For any business having an impressive and easy-to-navigate website is a must. It helps businesses grow and increase their customer base. But, one of the important decisions for building a new website is whether to use horizontal or vertical navigation.

Before the advent of smartphones and tablets, vertical menu bars were popular. Now, you can see both vertical and horizontal navigation menus on websites. In this article, we will find out which one is best for you. Let’s first understand what is vertical navigation.

What Is Vertical Navigation?

Vertical navigation is nothing but a vertical sidebar available on the website. This type of navigation menu component stretches along the side of a page to present all links that will take you to other pages of the website.

Often, this navigation is in a particular layout that represents all of the links hierarchically. It ensures fast navigation to desired areas in no time.

What is Horizontal Navigation?

Horizontal Navigation is an interactive AUI-styled horizontal navigation bar on the web page. It can be at the top of the page, at the bottom, or in the middle of the web page. Similar to the vertical navigation bar, it has links that users can click to go to other pages.

Vertical Navigation Vs Horizontal Navigation

The main aim of vertical and horizontal navigation is to help users with an effective way of presenting content on a website or app. But the design concepts between them are entirely different.

Vertical navigation on the web page features a clear hierarchical structure. Users can easily read, scan, and locate the content available on vertical navigation. This is also mobile-friendly in size and is used to create responsive websites.

On the other hand, horizontal navigation is widely used by websites with limited screen space. Often you will see them at the top of the website and can click on the lists to expand it further.

Moreover, the horizontal navigation bars can integrate with product sliders, full-width images, and other website design options.

Both of these navigation bars have their own benefits and characters. You should use the right bar at the right website design.

Which Should You Pick?

There is no simple answer to which navigation bar you should pick. Every method has its own pros and cons. Depending on your website requirement and design, you can either go for vertical navigation or horizontal navigation. There are some special designs or requirements that may need you to choose vertical navigation or horizontal.

For example, if you have a large e-commerce store, you might even have multiple navigations combined together in some way. So, in that case, you can opt for both types of navigation bars too.

Final Words

Navigation bars make the website look more impressive and useful Also, it is the best way to add all your information on the home page or product pages that allow users to click on links to go to other pages. Both vertical and horizontal navigation is useful for your business website.