Site Navigation Options
Contents
Site Navigation Options
Clear, clean, straightforward navigation is critical for a positive visitor experience.
You want people to move easily from your home page to your TIER 2 hub pages. From there, your visitors can access your TIER 3 pages and/or income-generating links.
It's a good idea to provide your visitors with more than one way to advance through your site. That's why SBI! offers you three choices...
- Table of Contents text links
- Graphical left-margin NavBar button links or...
- Both
Our recommendation? For both humans and spiders, choosing "Both" is the way to go. However, if you ever decide to change, you can change your Site Navigation Options at any time.
Important Note
The Table of Contents and the NavBar buttons only link to TIER 2 pages. However, you can display your site's NavBar buttons on both TIER 2 and TIER 3 pages. You do that on a page-by-page basis while building each page.
Choose Site Navigation
- Select an individual option, Table of Contents or Graphical left-margin NavBar. Or you can choose Both, depending upon how you want your visitors to move from your home page to your TIER 2 pages.
Let's examine the three choices in more detail...
Choice #1 -- Table of Contents
Let's start with the Table of Contents text links...
If you select this option, the TIER 2 pages that you see in the table on the Site Navigation Options tool page will automatically appear as text links at the bottom of your home page.
How did SBI! create that table?
Each time you build or edit a page, you must choose whether or not it will be part of the home page's Table of Contents (and/or NavBar). If you say "yes," that action makes it a TIER 2 page and SBI! adds it to the table on the Site Navigation Options tool page with the rest of your TIER 2 pages.
Each text link uses the Page Title (as a link) and Description of a specific TIER 2 page. This combo lets your visitor know what that page delivers. It's the same Description that searchers will see in the Search Engine results page.
Tips
- Lead visitors into your Table of Contents text links by adding a short introductory paragraph before the list. Entice your visitors to explore!
- There are no "Table of Contents" text links to TIER 3 pages. You introduce your visitors to those pages by creating good, in-context text links within the body of each TIER 2 page. This is the most natural, "feel-good" way to lead visitors to more quality information.
Choice #2 -- Graphical Left Margin NavBar
The second way to link from your home page to your TIER 2 pages is through a Graphical left-margin NavBar...
When you selected the Look and Feel for your site, a graphical NavBar was included as part of that design package. This is the place where you can choose to use that NavBar as a site navigation option, and to re-order its buttons to suit your site layout.
Each time you build or edit a page, you must choose whether or not it will be a button on your NavBar (and/or part of your Table of Contents). If you say "yes" and name the button, that action makes it a TIER 2 and SBI! adds it to the table on the Site Navigation Options tool page with the rest of your TIER 2 pages.
Tips
- This is not the place to customize your NavBar buttons. To do that, you'll need to go back to the "Look and Feel Selector" button in the "All Pages" section of Site Central. And then click on the "Customize NavBar" button of your selected style.
- Once again, there is no NavBar button link to TIER 3 pages. Lead your visitors to those pages by creating good, in-context text links within the body of each TIER 2 page.
Choice #3 -- Both
Your final navigation option is to use both the Table of Contents text links and the NavBar button links on your site.
This way allows your visitors to decide how they want to move from your home page to your TIER 2 pages. Click here to see how anguilla-beaches.com uses both.
Style Navigation Headers
- Select a Font, the font Size, Bold and/or Italic. Click on the large rectangle to select a font Color. Click on a button to select an Alignment.
- Select a Border Size, plus Top, Right, Bottom and/or Left. Click on the large rectangle to select a border Color.
- Click on the large rectangle to select a Background Color.
Navigation Headers allow you to subdivide your NavBar into groups, each with its own heading. You can choose options for the font, a border, and the background color. Each time you change an option, that update will appear in the preview to the right of the various options...
Font
You can choose from several fonts. Click on the menu to select the one you want. View it in the live preview.
Next select the font size, whether you want to use bold or italic, and the color of the text (click on the large rectangle to select a color, which will then display in the large rectangle).
Then click on a button for your preferred alignment -- left, center or right.
Border
You can put a border around your Navigation Headers, or have none.
If you want no border, set the Size to 0.
If you want to add a border, select the Size, then add a check to any or all of Top, Right, Bottom and Left.
If you want the border to be a particular color, click on the large rectangle and choose your color.
Click on the Preview NavBar at the bottom of the page to see how your selection will look on your NavBar.
Border Tip
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If you want more white space above and below your headers, select a white border (if you have a white page background) or and increase the size of the border to 4 or 5 pixels. Be sure to preview to get the look you want.
If you do use a white border, you won't be able to see it on the tool page, since it sits on a white background.
Background Color
You have two options for your background color -- choose one from the color palette, or choose the transparent background, which displays the lefthand color or image that sits under your NavBar.
If you want your Navigation Headers to sit on the left column background, select Transparent/None. If you want a specific color, select it from the color palette. "None" will appear in the large rectangle if you selected that Transparent/None option. Your chosen color will appear there if you select one.
Before you select Transparent/None, click on the Preview NavBar button to see what your headers will look like on your left column background. Colors may clash, or be hard to read, or you may be putting text on a textured or striped background, which will also make the headers hard to read.
Background Color Tip
- Hovering over any of the colors in the palette will show the hex code for that color.
Re-Order Site Navigation
- Re-order the pages by dragging them to the order position you want them.
- Add a new Navigation Header by clicking and dragging Click and drag me to create a new Navigation Header. Click on edit to name it. Add as many Navigation Headers as you want, wherever you want them.
- Click on delete to remove an existing Navigation Header, or on edit to edit what the header says. Click on done to save your edit.
- Click on Preview NavBar to see what the changes look like.
- Click on Create New Site Navigation Order.
Re-ordering NavBar Buttons
Whenever you finish creating a TIER 2 page, it automatically appears at the bottom of your list of pages in the Re-Order Site Navigation table. To move its position up or down in the list, you need to change the order of your Navigation.
You re-order the Table of Contents text links and/or NavBar buttons by simply moving each page's title to the location you want it.
- Click and hold your left mouse button on the page title text you want to re-order. If you have a one-button mouse with a Mac, click and hold it. If you're using a trackpad on a notebook computer, use the equivalent of a left-click and hold on a mouse.
- Drag your mouse (or drag your finger across the trackpad) until the text is where you want it in the navigation order.
- Release the mouse button or remove your finger from the trackpad.
Changes apply to both methods of navigation, if you chose Both in Choose Site Navigation, discussed above. Changes take effect in the database as soon as you click on the Create New Site Navigation Order button. However, the changes on your site can take up to 30 minutes to appear.
Tips
- There is no magic formula to ordering the links on your NavBar and Table of Contents. Choose the order that seems to flow the best.
- All things being equal, position your most profitable buttons/links (as determined by Brainstorm It!) first.
- If applicable, put buttons to your product sales pages (or store) and to your affiliate registration page in a prominent position.
- Put administrative pages (ex., About Us, Privacy Policy) at or near the bottom of the NavBar.
- You can re-order your NavBar as often as you want. Do it every time you add a new TIER 2 page, and whenever you decide that a certain page needs more (or less) prominence in your NavBar.
- If you chose the NavBar option only, you will see buttons here. If you chose the TOC option only, or chose both, you'll see the Title of each TIER 2 page here.
Adding/Editing/Deleting Navigation Headers
To add a Navigation Header, simply click and drag Click and drag me to create a new Navigation Header. Release the mouse click where you want the header to appear in the navigation order. (See the instructions above if you use a trackpad.)
Once you've dropped the header into the desired location, click on edit to name the header. If you change your mind, click on delete to remove the header.
To move the header to a different location, simply click and drag again.