Managed Metadata Navigation vs. Structural Navigation in SharePoint 2013

Managed navigation also lets you createfriendly URLswithout changing the structure of your site.In SharePoint Server 2010, all publishing site URLs contained a reference to the Pages library and any folders within that library for example, http://contoso.com/Pages/AboutUs.aspx. In SharePoint Server 2013, you can create URLs that are better for Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and easier for site visitors to read for example, http://contoso.com/AboutUs.

In SharePoint Server 2010, by default, you could base navigation only on the structure of a site. To create site navigation based on any data structure, you had to create a custom navigation provider. By using managed navigation, you can design site navigation around important business concepts.

Global Navigation (Top menu) and Current Navigation (Left menu) The global navigation control (called Top Navigation in the Snippet Gallery) is the primary navigation control that is used to display the navigation for a site. The global navigation control appears at the top of the page in the default master page, and can show one or more levels of navigation, based on terms in the navigation term set. The current navigation control (called Vertical Navigation in the Snippet Gallery) is a secondary navigation control that appears on the left side of the page in the default master page.

Navigation Hover Text:

OIE SharePoint Site: Site Settings Look and Feel Navigation

TERM STORE MANAGEMENT TOOL

You still have to organize your content in site structures in SharePoint, but think of the managed navigation as a layer on top (of the site structure) that allows you to create links directly to content that could be hosted deep in the structure.