Skip to content
    Moz logo Menu open Menu close
    • Products
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Pro Home
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Home
      • STAT
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Home
      • Compare SEO Products
      • Moz Data
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis
      • Keyword Explorer
      • Link Explorer
      • Competitive Research
      • MozBar
      • More Free SEO Tools
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO
      • SEO Learning Center
      • Moz Academy
      • SEO Q&A
      • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Agency Solutions
      • Enterprise Solutions
      • Small Business Solutions
      • Case Studies
      • The Moz Story
      • New Releases
    • Log in
    • Log out
    • Products
      • Moz Pro

        Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

      • Moz Local

        Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

      • STAT

        SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

      • Moz API

        Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

      • Compare SEO Products

        See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

      • Moz Data

        Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis

        Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

      • Keyword Explorer

        Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

      • Link Explorer

        Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

      • Competitive Research

        Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

      • MozBar

        See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

      • More Free SEO Tools

        Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO

        The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

      • SEO Learning Center

        Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

      • On-Demand Webinars

        Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

      • How-To Guides

        Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

      • Moz Academy

        Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

      • SEO Q&A

        Insights & discussions from an SEO community of 500,000+.

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
      Moz API

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

      Find your plan
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Small Business Solutions

        Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

      • Agency Solutions

        Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

      • Enterprise Solutions

        Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

      • The Moz Story

        Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

      • Case Studies

        Explore how Moz drives ROI with a proven track record of success.

      • New Releases

        Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

      Surface actionable competitive intel
      New Feature

      Surface actionable competitive intel

      Learn More
    • Log in
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Dashboard
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Dashboard
      • Moz Academy
    • Avatar
      • Moz Home
      • Notifications
      • Account & Billing
      • Manage Users
      • Community Profile
      • My Q&A
      • My Videos
      • Log Out

    The Moz Q&A Forum

    • Forum
    • Questions
    • Users
    • Ask the Community

    Welcome to the Q&A Forum

    Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

    1. Home
    2. Digital Marketing
    3. Web Design
    4. Html 5 main and secondary navigation for SEO best performances

    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.

    Html 5 main and secondary navigation for SEO best performances

    Web Design
    3
    8
    3105
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as question
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
    • netbuilder
      netbuilder last edited by

      I am building a website which will have a main navigation related to the site and each link of the main navigation will have a secondary navigation. We do not want to use a megamenu style navigation. I will try to explain it with a example:

      Let's start with an example for a computer store "My PC Store", the Main Navigation would be:

      Desktop PC's Notebook & Tablets
      Multimedia

      When clicking on the "Notebook & Tablets" the user is directed to the page domain.com/notebook-tablet.html and on this page the secondary navigation appears: Laptop Netbook Tablets / iPad I am confused on how I should organize the semantic navigation for best SEO performances and I need advice / suggestions. I thought about 2 different ways to do it but which one is more appropriate in terms of SEO? PROPOSITION A Home Page:

      <header>

      My PC Store <nav>

      • Desktop PC's
      • Notebook & Tablets
      • Multimedia </nav> </header>

      Sub-Page (Notebook & Tablets):

      <nav>(or

      <aside>?)

      • Desktop PC's
      • Notebook & Tablets
      • Multimedia </aside>

      </nav>

      <header>

      Notebook & Tablets <nav>

      • Laptop
      • Netbook
      • Tablets / iPad </nav> </header>

      As you notice on the home page the Main Site Navigation is included in the

      <header>while it is not in the sub-pages.

      PROPOSITION B

      Home Page:

      <header>

      My PC Store

      <nav>

      • Desktop PC's

      • Notebook & Tablets

      • Multimedia

      </nav>

      </header>

      Sub-Page (Notebook & Tablets):

      <header>

      Notebook & Tablets <nav>

      • Desktop PC's
      • Notebook & Tablets
      • Multimedia </nav> # Notebook & Tablets * Laptop
      • Netbook
      • Tablets / iPad </header>

      The main navgation remains always in the

      <header>(home page / sub-pages) of all page.

      I need suggestions... How would you guys organize the nav ?

