Do You Need A Sidebar On Your Static Website?

Writing by Nick Stamoulis Tweet

In the ever-evolving world of web design, one question that seldom pops up is, “Do I really need that sidebar for my website?” It is generally assumed that a sidebar is necessary. But is it?

There are lots of reasons why you can include a sidebar in your static website design, but understand that there are very few musts in design.

The main things to consider with any web design are:

• Functionality
• User experience
• Optimization
• Navigation ease of use

In a word, you want your website to be easy to use for the visitor, offer up a positive experience that keeps them coming back, be easily found in the search engines, and be laid out simply so that visitors can navigate easily between the pages as they are searching for what they want. Did I mention that you should make things easy to find?

If you need a sidebar to reach those goals then by all means add a sidebar to your site. I’m not saying you shouldn’t. I am saying that you should make your site unique and meet the needs of your visitors. A top-level navigation system is just as effective as a sidebar navigation system. But which is right for your website?

When it comes to web design and site structure (thing to nail down prior or during the search engine optimization on site process), there are very few hard and fast rules. Don’t do something just because someone else did it. Test the elements and see what works for your website.