undefined
Skip to content
Moz logo Menu open Menu close
  • Products
    • Moz Pro
    • Moz Pro Home
    • Moz Local
    • Moz Local Home
    • STAT
    • Moz API
    • Moz API Home
    • Compare SEO Products
    • Moz Data
  • Free SEO Tools
    • Domain Analysis
    • Keyword Explorer
    • Link Explorer
    • Competitive Research
    • MozBar
    • More Free SEO Tools
  • Learn SEO
    • Beginner's Guide to SEO
    • SEO Learning Center
    • Moz Academy
    • SEO Q&A
    • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
  • Blog
  • Why Moz
    • Agency Solutions
    • Enterprise Solutions
    • Small Business Solutions
    • Case Studies
    • The Moz Story
    • New Releases
  • Log in
  • Log out
  • Products
    • Moz Pro

      Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

    • Moz Local

      Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

    • STAT

      SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

    • Moz API

      Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

    • Compare SEO Products

      See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

    • Moz Data

      Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
    Moz Pro

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

    Learn more
  • Free SEO Tools
    • Domain Analysis

      Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

    • Keyword Explorer

      Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

    • Link Explorer

      Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

    • Competitive Research

      Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

    • MozBar

      See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

    • More Free SEO Tools

      Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
    Moz Pro

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

    Learn more
  • Learn SEO
    • Beginner's Guide to SEO

      The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

    • SEO Learning Center

      Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

    • On-Demand Webinars

      Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

    • How-To Guides

      Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

    • Moz Academy

      Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

    • MozCon

      Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

    Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
    Moz API

    Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

    Find your plan
  • Blog
  • Why Moz
    • Small Business Solutions

      Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

    • Agency Solutions

      Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

    • Enterprise Solutions

      Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

    • The Moz Story

      Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

    • Case Studies

      Explore how Moz drives ROI with a proven track record of success.

    • New Releases

      Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

    Surface actionable competitive intel
    New Feature

    Surface actionable competitive intel

    Learn More
  • Log in
    • Moz Pro
    • Moz Local
    • Moz Local Dashboard
    • Moz API
    • Moz API Dashboard
    • Moz Academy
  • Avatar
    • Moz Home
    • Notifications
    • Account & Billing
    • Manage Users
    • Community Profile
    • My Q&A
    • My Videos
    • Log Out

The Moz Q&A Forum

  • Forum
  • Questions
  • Users
  • Ask the Community

Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

  1. Home
  2. Digital Marketing
  3. Web Design
  4. Html 5 main and secondary navigation for SEO best performances

Moz Q&A is closed.

After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

Html 5 main and secondary navigation for SEO best performances

Web Design
3
8
3.1k
Loading More Posts
  • Oldest to Newest
  • Newest to Oldest
  • Most Votes
Reply
  • Reply as question
Log in to reply
This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
  • netbuilder
    netbuilder last edited by Sep 28, 2012, 4:29 AM

    I am building a website which will have a main navigation related to the site and each link of the main navigation will have a secondary navigation. We do not want to use a megamenu style navigation. I will try to explain it with a example:

    Let's start with an example for a computer store "My PC Store", the Main Navigation would be:

    Desktop PC's Notebook & Tablets
    Multimedia

    When clicking on the "Notebook & Tablets" the user is directed to the page domain.com/notebook-tablet.html and on this page the secondary navigation appears: Laptop Netbook Tablets / iPad I am confused on how I should organize the semantic navigation for best SEO performances and I need advice / suggestions. I thought about 2 different ways to do it but which one is more appropriate in terms of SEO? PROPOSITION A Home Page:

    <header>

    My PC Store <nav>

    • Desktop PC's
    • Notebook & Tablets
    • Multimedia </nav> </header>

    Sub-Page (Notebook & Tablets):

    <nav>(or

    <aside>?)

    • Desktop PC's
    • Notebook & Tablets
    • Multimedia </aside>

    </nav>

    <header>

    Notebook & Tablets <nav>

    • Laptop
    • Netbook
    • Tablets / iPad </nav> </header>

    As you notice on the home page the Main Site Navigation is included in the

    <header>while it is not in the sub-pages.

    PROPOSITION B

    Home Page:

    <header>

    My PC Store

    <nav>

    • Desktop PC's

    • Notebook & Tablets

    • Multimedia

    </nav>

    </header>

    Sub-Page (Notebook & Tablets):

    <header>

    Notebook & Tablets <nav>

    • Desktop PC's
    • Notebook & Tablets
    • Multimedia </nav> # Notebook & Tablets * Laptop
    • Netbook
    • Tablets / iPad </header>

    The main navgation remains always in the

    <header>(home page / sub-pages) of all page.

    I need suggestions... How would you guys organize the nav ?

