{"id":62693,"date":"2021-09-12T09:35:47","date_gmt":"2021-09-12T13:35:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acscreative.com\/?p=62693"},"modified":"2021-09-12T09:35:47","modified_gmt":"2021-09-12T13:35:47","slug":"dropdown-menus-dying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acsredux.acscreativedev.com\/?p=62693","title":{"rendered":"Are Dropdown Menus Bad?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trends in website design have evolved tremendously. Back in the beginning, it was like the wild west\u2014no rules, just a mad dash to internet gold. So few sites actually existed<\/em> that the general public couldn\u2019t be all that critical of layout and user interface. Times have changed. If a user is unhappy with a website\u2019s navigation, it\u2019s onto the next competitor in two clicks. The rising demand for ease of use, captivating design, and intuitive usability has shaped how we construct websites today. Let\u2019s look at the dropdown menu, for instance\u2026<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve seen them everywhere\u2014a simple menu bar at the top of a website that reveals more links beneath when hovered upon. This tool has been a staple in presenting the hierarchy of a site\u2019s pages to the user. Some are more elaborate than others, but the primary objective remains the same: to present visitors with a complete and organized visual of the site\u2019s content. Calling the trusty dropdown menu into question has been a recurring conversation among the web design community these past few years. There are quite a few holdouts (us included), but the writing’s on the wall\u2014dropdown menus are dying.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Are Dropdown Menus Bad?<\/h3>\n

First and foremost, dropdown menus are not mobile-friendly. Sure, they might look pretty and function decently on tablets and phones, but they do not provide an ideal navigational experience. With half of your traffic coming from mobile devices, it\u2019s foolish to ignore this reality. On a more macro scale, dropdowns tend to facilitate the creation of several thin pages, over hearty cornerstone content. It\u2019s all too easy to believe you are doing your visitors a favor by neatly organizing your site\u2019s dozens of pages into a handful of top-level categories. In reality, you are creating a confusing virtual mess and surrendering control of the user journey. The final argument against dropdowns is a bit subjective, but becoming more of a universal truth by the day\u2014dropdown menus are ugly!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Do Dropdown Menus have any Impact on SEO?<\/h3>\n

For the most part, no dropdown menus do not have any effect on SEO. The user experience could potentially slow the site speed or discourage mobile navigation on your site but in terms of meta data, content and rankings, dropdown menus are simply a navigation item. The sitemap and navigation hierarchy will remain the same whether the menus are visible or not. So optimize your site normally!<\/p>\n

Dropdown Menu Mobile Performance<\/h3>\n

With Google and all the search engines really focusing on mobile indexation as their top ranking factors, this needs to be considered. Dropdowns are terrible for mobile. The navigation needs to be completely visible and ready to be clicked by your fingers. If a user can’t see your hierarchy, there’s a great chance they won’t use it.<\/p>\n

Dropdown Menu Alternatives<\/h3>\n

You didn\u2019t think we were going to trash a beloved navigational tactic and leave you with no alternatives, did you? There is no need to alter the hierarchy of your sitemap. Parent and Child pages can continue to exist as you wish. However, now is a good time to reimagine how they are presented to the visitor.<\/p>\n

Minimize and simplify your primary header navigation to just a few top-level links. This is the equivalent of someone typing in a zip code to focus a world map on one specific region. On these landing pages, you provide links, buttons, and shortcuts to the sub-pages beneath where it makes sense to do so. It\u2019s all about context! Crafting your user experience in this way allows site owners to take back control of how people browse, learn, and buy online.<\/p>\n

As of the date of this posting, we are working to eradicate dropdown menus here at ACS on our own site, as well as future client launches. Much like the old wild west, there are still no hard rules at play. Sometimes, a dropdown menu just makes sense. Take some time to evaluate your own website and look for ways to make your customer journey more fluid and intuitive.<\/p>\n

Reach out to ACS Creative about web design services<\/a> and get a quote today for your project!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trends in website design have evolved tremendously. Back in the beginning, it was like the wild west\u2014no rules, just a mad dash to internet gold. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":63423,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[12,7],"class_list":["post-62693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insights","tag-design","tag-trends"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acsredux.acscreativedev.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acsredux.acscreativedev.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acsredux.acscreativedev.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acsredux.acscreativedev.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acsredux.acscreativedev.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/acsredux.acscreativedev.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acsredux.acscreativedev.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acsredux.acscreativedev.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acsredux.acscreativedev.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acsredux.acscreativedev.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}