a third-party tool, consider whether that link really belongs in your header or if it would be better served as a call-to-action button further down the page.
Mobile Navigation Accessibility
Mobile menus often introduce new accessibility issues.
Mobile “hamburger” menus often introduce a new set of accessibility hurdles. Because screens are smaller, it is common to see icons that are far too small to tap accurately or menus that overlap with other content. You should ensure that your menu buttons and links are at least 24x24 pixels (44x44 pixels to go above and beyond) in size to accommodate different finger sizes and motor abilities.
Furthermore, make sure the icon to close the menu (the “X”) is just as easy to find and use as the icon to open it. A tiny, low-contrast icon placed over a busy background is a common failure. Mobile navigation should offer the same clarity and structural logic as your desktop version.
Navigation Accessibility FAQS
Does my menu need to be at the top of the page?
While it’s not a strict rule, users expect it there. Placing it in an unusual spot (like the bottom or hidden behind a side-bar on desktop) creates “cognitive load” and makes your site harder to use because it breaks the user’s established mental model of how websites work.
Are “Mega Menus” accessible?
They can be, but they are notoriously difficult to build correctly for accessibility. For most small businesses, they are usually unnecessary clutter. If you must use one, it is vital to ensure it can be navigated entirely via keyboard and that screen readers can announce the various sub-categories correctly.
Should my dropdowns open on hover or click?
“Click” is significantly more accessible. Hover-only menus are very difficult for people with motor impairments or those using touch devices. A click-to-open menu is more intentional and much less likely to “flicker” or disappear prematurely while someone is trying to read it.
How do I check if my navigation is keyboard accessible?
You can test this yourself right now. Open your website and try to move through your menu using only the Tab key to move forward and Shift + Tab to move backward. You should be able to see a clear “focus” box around every link, and you should be able to open any dropdowns by pressing the Enter or Space key.
Ready to Improve Your Website’s UX?
Navigation is just one piece of the puzzle. If you want to ensure your entire site is compliant, user-friendly, and optimized for growth, we offer comprehensive audits and easy-to-follow tutorials designed for busy business owners.
