Page is a not externally linkable
pageoneresults - 6:50 pm on Jul 1, 2008 (gmt 0)
From my perspective, it has always been that way. Many jumped on that Mega Menu bandwagon and it is clearly a challenge for any website that has a larger taxonomy. I've always looked at it from a "segmentation" viewpoint. Larger sites need special treatment when it comes to information architecture. "Mother" now becomes a "Super Mom" with a host of Children, Grandchildren, Great Grandchildren, etc. not to mention all the "Relatives" that are now actively involved with the family. The Children, the top level categories, all need to be treated separately, they are their own entity. Instead of feeding a Mega Menu on all pages, you can feed category specific menus at each of the primary category levels. There is no need for the top level category pages to be bulked up with links from all the other categories. No, when someone clicks on one of those primary category links, they are taken to a page that is the "Home Page" for that category. Now the Grandchildren come into play. And from there, the Great Grandchildren and all the Relatives. Another thing is that menus should be dynamic and based on where the user is within the taxonomy. Those menus should be changing and be specific to the page they are on. Not one all encompassing menu that leaves the users wondering where to click next, they don't need to see all that stuff. Mega Menu Performance That would be my number one concern. Most of the Mega Menus I've seen are being placed directly after the opening <body> element. Add to that all the JavaScript that needs to come in prior to the page fully loading and you've got usability challenges. View the source of the page and there are 3,000+ lines of functions to generate the menu, yikes! That surely can't be the best option for the visitor experience. Mega Menu Appearance Have you ever been to a site and the menus are so complex that you find yourself spending way too much time trying to get around? No, there couldn't be websites out there like that, could there? You mean you saw a menu that had over 400+ links in it? And, it was being served on every single page of the site that way? Usability nightmare and an indexing challenge to say the least. If you don't have the PR to funnel throughout 400+ links you're running on empty. In fact, you're running on sand at that point. ;) Typically I begin to worry when my surrounding navigational elements outweight my core relevancy elements. Mega Menus are at the top of my list when rebuilding taxonomy, those things have to go. In fact, that whole accompanying architecture needs to go. Rebuilt from the ground up to be more dynamic and in tune with the visitors "place" within the website. If that visitor came in through a specific search, I want the page they land on to be "very specific" and not cause them to hit that back button. Mega pages in general seem to have that effect on many. I know I back out if there is "too much" on the page.
Great topic tedster! However, from what I've seen, slim and trim is the way to go with menus.