Avoid: • creating complex webs of navigation links, e.g. linking every page on your site to every other page • going overboard with slicing and dicing your content (it takes twenty clicks to get to deep content) • Use mostly text for navigation - Controlling most of the navigation from page to page on your site through text links makes it easier for search engines to crawl and understand your site.

Many users also prefer this over other approaches, especially on some devices that might not handle Flash or JavaScript. Avoid: • having a navigation based entirely on drop-down menus, images, or animations (many, but not all, search engines can discover such links on a site, but if a user can reach all pages on a site via normal text links, this will improve the accessibility of your site; more on how Google deals with non-text files) • Use "breadcrumb" navigation - A breadcrumb is a row of internal links at the top or bottom of the page that allows visitors to quickly navigate back to a previous section or the root page. Many breadcrumbs have the most general page (usually the root page) as the first, left-most link and list the more specific sections out to the right. Breadcrumb links appearing on a deeper article page on our site.

 Google's Search Engine Optimization Tips Starter Guide, Version 1.1, 13 Nov 2008, latest version at Google Webmaster Central • Put an HTML sitemap page on your site, and use an XML Sitemap file - A simple sitemap page with links to all of the pages or the most important pages (if you have hundreds or thousands) on your site can be useful. Creating an XML Sitemap file for your site helps ensure that search engines discover the pages on your site. Avoid: • letting your HTML sitemap page become out of date with broken links • creating an HTML sitemap that simply lists pages without organizing them, for example by subject • Consider what happens when a user removes part of your URL - Some users might navigate your site in odd ways, and you should anticipate this.