Choose website categories readers can understand.

1. Inventory the pages you have

List each page’s title, purpose, intended audience, and current location. Distinguish a published article from a planned topic so an attractive menu does not lead to empty promises. Look for groups that share a reader need rather than only a word in their title.

Google’s starter guide recommends logical organization to help people and search engines understand how pages relate. It also cautions against dropping everything for a reorganization. Use a small content sample to find a useful structure before making broad changes to an established site.

Sources: [1]

2. Give each group a name and a scope sentence

Choose labels a new visitor can recognize without knowing your internal project names. Write one sentence explaining what belongs in the category and what a reader should expect there. If two scope sentences say almost the same thing, inspect whether those groups really need to be separate.

These are planning examples, not changes to ATN’s existing navigation. Test the labels with your own content and audience.

3. Separate main sections from optional filters

ATN suggests choosing a primary home for each article, then using clearly defined filters or related links for other useful ways to reach it. A guide about voice recording might belong under Audio production while also appearing in a beginner filter. You do not need to duplicate the whole article to create that second route.

Write down what each filter means. Audience, format, topic, and difficulty answer different questions. Mixing them without labels can make a menu hard to predict. Start with only the distinctions that help a reader make an actual choice.

4. Carry the structure into the page and menus

W3C’s menu guidance recommends meaningful structure, descriptive menu labels, and an indication of the current item. It also calls for consistent wording, order, and destinations for corresponding menu items across screen sizes. A collapsed mobile menu should still lead readers to recognizable places.

Within a category page, use headings that reflect the content organization. W3C explains that headings communicate structure and support navigation within a page. Ask the builder to preserve that meaning in the markup as well as the visual styling; a larger font alone does not establish a heading’s role.

Sources: [2] [3]

5. Try finding a page before committing to a reorganization

Give someone a concrete task, such as finding a guide to export an image. Ask which category they would open first and what they expect there. Record hesitation or unexpected choices without immediately explaining the structure to them.

Use those observations to refine a label, scope sentence, or link. Test the same task on desktop and a narrow layout. If the change also moves page addresses, make a redirect and internal-link plan before publishing. Keep a dated category list so later contributors can place new content consistently.