      </header>

      </header>

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • MatthewBarby
        MatthewBarby @netbuilder last edited by

        Apologies, typed that up wrong. Have updated above post.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • netbuilder
          netbuilder @netbuilder last edited by

          Why are you inserting

          outside

          <header>?</header>

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • MatthewBarby
            MatthewBarby @netbuilder last edited by

            My apologies. I would go with the following example in order to maintain a good SEO with your webpage headers and also a solid navigation:

            Home page:

            <header>

            My PC Store

            <nav>

            • Desktop PC's

            • Notebook & Tablets

            • Multimedia

            </nav>

            </header>

            Sub Page:

            <header>

            <nav>

            Notebook & Tablets

            *** Desktop PC's**

            • Notebook & Tablets
              *** Multimedia**

            </nav>

            </header>

            **<nav>

            • Laptop
            • Netbook
            • Tablets / iPad </nav>**

            Hope this helps.

            Matt.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • netbuilder
              netbuilder @netbuilder last edited by

              OK but you don't answer to my question since we do not want any mega menu or drop down menu.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • MatthewBarby
                MatthewBarby @netbuilder last edited by

                This is true if it is wrapped within JavaScript, so that the search engines cannot read it. However, if you use two separate navigation menus then you can negate this problem.

                Also, if you were to code up the 'mega menu' style navigation with CSS3 then you could also avoid these crawling problems and make the navigation much more search-engine friendly.

                In general, I try to avoid using sub-pages within site to extend navigation (unless it is completely different product areas or business verticals).

                Matt.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • netbuilder
                  netbuilder @MatthewBarby last edited by

                  Well there are in general SEO concerns in the use of navigation Mega Menu style and this is why we want to avoid it.

                  MatthewBarby netbuilder 5 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • MatthewBarby
                    MatthewBarby last edited by

                    Hi There,

                    I think I have got the jist of what you're trying to achieve.

                    What I would recommend is that you have links to Desktop PC's, Notebook & Tablets, Multimedia, Laptop, Netbook, Tablets / iPad directly from your homepage. The reason being that this will allow the search engines to crawl your webpages easier and the subcategory pages won't be so deep within the domain.

                    What I mean is that I would use either a drop down list, so that when the Notebook & Tablets is hovered over, the subcategories are then displayed below it. Alternatively, you could have a secondory naviagtion on the homepage, i.e. with an extensive drop-down list lower down or at the side of the webpage.

                    Great examples of this type of navigation can be found on: http://www.ebuyer.com or http://www.musicmatters.co.uk/shop.html (look at the secondary nav on the right for the Music Matters shop page.

                    I hope this helps.

                    Matt.

                    netbuilder 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • 1 / 1
                    • First post
                      Last post

                    Got a burning SEO question?

                    Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                    Start my free trial


                    Browse Questions

                    Explore more categories

                    • Moz Tools

                      Chat with the community about the Moz tools.

                    • SEO Tactics

                      Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers

                    • Community

                      Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!

                    • Digital Marketing

                      Chat about tactics outside of SEO

                    • Research & Trends

                      Dive into research and trends in the search industry.

                    • Support

                      Connect on product support and feature requests.

                    • See all categories

                    Related Questions

                    • alan-shultis

                      Is managed wordpress hosting bad for seo?

                      hi, i would like to create my own website, but I am confused either to choose cpanel hosting or managed wordpress

                      Web Design | | alan-shultis
                      0
                    • Billy_gym

                      How is Single Page Application (SPA) bad for SEO

                      Hi guys. I am quite inspired of SPA technique. It's really amazing when all your interaction with the site is going on the fly and you don't see any page reloads. I've started implementing the site with this instruction and already found nice guys to make the design. The only downside of the using SPA which I can see **is the **SEO part. That's because the URL does not really change and different pages don't have their unique URL addresses. 
                      Actually they have, but it looks like: yoursite.com/#/products yoursite.com/#/prices yoursite.com/#/contact So all of them goes after # and being just anchors. For Google this mean all of these pages is just yoursite.com/ My question is what is really proven method to implement the URL structure in Single Page Application, so all the pages indexed by Google correctly (sorry I don't mention the other search engines because of market share). The other question, of course, is examples. It will be great to see real life site examples, better authority sites, which use SPA technique and well indexed by search engines.

