Home Tutorials How to Add a Navigation Menu in WordPress

How to Add a Navigation Menu in WordPress


It’s important to your web site to have clear, well-arranged navigation that will get customers the place they need to go. WordPress comes with a user-friendly interface that allows you to create menus with none coding data. Nonetheless, when you’re simply getting began, you should still run into hassle making an attempt to arrange your menu.

On this tutorial, you’ll study what a navigation menu is and how one can add one to your WordPress website.

Let’s get the ball rolling!

What Is a Navigation Menu

A navigation menu is a listing of hyperlinks that directs customers to particular locations in your web site. The commonest kind of web site navigation is a horizontal bar on the prime of the web page.

An example of a menu.

There are a number of sorts of navigation menus, akin to: 

  • Drop-down menu – reveals a listing of submenus if you hover or click on a menu merchandise. It’s a customary method of displaying your menu.
  • Flyout menu – related to a drop-down menu, however the submenus fly out from the facet, moderately than from the underside of every menu merchandise.
  • Mega menu – a drop-down menu with a number of columns and/or ranges, typically even with photographs or movies.

A navigation menu helps you optimize the construction of your website, informs your guests about your website’s content material, and hyperlinks to the inner pages of your web site.

In WordPress, the placement of a navigation menu relies in your theme.

Navigation Menus & Search engine marketing

Good navigation must also be optimized for engines like google. On a WordPress website, Search engine marketing (search engine marketing) is dependent upon each your theme creator and also you.

Whereas the theme creator is liable for writing Search engine marketing-friendly code, you need to create a logical menu construction that’s the most correct illustration of your website’s content material.

Search engine marketing-friendly navigation menus have the next advantages:

  • Search engines like google can crawl your website higher, probably enhancing your rankings.
  • Customers will probably be in a position to get the place they want, enhancing (or extra precisely reflecting) your bounce price.
  • Customers can also keep on the location longer, which is able to impression your metrics positively.

Create a Navigation Menu in WordPress

In WordPress, you possibly can create and handle navigation menus on the Look > Menus admin web page. If in case you have a difficult menu construction, you too can use a menu plugin.

First, click on the Look > Menus in the left sidebar of your WordPress admin space. On the Menus web page, click on the create a new menu hyperlink.

Clicking the Create a new menu link.

On the subsequent display, enter a descriptive identify (which is simply to your reference), choose a show location, and click on the Create Menu button.

Creating a new menu in WordPress.

From right here, you possibly can select which pages you’d like to add to your menu.

First, click on the View All tab to see your website’s pages. Then, tick the checkbox subsequent to every web page you need to add to your menu. Lastly, click on the Add to Menu button.

Adding posts and pages to a menu.

You may also change the order of your menu objects by dragging and dropping them into place.

To create a multi-level menu, akin to a drop-down or nested menu, you want to drag the kid menu merchandise to the fitting of the guardian menu merchandise, and ‘clip’ it into place.

When you’re happy with the order of your menu, save your modifications.

Add Classes and Customized Hyperlinks to Your Menu

Classes are used to kind and group posts into separate sections whereas customized hyperlinks are URLs that hyperlink to a customized location on both your website or an exterior one. Not solely do these assist with group, however you too can hyperlink your social media accounts, shops, and different websites for straightforward entry.

So as to add classes, evaluate the objects in the Classes part and choose those you need to add to your menu. Once you’re prepared, click on Add to Menu.

Adding categories to a WordPress menu.

You may add customized menus from the Customized Hyperlinks tab.

Right here, you possibly can specify the URL and the hyperlink textual content and add them in the identical method as posts, pages, and classes.

Adding custom links to a WordPress menu.

Very similar to different menu objects, you too can drag and drop these things into the specified order and nest them if wanted.

Edit Menu Objects

By default, WordPress makes use of the web page title or class identify because the hyperlink textual content for pages and classes. In some instances, that is good. Nonetheless, at different instances, you might have considered trying to change this textual content.

To edit the hyperlink textual content, click on the respective menu merchandise, change the Navigation Label, and click on the Save Menu button.

Change llink text

In case your theme helps it, you too can edit your menu objects from the Customizer interface. To open the Customizer, click on the Look > Customise menu.

Delete Menu Objects

When it comes to deleting menu objects, the method is simply as easy.

On the Look > Menus web page, click on the menu merchandise you need to take away and discover the pink Take away hyperlink beneath the Navigation Label discipline.

Click on this hyperlink, then save the menu utilizing the Save Menu button.

Removing an item from a WordPress menu.

Change the Location of Your Menu

If you would like to change the placement of your menu on the front-end of your website, click on the Handle Places tab on prime of the Menus web page, assign your menu to the brand new location, and save the modifications.

Choosing a location for your menu.

Conclusion

Including a navigation menu to your WordPress website is a simple course of that may be finished from the WordPress admin space and doesn’t require any coding. To get one of the best outcomes, each in phrases of Search engine marketing and usefulness, select a menu construction that correctly represents your content material.

Are you contemplating how to greatest current your navigation menus? Tell us in the feedback part beneath!