3. Give it space

If your navigation has a lot of clutter around it, it stands a smaller chance of getting noticed. In a busy situation, people do not notice detail. It's very hard for them to pick out specific items. Think about difficulty of trying to find somebody in a crowded room.

Visitors will pick out elements of your page that have most breathing room. So be sure to leave plenty of space around your navigation. Don't let other elements--especially other text--get so close that navigation is crowded out.

4. Separate it from ads

If want your navigation to be noticed, keep it away from ads.

People on web are highly suceptible to "banner blindness". That's a real condition in which people ignore anything that is associated with an ad. Since most people are not fond of ads they try to avoid them. So keep ads and navigation physically separated. Don't let them get mixed together.

Two key pointers: never put navigation above logo. Since banners are frequently located in center of top of page, that's a prime spot to be ignored.

Also, if you have a blank, empty white space between your logo and something on right side of page, be very careful about filling it with navigation. It will be confused with banners simply because of guilt by association.

In addition to physically separating ads and navigation, you should make sure that your navigation doesn't LOOK like an ad. Square or rectangular buttons and images at top and sides of page are especially problematic.

For example, take a look at http://www.sendfree.com. Notice that member login button is not very obvious as navigation. It has an ad-like appearance and it's in an area of page where visitors would expect to see an ad.

Critically evaluate all of your buttons and images to make sure they won't be mixed up with ads. Don't leave any confusion in a visitor's mind about where ads stop and navigation begins.

Position, color, space, and separation from ads. There you have it--four tips for making your navigation stand out.

Also, you should be very careful about using industry-specific terms. You might be suprised to find out how much of your lingo doesn't make sense to people who aren't familiar with your industry. Carefully evaluate each of your links to make sure you're not using a confusing term.

2. Navigation options need to be kept to a minimum

The second way you can simplify your navigation is to make amount of options manageable. Visitors tend to get overwhelmed if you give them too many choices. They aren't able to focus. Rather than seeing each individual option, they only see a mass of links.

An additional reason not to include too many links is that you ordinarily shouldn't send visitors in a lot of different directions. If you've established a primary goal for your site (you have, haven't you?), your site should revolve around accomplishing that goal. So it's in your best interest to keep options down. That way, you're able to steer your visitors in direction you want them to go.

Keep your navigation menus to 5-7 options or less. That's max amount you can have without losing your visitors' concentration. Any more than that, and they aren't able to discern an individual choice.

If you find yourself having more than 5-7 options in each of your navigation menus, try to pare them down. It's better to simplify list and make sure visitors can evaluate everything than to cram everything in when visitors will miss most of it.

If you really need more than 7 links, group links into a few categories. Although this can still get overwhelming, it helps significantly if you categorize links for visitors. They can latch onto one category and narrow it down from there, rather than having to deal with whole list at once.

Overall, try to objectively evaluate your navigation from point of view of a visitor. If you can, get input from people who aren't familiar with your site or your business. They'll be a great resource in helping you determine whether or not your links are confusing or overwhelming.