What to Include in Your Navigation Bar

Your navigation bar is prime real estate on your website.

It’s one of the first things they see, so it needs to be planned with intention. And yet, I constantly see clinicians business owners cramming every detail of their business in the navigation bar. Please, stop doing that!

Your navigation bar should only include things that are supporting the primary goal of your website.

Which, if you’re a private practice, is likely to have a potential client reach out via a discovery call or scheduling their initial appointment.

What Actually Matters to Your Potential Client

When someone lands on your site, there are just a few things they really care about. And don’t worry – I’ve got the list.

• Making sure your practice has a clinician that feels like the right fit
• That you see clients with their specific concern and within their age range
• What 1:1 sessions look like and how they can benefit from them
• Knowing exactly how to reach out and schedule a call or session

These specific things should directly equate to what’s in your navigation bar and where they can find the validation and answers to the items listed above.

All the other things? We’ll put them somewhere else on your site.

Connecting What Your Client Needs to Your Navigation Bar

The search: Making sure your practice has a clinician that feels like the right fit.
The solution: “About / Meet the Team” Button

This button is likely going to be the most clicked on button of your whole navigation bar because in the work we do, people want to feel like they can connect with their provider.

The search: Specialties & Populations
The solution: A drop down from your “Services” button, or put this as text in your hero section. 

If you’re a solo practitioner, you could get away with “Therapy for adults with eating disorders and body image concerns in Texas” in your hero section. If you’re a group practice and your clinicians have different specialties, a dropdown from your “Services” button in your navigation bar may be a better option!

The search: How 1:1 sessions work
The solution: “Services” Button

This is simple. They want to know what services look like, and your services button will take them to the page that explains the ins and outs, and the benefits of 1:1 work.

The search: How to schedule a call or session
The solution: “Contact” or “Schedule a Call” Button

This should always be available in the navigation bar because it’s the most important call-to-action you can have.

And if you’re wondering where the “home” button is… just make your logo the home button. Or add a “home” button if you really want. 

Other Things Clients May Want to Know That Aren’t Guiding Them to That Initial Reach Out

Remember: three to four nav bar items, max. Anything more is just noise that distracts from booking a session. You don’t have to toss everything else, but I would like to introduce you to The Footer.

The footer is like a catch-all of links that need a place to live and is perfect for other offers or important policies that aren’t a make-or-break deal for scheduling an initial session.

Here’s some common buttons that I see in the navigation, when in reality the footer is a better home for them:

Your blog that you haven’t posted on since last year. Sending clients to a blog that hasn’t had a new blog post in over a month (much less, a year!) is a no-go. It’s going to make them question if your practice is still open, if you’re relevant, and if you’re actually able to help them if you “can’t even maintain a blog.”

The COVID-19 policy that you put in place during the pandemic. Take this as your sign to remove that. We are team “let’s not spread disease” over here, but you don’t need this front and center anymore.

That you’re a supervisor for other clinicians. Love this for you, but your website is for potential clients. They won’t benefit from you being a supervisor, so hide this farther down the page or on your about page… not in your navigation bar.

A link to a portal for current clients. Your website is for NEW clients, not your current clients. If you need a link to be available to current clients so they can access their portal, throw that in the footer and let your current clients know it’s there.

The fewer things in your nav bar, the better. Because it’s less overwhelming. Don’t give your already anxious clients decision fatigue from the get-go.

TL;DR – Keep your nav bar simple: home (or your logo), about/meet the team, services, and contact. That’s it. Everything else? It can find a happy home in your footer.