Now let's argue about which is better, "Index" or "Menu." :-)

"Index" or "Menu."

"Contents". ;)

What happened to "Home"?

What happened to "Home"?

It's where the heart is.

And we can be thankful the breadcrumbs will always lead us back there. :)

In "Index" or "Menu", I took the choice to be lists of links you click on, not a page like an "index" page... so "Home" doesn't fit into this set of things. YMMV (I'm sure it does).

I've never used "Home" anywhere in my link strategy. Always thought it looked pedestrian & amateurish.

We had a discussion about this a while back and I was outnumbered :)

In "Index" or "Menu", I took the choice to be lists of links you click on

That would be a Sitemap wouldn't it?

My understanding of current popular usage:

Index - a list of contents in alphabetical order

Home page - the initial page of a website

Sitemap - a hyperlinked list of website contents

Menu - a list of available foods

But words can change their meaning over time.

And their power should not be misunderestimated.

...

Home is valid. Look at the top of THIS PAGE. :)

WORDS FAQ:

Menu: something you select from
Index: a list of things
Sitemap: an index used to game search engines

As I think I injected 'Index' into the conversation let me explain my usage... Way back in days of yore many a software program included pull an index box, type in an included keyword/term and get a list of pages where it could be found.

I extended the format slightly so the term showed linked subheaders that gave some context to each occurrence. Remember this was before site search was practicable for most.

Menu, besides being a highly hyped marketing spiel for microwaved frozen restaurant options, is an arbitrary grouping of site navigation elements with primacy given to some mediocre marketing junk drawer called a home page. <joking, sorta>

Sitemap: an index used to game search engines

Joking aside, that usage was first introduced by Google Inc in 2005.

Long before that, a Sitemap was a page intended as a navigational aid to human visitors, differing from an Index by being hierarchical (organised by sections) rather than alphabetical.

I still have a Sitemap on one site, where it performs a useful function.

Index: a list of things

In website terms, an Index is a default listing of the contents of a directory/folder.

It is usually only displayed when no file named "index" is present.

A lot of webmasters override that webserver option, and avoid explicitly linking to the "index" file by name.

Menu: something you select from

While "Menu" has been adopted in computing to mean a list of inedible options, it is rare to see it used as anchor text.

Except on restaurant websites, of course.

...

It is always going to depend on what your target market responds to best.. which is why you have to test and test again. We have found "Questions and Answers" works best these days.