Hi {{given_name}},

When a first time visitor lands on your site, does your menu point them exactly where they want to go, or does it leave them guessing?

Clever navigation labels like “Solutions” or “Discover” feel creative, but to someone who just arrived they are a guessing game. Every second spent decoding your menu is a second they are one click away from leaving for a competitor.

💡 This week’s 80/20 rule - Rename every navigation menu label to the plainest words that describe exactly what is on the page. Swap “Solutions” for “Pricing”, swap “Discover” for “How It Works”, and never make a visitor guess.

🧠 Think of your menu as the road signs on a highway. Nobody admires a clever road sign. They just want to know which exit to take, and a confusing sign at 60 miles an hour means a missed turn.

The stakes are higher than they look. Around 61% of people leave a site when the navigation is unclear or hard to use, which means a vague label quietly sends buyers straight to a competitor.

There is a name for what is happening in a visitor’s head. It is called information scent, the idea that people follow the link whose wording best predicts what they will find, the same way an animal follows a scent toward food. Plain labels have a strong scent and weak ones leave people sniffing around and giving up. When one company simply renamed a menu tab to spell out the benefit, clicks on it jumped 37%.

It’s like the difference between a grocery aisle marked “Pasta and Sauces” and one marked “Culinary Adventures”. One tells you exactly where to go. The other makes you walk every aisle and hope.

🧭 SFG20 – This UK building maintenance software company had a top menu crammed with insider labels like “Facilities iQ” that new visitors could not decode. They cut the menu from twelve items down to eight and rewrote every label in plain language that said exactly what each page was. That single clarity change drove 38% more demos, proving that plain words on a menu move real pipeline.

🛒 Yuppiechef – This online kitchenware retailer stripped the competing links off a key landing page so the one action that mattered was impossible to miss. Instead of a busy menu pulling attention in every direction, visitors saw a single obvious next step. Clearing away that clutter doubled conversions, showing that fewer, clearer choices beat a crowded set of clever ones.

🇬🇧 GOV.UK – This is one of the busiest websites on earth, serving millions of people who cannot afford to get lost. It earned that reliability by swapping dense government jargon for plain words like “Money” and “Benefits”, so anyone can find what they need on the first try regardless of reading level.

Rename your services menu in plain words
Change vague headers like “Solutions” or “What We Do” to the actual service names, such as “Bookkeeping” or “Wedding Photography”. Visitors should read your menu and instantly know if you do the thing they came for.

Say “Pricing” if you have pricing
Do not hide costs behind “Plans” or “Get Started”. The word “Pricing” is the single most looked for label on a service site, so give people the plain word they are hunting for.

Turn “Contact” into the action
Swap a generic “Contact” for the outcome the visitor wants, like “Book a Call” or “Get a Quote”. The label doubles as a call to action and tells people exactly what happens next.

Read your menu out loud to a stranger
Ask someone outside your industry to guess what sits behind each label before they click. Anywhere they pause or guess wrong is a label to rewrite in simpler words.

Name categories the way shoppers search
Use the words customers actually type, like “Candles” or “Gift Sets”, instead of branded collection names like “The Ember Edit”. Cute names feel on brand but they cost you shoppers who cannot tell what is inside.

Make the label match the page
If a menu item says “Sale”, the page behind it should open on sale items, not a mixed catalog. A label that overpromises breaks trust and trains people to stop clicking.

Spell out shipping and returns
Label your policy page “Shipping and Returns”, not “Info” or “Details”. Shoppers look for these words before they buy, and burying them adds friction right before checkout.

Test one label at a time
Pick your foggiest menu word and rename it for two weeks, then watch the clicks. Small, clear wording changes are the fastest wins you can make without touching your product or price.

1️⃣ The rule change: Rename every navigation label to the plainest words that say exactly what is on the page, and drop the clever or branded names.

2️⃣ Why it works: Plain labels carry strong information scent, so visitors instantly predict where a link goes. Unclear navigation is a top reason people abandon a site.

3️⃣ The result: More people reach the page they wanted, fewer bounce to a competitor, and a fifteen minute wording change can lift clicks and conversions.

🔎 For this week’s website review, let’s look at Clare Makes. Clare Makes is a candle and home fragrance brand in Newcastle, Australia, pouring small batches scented with native botanicals.

💡 The Good:

The founder story front and center
The homepage hands the mic to Clare herself, from pouring during lockdown to the eucalyptus wedding that inspired the scents. That personal voice is spot on for a maker brand and builds instant trust.

Scents that tell a story
Naming each candle after a figure from Australian history turns a simple product into a talking point. It is a smart move that gives shoppers a reason to explore rather than just scan prices.

Social proof done right
Over one hundred five star reviews, an “As Seen In” press strip, and clear Australian Made and cruelty free badges all work hard to reassure a first time buyer before they add to cart.

🔧 Suggestions:

Tighten the menu labels
Two menu items read “Explore Our Scents” and “Explore Our Product Types”, which sound alike and make a shopper guess the difference. Plain labels like “Shop by Scent” and “Shop by Type” would clear it up in a glance.

Bring shipping into view sooner
Delivery cost and timing only appear at checkout. A simple line in the header or footer about shipping and free shipping over one hundred dollars would take away the fear and reduce last minute drop off.

Float the reviews higher
The reviews are a huge win but sit low on the page. Pulling a star rating and a short quote near the top would let that trust do its job before a visitor scrolls away.

See you next time for another simple, high-impact strategy!

The LOGO Editorial Team