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  1. Home
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  3. Web Design
  4. Side Nav. Vs. Top Nav

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.

Side Nav. Vs. Top Nav

Web Design
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  • hwade
    hwade last edited by Jan 10, 2013, 6:48 PM

    I have  a client that currently has a side navigation and wants to know how changing to a top nav will affect her SEO. We always recommend top nav for user experience but I am not sure if there is a direct effect on SEO. Would the change affect it? Thoughts?

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
    • EGOL
      EGOL last edited by Jan 11, 2013, 12:14 AM Jan 11, 2013, 12:14 AM

      🙂

      I would.... put the links in the top nav and place adsense at the top position of the left nav.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
      • ChadBreezy
        ChadBreezy @josh-riley last edited by Jan 10, 2013, 8:38 PM Jan 10, 2013, 8:38 PM

        Yea just think above the fold for your nav and links.

        You can always design-silo the website to direct your users throughout your site.

        This will help keep your home page in a healthy range for the number of links and you're most important ones at the top!

        Using fresh h3 tags on other pages throughout your website with simple links will help a ton!

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • josh-riley
          josh-riley @irvingw last edited by Jan 10, 2013, 8:31 PM Jan 10, 2013, 8:31 PM

          Great points; we have top nav and it's never proved to be an issue. I'm working on a project where we've migrating from left to top nav and I anticipate issues because its a change for the user experience and we've already trained them on a different nav.

          ChadBreezy 1 Reply Last reply Jan 10, 2013, 8:38 PM Reply Quote 1
          • irvingw
            irvingw last edited by Jan 10, 2013, 7:46 PM Jan 10, 2013, 7:46 PM

            if the linking is exactly the same it should have no effect on SEO, but could have a neg or positive effect on bounce rate and other user experience stats.

            you could always safely a/b test it

            josh-riley 1 Reply Last reply Jan 10, 2013, 8:31 PM Reply Quote 1
            • ChadBreezy
              ChadBreezy last edited by Jan 10, 2013, 7:28 PM Jan 10, 2013, 7:28 PM

              Having your most important links in a top nav is great for crawlability and significance to Google about what directories or pages are of importance. Removing the nav is okay unless you can ensure keeping sitelinks from the home page of importance above the fold.

              I professionally would avoid removing your top nav and maybe focus more on the mechanics of css/javascript-jquery to deliver better appeal to users for click-throughs and conversions

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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