Important Website Design Points for Small Businesses
Abstract: A look at the home page navigation tab and link source ordering website
design issues targeted towards small businesses, organizations and sole traders.
Intended Audience: Small Business Owners/webmasters and anyone new to the world
of web design and search engine optimization (SEO) particularly those working with
small businesses, organizations and sole traders.
Home Page Navigation Tab
During the construction of some recent websites our clients have asked us why we
don’t call the first navigation tab on their website the “home” page. We thought it
would be worth providing an explanation for this:
When indexing a website Google looks at a website’s navigation links to figure out
what a particular page is about i.e. establish a theme for that web page. On most
websites the first link on the index page (aka home page) is usually a link (tab) called
“home”. As the 1st link is also considered (by Google etc.) to be the most important
link on your website you are actually informing Google that this page is about
“home”. Unless you are selling houses this is unlikely to be the case!
The best alternative is to name your home page after your primary keyword or key-
phrase as shown below:
Original Navigation Links
Home | Products | Services | About Us | Contact Us
Revised Navigation Links
Interior Design | Products | Services | About Us | Contact Us
If it’s not possible to use a keyword or key-phrase then consider using your company
name but avoid using the word “home”.
Link Source Ordering
As outlined above care should be given to the allocation of the first link on your
website’s home page. You should also be vigilant to ensure that no links appear above
navigation structure or those links will take precedent when search engines like
Google index your website. Sometimes links are added to a logo header which sits
above the navigation structure on a website page layout and these types of links will
cause problems with your search engine ranking and should be avoided.
As well as deciding on a suitable name for the first link in your website’s navigation
structure you need to order the links in your navigation structure in order of
importance. If using horizontal navigation then the priority should be top to bottom
while vertical navigation should be ordered left to right in order of importance.

When we use the term importance we mean which web pages you want to rank
highest in terms search engine results pages. Pages such as Terms and Conditions are
important but they don’t need to found using search engines so they can appear at the
bottom of a navigation structure.
Eoin Redmond is an authority in the area of Search Engine Optimization and Internet
Marketing for small businesses works for Istech Technology Services in Kilkenny,
Ireland.
Istech Technology Services Ltd
Leading Website Developer and SEO Specialists
00 353 86 154 1049
Web: http://www.istech.ie
Blog: http://www.istech.ie/blog