Don’t overlook this super important element of your health coaching website: the navigation. Effective website navigation is essential to ensure a positive user experience for website visitors.

A great website experience is what will keep them on your website and, over time, turn visitors into health coaching clients (yay!).

If you’re wondering, “What the heck is a website navigation?” A website navigation is the menu options on your website (such as About, Work With Me, Resources, Contact, etc).

These options can be displayed within a hamburger menu or be fully seen as a banner menu that’s displayed horizontally across a screen. Are you possibly making one of these navigation mistakes? Let’s find out!

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1. Too many options

Overwhelming visitors with too many navigation choices can lead to decision fatigue and make it harder for them to find what they’re looking for on your website. Keep your main navigation to 5 options.

You can always add sub-options. For example, if you have a ‘Products’ page you can add other options, so when someone hovers over the main page name the other options expand.

These product sub-options could be “Nutrition,” “Movement,” “Supplements,” etc. Overall, keep the most essential pages in your navigation.

As a certified health coach, your website navigation might be “About, Blog, Work With Me, Contact,” or “About, Work With Me, Resources, Contact.” Your home page and secondary pages, such as FAQs, can be placed in the footer of your website. 

Related Article: 3 Health Coach Website Examples That Will Inspire You

2. Unclear labels

Using overly creative labels can confuse website visitors and make it difficult for them to find what they need, which can cause them to leave your website.

For example, your blog page should be labeled “Blog” instead of “Journal,”  your contact page should be labeled “Contact” instead of “Connect,” and your podcast page should be labeled “Podcast,” or your podcast name, instead of “Listen.”

Essentially, choose clear, concise labels that accurately describe the content on each page, so visitors will know exactly where to go on your website and have a great user experience.

3. Lack of hierarchy

Organize your menu items hierarchically, with the most important or frequently visited pages at the top. This helps visitors prioritize their actions and easily find the most essential pages.

The most frequently visited page on your website might be your blog or the most essential pages on your health coaching website might be “Work With Me,” or “Contact.”

Related Article: 5 Common Health Coach Branding Mistakes to Avoid

4. Inconsistent navigation

Keeping the navigation consistent throughout your website helps visitors quickly become familiar with its structure. Avoid changing the layout or menu items from page to page and keep the same navigation options in the same place and order.

5. Poorly designed dropdown menus

Dropdown menus can help organize content, but poorly designed ones can create confusion and a bad user experience.

Ensure your dropdown menu is easy to navigate and doesn’t require excessive clicking or scrolling. Ensure there’s enough spacing between the navigation options and that it’s branded (similar to your website). 

Related Article: Pros & Cons: DIY Health Coaching Website vs Hiring a Web Designer

6. Hidden or hard-to-find navigation 

Make sure your website navigation is easy to see and accessible. The mobile version of your website might have a hamburger menu while the desktop version of your website might have a banner menu.

Either way, it’s best to ensure the hamburger menu icon and the text for the navigation options are large enough to be seen because that’s the main way visitors will navigate your website.

7. Lack of mobile optimization

Almost everyone browses websites on their mobile phone. This is especially true if they’re browsing your Instagram page, click the link in your bio, and get redirected to your website.

You want to ensure that your website navigation is mobile-friendly and adapts well to different screen sizes (from desktop to mobile to tablet).

Not having a navigation that’s optimized for mobile can cause website visitors to leave your website because of the unpleasant experience. 

Related Article: 8 Website Myths Holding Your Health Coach Business Back

If your health coaching website has one (or a few) of these navigation mistakes, don’t worry! You can easily make these changes to ensure your website is effective for website visitors.

On the other hand, if you’re in the process of creating your health coaching website, I hope this list of navigation mistakes will be super helpful to ensure you build an effective, organized website navigation!

Ultimately, by avoiding these common navigation mistakes, you’ll create a more enjoyable experience for your website visitors (which is so important to growing a thriving health coaching business!)

Creating your own health coaching website can be overwhelming and super time-consuming, but it doesn’t have to be! Launching your website gets to be easy. Leave the DIY website design overwhelm behind! Your dream wellness website is only one click away.

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