Plan corporate website navigation around visitor tasks and clear page roles. Review service, solution and resource paths with a practical architecture table.
A company's organisation chart is not necessarily a useful website menu. Department names may be familiar internally but unclear to visitors, while related services can become scattered across several sections. Information architecture helps people understand where to start and where to go next. Begin with customer questions rather than adding another level to the current navigation.
List the jobs people need to complete
Use sales, support and customer conversations to identify repeated tasks: finding a service, checking a specification, reviewing relevant work or making contact. Record which page currently resolves each task. If no suitable page exists, the issue is missing information before it is a menu-link problem.
Prefer language the intended visitor can understand. A creative internal label can be accompanied by a descriptive name where needed. The main menu does not have to expose every detail. It needs to provide recognisable starting points.
Connect service, need and sector paths through clear roles
Services can explain what you do, solutions can explain the problem addressed, and sector pages can provide context. Avoid repeating the same text under three headings. A visitor arriving through an industry page should be able to reach the relevant service, while the service page can point to useful applications.
Imagine a hypothetical technology company providing integrations, customer portals and process automation. A visitor may begin with the need to reduce operational workload but still needs to understand which services apply. The solution page can guide that choice while the service page explains delivery scope.
| Page role | Question answered | Connection |
|---|---|---|
| Service hub | What do you provide? | Relevant service details |
| Service detail | What does this engagement include? | Process, related solution and contact |
| Solution page | How can this business problem be approached? | Services addressing the need |
| Sector page | Do you understand my context? | Real sector needs and relevant services |
| Resource centre | What can I investigate further? | Relevant guides and documents |
Give people a task without explaining the menu
Start with a simple navigation draft. Ask suitable people unfamiliar with the company where they would look for specific information. Avoid leading instructions such as “click Services”. Record the first choice, confusing labels and expected destination. A small observation exercise does not establish statistical certainty, but it can expose misunderstandings.
Then check whether finding the page completes the task. Clear navigation leading to an unexplained service still leaves a problem. If visitors find a document, can they identify the current version? Do not reduce the review to counting clicks; the decision must also make sense.
Verify how the navigation works
W3C's menu guidance addresses meaningful structure and keyboard operation for expanding navigation. Make current-page, expanded and focus states understandable. On a phone, reaching a submenu should not depend on an unclear icon or a precise gesture.
Assign responsibility for reviewing the architecture when new pages are added. Placing every request in the main menu can gradually undermine the original structure. If a page's purpose, relationship and route cannot be explained, revisit the content decision before choosing its position.