                      Web Design | | Billy_gym
                      1
                    • Ron10

                      What seo benefit does setting up a photo gallery where each photo is a separate web page?

                      what seo benefit does setting up a photo gallery where each photo is a separate web page?  My old SEO guy set up my photo gallery like that claiming that because each photo was a separate page, it added a big seo benefit and i never understood what he was talking about.  Maybe alt text on the photo with key phrases in it pointing to my other pages to give my site a theme for google?  I'm not really sure.   He has since moved away and i am considering redoing the photo gallery to multiple images on one page to be more user friendly to my users.  This photo gallery is 3 years old and the photos might have some page rank to them helping my site so i don't want to remove this gallery if there really is a benefit to it and it will hurt my site.  I once removed four static page rank 3 pages from my site that weren't used for my site anymore and my rankings dropped 5 positions.  Thoughts anyone? Thanks! Ron

                      Web Design | | Ron10
                      0
                    • TomNYC

                      Can white text over images hurt your SEO?

                      Hi everyone, I run a travel website that has about 30 pre-search city landing pages. In a  redesign last year we added large "hero" images to the top of the page, and put our h1 headlines on top of them in white. The result is attractive, but I'm wondering if Google could be reading this page as "white text on white page", which is an obvious no-no, especially if it could seem that we're trying to hide text. Here's an example: http://www.eurocheapo.com/paris/ H1: Expert reviews of cheap hotels in Paris I should add that our SERPs for these city pages has dropped (for "Cheap hotels in X"), but it could obviously be related to other issues. Any advice would be appreciated. Many thanks! Tom

                      Web Design | | TomNYC
                      0
                    • Jon-C

                      Left or right hand navigation

                      Really stupid question (I think) but does Left or right hand navigation help or hinder SEO and/or user experience? Re-doing our site at the moment and I quite like right hand navigation as it seems to highlight our content better but not sure if it would hinder anything SEO wise - site is based on a responsive theme and side navigation is only called after content anyway so don't think it would make a difference SEO wise Noticing more and more sites moving towards right hand nav and I quite like it, would also differentiate us in our niche as everyone else uses left hand nav As I say probably a stupid question but thought I would ask! 🙂

                      Web Design | | Jon-C
                      0
                    • Naghirniac

                      Do you suggest a SEO Plug-in for Dreamweaver?

                      I would like to know it there is any plug-in for Dreamweaver that helps our SEO work

                      Web Design | | Naghirniac
                      0
                    • BlakMajik

                      Mozcon London 2010: Top 10 tips - Design for SEO PPT Not Available for Download!

                      Hi - title says it all really! Just watched the video and throughout it they refer to the wireframes/site examples being available via the ppt download. However, even as a PRO member having purchased the DVD bundle I cannot find a link to download the presentation. Can anyone help please? Thanks in advance!

                      Web Design | | BlakMajik
                      0
                    • ChristineCadena

                      Best Wordpress Hosting

                      I've had a horrible experience with the security on wordpress hosting with GoDaddy.  Someone recommended Blue Host as my next option.   Does anyone have any experience with BlueHost and what other hosting companies would you recommend for wordpress hosting?

                      Web Design | | ChristineCadena
                      0

                    Get started with Moz Pro!

                    Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                    Start my free trial
                    Products
                    • Moz Pro
                    • Moz Local
                    • Moz API
                    • Moz Data
                    • STAT
                    • Product Updates
                    Moz Solutions
                    • SMB Solutions
                    • Agency Solutions
                    • Enterprise Solutions
                    Free SEO Tools
                    • Domain Authority Checker
                    • Link Explorer
                    • Keyword Explorer
                    • Competitive Research
                    • Brand Authority Checker
                    • Local Citation Checker
                    • MozBar Extension
                    • MozCast
                    Resources
                    • Blog
                    • SEO Learning Center
                    • Help Hub
                    • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                    • How-to Guides
                    • Moz Academy
                    • API Docs
                    About Moz
                    • About
                    • Team
                    • Careers
                    • Contact
                    Why Moz
                    • Case Studies
                    • Testimonials
                    Get Involved
                    • Become an Affiliate
                    • MozCon
                    • Webinars
                    • Practical Marketer Series
                    • MozPod
                    Connect with us

                    Contact the Help team

                    Join our newsletter
                    Moz logo
                    © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                    • Accessibility
                    • Terms of Use
                    • Privacy

                    Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.