How to Design and Optimize Navigation Categories: Organize First, Then Refine Labels and Presentation

When designing navigation categories, first organize them around the website’s topics and users’ needs, then label them with familiar terms, and finally check that they work smoothly on both desktop and mobile. The goal is not to cram in more entry points, but to help people understand what the website contains and where they can go. When optimizing navigation, check whether categories are nested too deeply, labels are hard to understand, or expanded menus are difficult to click or tap. Renaming categories or adjusting navigation should not be treated as a guarantee of higher rankings or more traffic.

Map Content Relationships Before Choosing Navigation Categories

NN/g’s 2023 explanation of information architecture covers how content is organized, how pieces of content relate to one another, and how navigation is presented and labeled. The goal is to make content easy to find and discover (S1). Planning should therefore begin with the website’s topics, main categories, and subcategories, rather than just the appearance of buttons.

• Decide how to categorize content first: Product type, brand, and usage needs offer different starting points for finding content.
• Check category depth: Avoid excessive subdivision that forces users to navigate through multiple levels to find content.
• Map out the structure: Use a sitemap to review categories rather than looking only at the menu on a single page.

A 2022 awoo article used Greenvines as it existed at the time to illustrate categorization by body area, skin type, and skincare needs (S4). This offers a reference for needs-based categorization, not a model every website should copy. An e-commerce case study presented by Screaming Frog in 2026 used breadcrumb data to reconstruct a site structure tree and identify overly deep or unbalanced branches. However, the article also cautioned that relying on breadcrumbs alone is not suitable for every website, with particular limitations for sites without visible breadcrumbs (S2).

Category Labels Should Help People Anticipate What They Will Find

Labels should prioritize terms that the target audience knows and commonly uses to search for relevant content, rather than obscure names invented merely to sound distinctive. In 2022, awoo recommended researching the search terms used by the target audience, then using suitable terms in category labels (S4).

For skincare categories, for example, labels based on body area, skin type, or needs can communicate different ways to browse. Keywords should help people recognize the content here. Although the source mentions benefits for search visibility and rankings, it does not provide quantitative evidence sufficient to guarantee results. It would therefore be inappropriate to claim that replacing labels with keywords will improve rankings.

Prioritize Navigation That Is Easy to Find and Use

Clear categories still need a usable interface. Based on awoo’s design recommendations, start by checking the following (S3, S4):

• Are entry points obvious? Avoid navigation icons that are difficult to recognize and excessive visual effects that interfere with loading or clicking.
• Does the full mobile menu remain usable? Use a responsive layout and check that the expanded menu does not extend beyond the screen in a way that makes it difficult to use.
• Do links serve their intended purpose? The logo should link correctly to the homepage, and buttons unrelated to reading tasks can be reduced in the main navigation.

Keeping navigation fixed at the top and adding registration or product links beside the logo were options awoo proposed in 2019 to support blog conversions (S3), not requirements for every website. That article also emphasized ongoing testing and adjustments based on readers’ habits. Navigation should still primarily support exploration and help users reach their intended pages.