---
title: Poor navigation is a conversion problem | Barrava
description: When people cannot find or trust the next step, your offer is harder to reach. Learn how to spot navigation friction and test a clearer route.
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---

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![A website navigation map with one clear route through multiple dead ends to a successful destination](https://www.barrava.com/hs-fs/hubfs/barra-seo/poor-navigation-conversion-cookie-featured.png?width=300&name=poor-navigation-conversion-cookie-featured.png)

[Rich Tank](https://www.barrava.com/blog/author/rich-tank)23 Mar 266 min read

# Poor navigation is a conversion problem, not just a UX problem

[Previous](https://www.barrava.com/blog/the-modern-website-clutter-problem)

<https://www.barrava.com/blog>

[Next](https://www.barrava.com/blog/website-clutter-audit-checklist)

Suppose a visitor arrives looking for a way to compare your plans. The page has a strong offer and a short form. The route to both sits behind a menu labelled “Explore”, then a section called “Solutions”, then a card labelled “Start your journey”. The visitor has to guess what each click means before they can even consider the offer.

That is an illustrative example, not a measured Barrava result. It shows why navigation deserves a place in a conversion review. A **conversion** is the useful action a site wants someone to complete, such as a qualified enquiry or purchase. Navigation is the route that lets them find the information and confidence to do it. If the route is hard to see or predict, the final button may be blameless.

In [the modern website clutter problem](https://www.barrava.com/blog/the-modern-website-clutter-problem), the concern was that many separate prompts compete for the same visitor's attention. Navigation sits underneath that problem. Even after you quiet the prompts, people still need to know where to go. A clearer route will not guarantee more sales, but an unclear one is a commercial risk worth testing rather than dismissing as a cosmetic detail.

## The path starts before the call to action

It is tempting to call the journey successful whenever the “Book a demo” button is visible. But the visitor may first need to know whether the product meets a requirement, what it costs or what happens after booking. If those answers are buried, making the button louder can look like a solution while leaving the real question unanswered.

Read a path in four moments:

1. **Find:** Can the visitor see a route to the answer they need?
2. **Predict:** Does the label tell them what they will find if they choose it?
3. **Confirm:** Does the destination deliver on that promise quickly?
4. **Act:** Once informed, is the relevant next step easy to take?

The second moment is easy to miss. A label such as “Platform” may make perfect sense inside the company. To a buyer looking for “Integrations”, it may be a guessing game. The label, nearby text and destination give clues about what lies ahead. UX researchers call those clues **information scent**. It sounds academic; in practice, it means a person can look at “See integrations” and make a fair guess about where the link leads. [Nielsen Norman Group's explanation](https://www.nngroup.com/articles/information-scent/) is useful here: the scent depends on the reader's task, not on whether a menu label sounds elegant in a meeting.

The promise must continue after the click. If the link says “Compare plans” but opens a general sales form, the route may be visible and still feel wrong. Name the destination plainly, then put the promised answer near the top of that page. [WCAG's guidance on link purpose](https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG22/Understanding/link-purpose-in-context) is an accessibility reason to make a link's purpose understandable from its text or context; the same discipline helps every hurried visitor decide whether to follow it.

## Visibility is a practical choice, not a style preference

There is evidence that hiding the route can make it harder to find. In a [Nielsen Norman Group study of 179 participants using six live sites](https://www.nngroup.com/articles/hamburger-menus/), desktop participants used hidden navigation in 27% of cases, versus 48% or 50% when navigation was visible or partly visible. Content discoverability was also lower in the hidden-navigation condition. The study measured task behaviour and ease, **not sales or revenue**, and its site and device mix does not tell you exactly what would happen on your website.

It does give a good reason to challenge a familiar choice: hiding every route behind an icon on desktop simply because the design looks cleaner. On a phone, screen space forces a different trade-off. A menu may be necessary, while one or two high-value routes can remain visible or appear in useful page context. The point is to test whether people can find the important path on the device they actually use.

The same care applies to a crowded menu. Fifteen links all visible at once can be no clearer than five links hidden behind a vague label. A visitor should recognise the categories, understand the difference between them and recover quickly if they choose the wrong one. For a large online shop, this extends into categories, search and filters: [Baymard's product-finding research](https://baymard.com/research-articles/product-finding-2024-launch) is based on moderated sessions across twelve retail sites and documents many problems in that wider journey. It is useful evidence of the task's complexity, not a conversion-rate forecast for a B2B site.

## Work through one route before redesigning the whole menu

Take the illustrative plan-comparison visitor from the opening. The team sees lower than expected enquiries and wants to redesign the form. Before touching it, they write the visitor's job: “Find the difference between the plans, check the relevant limit, then decide whether to talk to sales.”

Now follow that job from a typical entry page, on desktop and mobile. Do not guide the person towards the right menu. Ask where they would go next and why. If “Explore” means product features to the team but looks like blog content to the visitor, note the mismatch. If “Start your journey” opens a form before they can compare plans, note that too. Record the first wrong turn, the moment of uncertainty and whether the person reaches a useful answer.

The first revision might be modest:

- Put a visible “Pricing” or “Compare plans” route where plan seekers can see it.
- Use “Integrations” for the page that actually answers integration questions; do not hide it under an internal team name.
- On the comparison page, state the key differences before asking for a call.
- Give the informed visitor a clear next action, such as “Talk through the right plan”, and make the destination match that promise.

Then run the same tasks again with people who have not seen the proposed labels. Can they find the answer without being coached? Do they understand the next step? If the route improves but qualified enquiries do not, inspect the answer page and the offer rather than declaring navigation a success by itself. If the old path already worked well, a wholesale menu rebuild may add risk without much benefit.

This is why “more menu clicks” is a poor final measure. A clearer label might reduce exploratory clicks because people reach the right page sooner. Use task completion, wrong turns and the quality of eventual enquiries alongside analytics. A click is a signal of movement, not necessarily progress.

## A website toolbar can help a path, but cannot invent one

[Barrava's website toolbar](https://www.barrava.com/) can keep a small set of relevant actions available as someone reads or scrolls. Its modules sit in a chosen order in one bottom bar. For the plan-comparison journey, a site might make “Compare plans” and “Ask a question” easy to reach while leaving the main site menu in charge of the broader information structure. The exact action names and destination pages should match that site's real content.

That is a first-party product example, not a claim that adding a bar raises conversions. A toolbar can bring a good path within reach; it cannot make a misleading destination useful or replace the site's main navigation. It can also become one more competing layer if the team adds every possible action. [The website clutter audit](https://www.barrava.com/blog/website-clutter-audit-checklist) helps check that combined state. [The persistent mobile actions guide](https://www.barrava.com/blog/persistent-mobile-actions-without-covering-content) covers the layout risk once a bottom action remains on screen.

Navigation earns its commercial priority because it sits between interest and action. Start with one valuable visitor task. Watch where the route fails. Rename, reveal or reorganise only what the evidence points to, then check whether more people reach a useful decision. The form can wait its turn until you know people can find it for the right reason.

![avatar](https://www.barrava.com/hs-fs/hubfs/2024%20profile%20pic%20sq.jpg?width=290&name=2024%20profile%20pic%20sq.jpg)

[Rich Tank](https://www.barrava.com/blog/author/rich-tank)Rich Tank is a founder, consultant and product-minded marketer with experience across growth, CRM, digital strategy and user experience. He has spent his career helping businesses improve how they attract, convert and support customers online. He writes about digital experience, website journeys, marketing technology and the broader challenge of creating websites that are both effective and easy to use. Based in London, Rich is particularly interested in the intersection of user behaviour, conversion and product thinking.

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