    </header>

    </header>

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
    • MatthewBarby
      MatthewBarby @netbuilder last edited by Sep 28, 2012, 7:44 AM Sep 28, 2012, 7:44 AM

      Apologies, typed that up wrong. Have updated above post.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • netbuilder
        netbuilder @netbuilder last edited by Sep 28, 2012, 7:32 AM Sep 28, 2012, 7:32 AM

        Why are you inserting

        outside

        <header>?</header>

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • MatthewBarby
          MatthewBarby @netbuilder last edited by Sep 28, 2012, 7:43 AM Sep 28, 2012, 7:10 AM

          My apologies. I would go with the following example in order to maintain a good SEO with your webpage headers and also a solid navigation:

          Home page:

          <header>

          My PC Store

          <nav>

          • Desktop PC's

          • Notebook & Tablets

          • Multimedia

          </nav>

          </header>

          Sub Page:

          <header>

          <nav>

          Notebook & Tablets

          *** Desktop PC's**

          • Notebook & Tablets
            *** Multimedia**

          </nav>

          </header>

          **<nav>

          • Laptop
          • Netbook
          • Tablets / iPad </nav>**

          Hope this helps.

          Matt.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • netbuilder
            netbuilder @netbuilder last edited by Sep 28, 2012, 6:27 AM Sep 28, 2012, 6:27 AM

            OK but you don't answer to my question since we do not want any mega menu or drop down menu.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • MatthewBarby
              MatthewBarby @netbuilder last edited by Sep 28, 2012, 6:13 AM Sep 28, 2012, 6:13 AM

              This is true if it is wrapped within JavaScript, so that the search engines cannot read it. However, if you use two separate navigation menus then you can negate this problem.

              Also, if you were to code up the 'mega menu' style navigation with CSS3 then you could also avoid these crawling problems and make the navigation much more search-engine friendly.

              In general, I try to avoid using sub-pages within site to extend navigation (unless it is completely different product areas or business verticals).

              Matt.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • netbuilder
                netbuilder @MatthewBarby last edited by Sep 28, 2012, 5:43 AM Sep 28, 2012, 5:43 AM

                Well there are in general SEO concerns in the use of navigation Mega Menu style and this is why we want to avoid it.

                MatthewBarby netbuilder 5 Replies Last reply Sep 28, 2012, 7:44 AM Reply Quote 0
                • MatthewBarby
                  MatthewBarby last edited by Sep 28, 2012, 5:29 AM Sep 28, 2012, 5:29 AM

                  Hi There,

                  I think I have got the jist of what you're trying to achieve.

                  What I would recommend is that you have links to Desktop PC's, Notebook & Tablets, Multimedia, Laptop, Netbook, Tablets / iPad directly from your homepage. The reason being that this will allow the search engines to crawl your webpages easier and the subcategory pages won't be so deep within the domain.

                  What I mean is that I would use either a drop down list, so that when the Notebook & Tablets is hovered over, the subcategories are then displayed below it. Alternatively, you could have a secondory naviagtion on the homepage, i.e. with an extensive drop-down list lower down or at the side of the webpage.

                  Great examples of this type of navigation can be found on: http://www.ebuyer.com or http://www.musicmatters.co.uk/shop.html (look at the secondary nav on the right for the Music Matters shop page.

                  I hope this helps.

                  Matt.

                  netbuilder 1 Reply Last reply Sep 28, 2012, 5:43 AM Reply Quote 0
                  • 1 / 1
                  1 out of 8
                  • First post
                    1/8
                    Last post

                  Got a burning SEO question?

                  Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                  Start my free trial


                  Browse Questions

                  Explore more categories

                  • Moz Tools

                    Chat with the community about the Moz tools.

                  • SEO Tactics

                    Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers

                  • Community

                    Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!

                  • Digital Marketing

                    Chat about tactics outside of SEO

                  • Research & Trends

                    Dive into research and trends in the search industry.

                  • Support

                    Connect on product support and feature requests.

                  • See all categories

                  Related Questions

                  • Joe_Stoffel

                    Have Your Thoughts Changed Regarding Canonical Tag Best Practice for Pagination? - Google Ignoring rel= Next/Prev Tagging

                    Hi there, We have a good-sized eCommerce client that is gearing up for a relaunch. At this point, the staging site follows the previous best practice for pagination (self-referencing canonical tags on each page; rel=next & prev tags referencing the last and next page within the category). Knowing that Google does not support rel=next/prev tags, does that change your thoughts for how to set up canonical tags within a paginated product category? We have some categories that have 500-600 products so creating and canonicalizing to a 'view all' page is not ideal for us. That leaves us with the following options (feel it is worth noting that we are leaving rel=next / prev tags in place): Leave canonical tags as-is, page 2 of the product category will have a canonical tag referencing ?page=2 URL Reference Page 1 of product category on all pages within the category series, page 2 of product category would have canonical tag referencing page 1 (/category/) - this is admittedly what I am leaning toward. Any and all thoughts are appreciated! If this were in relation to an existing website that is not experiencing indexing issues, I wouldn't worry about these. Given we are launching a new site, now is the time to make such a change. Thank you! Joe

                    Web Design | Feb 7, 2023, 8:46 PM | Joe_Stoffel
                    1
                  • STP_SEO

                    Does too much inline CSS impact SEO rankings

                    Hello, Does implementing a lot of inline CSS have a negative impact on SEO rankings? I imagine it could affect page speed, but any other issues I might run in to?

