Welcome to the AdSense Site Approval Series.
My name is Aurora,
and I work in policy education for publishers at Google.
This series takes a closer look
at the different criteria required by Google AdSense
to help you get your content ready for approval.
In this video,
I'll talk about navigation.
Just how easy, or difficult, is it for your visitors
to get around your content?
Before I get started,
let's just wait for the inevitable interruption from...
Andy!
Something told me you might call.
Erm... where are you?
Erm... it's actually a bit embarassing.
I got a bit lost on my way to my home office.
I was on route to give Google AdSense another go,
after my website got rejected.
All of my content is original,
my site management is up to scratch,
and I've checked the AdSense publisher policies.
But, now I've been flagged for bad navigation.
This is all very familiar!
I just can't remember which direction it's in.
Well I can certainly help.
First, I'll define good navigation,
to optimize user experiences.
And then...
well, let's see if we can find your office!
This can't be right.
Hang on a sec.
I'll tell you what, Andy.
Let's pick it up from our episode about quality content.
Now that you've got great content,
you need to make sure that it's organized
in a way that's easy for users to navigate.
Your layout should look inviting,
so that visitors can easily find what they're looking for.
Well this place certainly doesn't look too inviting!
So what you're saying is, I need a sign post,
so I always know where I am?
In a way, yes!
An accessible navigation bar is key to providing a good user experience.
And you can improve this by considering the following points.
Alignment.
Do the navigational elements line up on every device,
and appear consistently in different browsers?
Readability.
Is the text content of your site easy to read?
Functionality.
Are your drop-down menus and icons working?
Accuracy.
Are your navigational elements taking your users to the correct content?
So, if the bathroom is here,
and the kitchen is here,
then I should be...
Ugh!
Maybe you need to simplify your means of navigation, Andy.
Find a system of categorizing and organizing
that works well for your type of content,
and your user profile,
and display these in a clear and consistent logical format.
It should be effortless for the user to find what they want,
with a glance of this navigation bar.
You also want to ensure that you don't have any deceptive navigation.
You don't want to mislead your users,
into missing pages, irrelevant pages,
or simply to the wrong page all together.
You want to be confident that if your link promises certain content,
then that's where your user ends up.
This is just getting silly.
Right, so what you're saying
is that I just need to consolidate my information,
to make it easier to navigate?
Something like that, yes.
Imagine what that would feel like for a visitor.
They'd never come to your house again!
Just as with your website content,
you want to be sure that your navigation is consistent and fluid,
so that visitors can make their way home again at any point.
Hey, Andy!
Have you tried Google Maps?
Of course!
Thanks, Aurora!
I knew there was a reason I was talking to you!
Hopefully you'll never lose your way again.
Andy?
Andy!
Made it! Phew!
That was quite the adventure!
Luckily, I have such seamless navigation skills!
I'm so pleased for you!
I hope you're able to apply all of them now to your website.
Aurora, I truly feel like I could go anywhere,
do anything,
be anyone!
So I'm going to sit down and edit my site navigation right now.
Good luck!
And that's our introduction to navigation.
Please like, share, and subscribe to our Google AdSense YouTube channel,
so that we can help you better understand our program policies.
See you soon!
Hang on a second!
I left my cup of tea!