Navigation labels should use the words a customer would use, not the words your business uses internally. "Solutions", "Our Approach", and "Capabilities" all require the visitor to translate before they can decide, and a proportion will not bother. The cost is invisible because nobody reports a menu they could not understand.
Where bad labels come from
Almost always from the organisation rather than the customer. Menus tend to mirror how a business thinks about itself: departments, service lines, internal terminology, the language of the industry rather than the language of the person buying.
That feels natural to write and requires interpretation to read. The visitor is not being obtuse; they simply do not share your mental model of your own business.
The offenders
Abstractions
"Solutions" is the classic. It could mean products, services, case studies, or a software platform. "Capabilities", "Offerings", and "What We Do" have the same problem: they defer the answer to the next click.
If you sell drain cleaning and boiler repair, "Services" with those two named beneath it costs nothing and answers immediately.
Invented brand terms
A named methodology in the top-level navigation. It is meaningful internally and opaque to everyone else, and it occupies a slot that could have said something useful.
"Portfolio" and "Work"
Not wrong, and frequently less clear than the alternative. For a trades business "Recent Jobs" or "Before and After" describes the content more accurately and signals what kind of proof is behind the link.
Cleverness
Puns and personality in navigation are the most expensive kind of writing. A menu is a functional index, and a visitor scanning it for something specific gets no benefit from wit. Put the personality in the page, not the label.
Everything at the top level
Menus with nine or ten items produce a scanning problem rather than a choice. Items in the middle of a long row are the least noticed, so a long menu quietly hides things.
What works
- Plain nouns for what you sell. The words a customer would type.
- Five to seven top-level items. Not a rule, but a reasonable ceiling. Beyond that, grouping helps more than it costs.
- Contact last, and visible. Conventional placement, and convention is an advantage in navigation because it removes a decision.
- A phone number in the header, separate from the menu, as argued in phone number placement.
- Descriptive submenu items, since a dropdown of specific services doubles as an answer to "do you do this".
The mobile problem
Everything above matters more on a phone, where the menu is collapsed behind an icon and opening it is a deliberate act. Nobody browses a mobile menu casually; they open it because they are looking for something specific.
Which means ambiguous labels cost more there. A visitor who opens the menu, does not see an obvious match, and closes it again has usually left.
Worth checking that the first item is not obscured by the header, that items are far enough apart to tap accurately, and that the menu closes in an obvious way.
The five minute test
Write your menu items on a piece of paper. Hand it to someone who does not know your business, with no other context, and ask them what each one contains.
Anything they guess wrong, or hesitate over, is costing you. The hesitation is the finding, since a visitor scanning a page gives it a fraction of the time your volunteer just did.
This test takes five minutes and is more useful than most analytics, because it surfaces the specific words causing the problem rather than telling you that a page has a low click rate.
Frequently asked questions
What should website navigation labels be called?
Whatever a customer would call them. Plain nouns describing what you sell outperform abstractions such as Solutions, Capabilities, or Offerings, because those require the visitor to translate before they can decide and defer the answer to the next click.
How many items should a navigation menu have?
Roughly five to seven at the top level as a working ceiling. Longer menus create a scanning problem rather than a choice, and items in the middle of a long row receive the least attention, so a long menu quietly hides things.
Is Portfolio a good navigation label?
It is acceptable but often less clear than the alternative. For a trades business, Recent Jobs or Before and After describes the content more accurately and signals what kind of proof sits behind the link, which helps the visitor decide whether to click.
Should navigation labels be creative?
Generally no. A menu is a functional index and a visitor scanning it for something specific gains nothing from wit, while ambiguity costs clicks. Personality belongs in the page content rather than in the labels used to find it.
Why do navigation labels matter more on mobile?
Because the menu is collapsed behind an icon, so opening it is a deliberate act by someone looking for something specific. A visitor who opens the menu, sees no obvious match, and closes it again has usually left rather than explored further.
How can I test whether my navigation is clear?
Write the menu items on paper, hand them to someone unfamiliar with your business without any other context, and ask what each contains. Anything guessed wrong or hesitated over is costing you, since real visitors give it far less time than your volunteer did.
West Coast Media Solutions Inc. builds websites for businesses across Canada. Conversion research is heavily context dependent and widely misquoted; where we describe a principle rather than citing a figure, that is deliberate.
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