                    Web Design | May 6, 2017, 6:22 AM | STP_SEO
                    1
                  • kyle21ct

                    Do pull quotes affect SEO positively or negatively?

                    I like the design element of a pull quote to ad interest and highlight an important point. If I use an exact quote from the page in a pull quote on that page, does that negatively affect SEO as duplicate content? Are there formatting or tagging methods that could help pull quotes to boost SEO? For clarity, by "pull quote" I mean a stylized bit of text that floats on a page in such a way that the body text wraps around it. It is actual text (not text embedded in a graphic) but it behaves like an image with text wrapping around it. Here's an example (in red on the right side): http://www.21ct.com/resources/news-room/21ct-announces-its-latest-us-patent-for-advancing-big-data-security/

                    Web Design | May 3, 2013, 7:40 PM | kyle21ct
                    0
                  • Jon-C

                    Left or right hand navigation

                    Really stupid question (I think) but does Left or right hand navigation help or hinder SEO and/or user experience? Re-doing our site at the moment and I quite like right hand navigation as it seems to highlight our content better but not sure if it would hinder anything SEO wise - site is based on a responsive theme and side navigation is only called after content anyway so don't think it would make a difference SEO wise Noticing more and more sites moving towards right hand nav and I quite like it, would also differentiate us in our niche as everyone else uses left hand nav As I say probably a stupid question but thought I would ask! 🙂

                    Web Design | Jan 29, 2013, 4:03 PM | Jon-C
                    0
                  • BobGW

                    How to put 'Link to this article' HTML code at bottom of article & is it helpful?

                    Hello, I was thinking about putting a box down at the bottom of my client's main articles that let's the reader easily copy the html code it takes to link to the article they're reading.  Maybe I'd put it after the author bio. Do any of you do this? If so, what format do you use? It has to look nice of course. This is a non-techie industry. Thanks.

                    Web Design | Jan 11, 2013, 4:26 AM | BobGW
                    0
                  • csmm

                    Pages vs. Posts for SEO

                    Hi, I would like your thoughts about pages vs. posts for SEO. I understand the difference in terms of WP structure and have read the SEOmoz blog post about setting up your site for SEO success (http://www.seomoz.org/blog/setup-wordpress-for-seo-success). However, if you're trying to rank for a particular keyword, it seems that either one could work, from an on-page SEO perspective, as far as title tag, URL, meta description, etc. So how do you decide whether to set up a page vs. a post? What are the pros and cons, from an SEO perspective, about using one vs. the other? Thanks in advance! Carolina

                    Web Design | Nov 2, 2012, 2:22 PM | csmm
                    0
                  • uwaim2012

                    Site Activity, SEO, and behind login

                    I have a site that provides online education and as such, most of the user activity happens behind a login. This has me thinking about potential SEO impacts with a few questions that maybe someone could lend some light on: How important is activity (above just search activity) to the search engines Would it help to enter these pages, even though they're behind a login, into GA as we have with the front-end of the site Does a subdomain make a difference (right now we implement the course as a subdomain of the main site Lastly, as I was looking at compete.com, I am wondering how they get these use statistics?

                    Web Design | May 11, 2012, 6:29 PM | uwaim2012
                    0
                  • ChristineCadena

                    Best Wordpress Hosting

                    I've had a horrible experience with the security on wordpress hosting with GoDaddy.  Someone recommended Blue Host as my next option.   Does anyone have any experience with BlueHost and what other hosting companies would you recommend for wordpress hosting?

                    Web Design | Feb 5, 2014, 7:59 PM | ChristineCadena
                    0

                  Get started with Moz Pro!

                  Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                  Start my free trial
                  Products
                  • Moz Pro
                  • Moz Local
                  • Moz API
                  • Moz Data
                  • STAT
                  • Product Updates
                  Moz Solutions
                  • SMB Solutions
                  • Agency Solutions
                  • Enterprise Solutions
                  Free SEO Tools
                  • Domain Authority Checker
                  • Link Explorer
                  • Keyword Explorer
                  • Competitive Research
                  • Brand Authority Checker
                  • Local Citation Checker
                  • MozBar Extension
                  • MozCast
                  Resources
                  • Blog
                  • SEO Learning Center
                  • Help Hub
                  • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                  • How-to Guides
                  • Moz Academy
                  • API Docs
                  About Moz
                  • About
                  • Team
                  • Careers
                  • Contact
                  Why Moz
                  • Case Studies
                  • Testimonials
                  Get Involved
                  • Become an Affiliate
                  • MozCon
                  • Webinars
                  • Practical Marketer Series
                  • MozPod
                  Connect with us

                  Contact the Help team

                  Join our newsletter
                  Moz logo
                  © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                  • Accessibility
                  • Terms of Use
                  • Privacy

                  Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.