Creating Menus
Menus add easy navigation to your site or blog. In this part of the tutorial, we will go over how to create your own menu for your site or modify existing menus.
Watch this video or read through the tutorial below.
Creating a Menu
First, let’s go over what a menu is on a WordPress site. Menus are a great way to create links to your content pages and help people navigate your site. A couple important hints:
- The fewer clicks the better. Users do not prefer to click through page after page to find where they want to go, so use strategically placed menu items to help solve this problem.
- A menu item should be informative and to the point, like the title of a paper or book, and should catch the user’s attention.
- Do not go overboard with too many menu items as this can make things confusing for the user. A user who cannot navigate a site correctly is not likely to enjoy their experience or get the most out of your content. So choose your menu items carefully!
On our tutorial site, none of the pages we have created show up. This is because there is no menu. It will be almost impossible for users to navigate from page to page without a menu.
To add a menu, go to the Appearance tab on the dashboard and select the Menu option from the pop out list. You should then be on a screen that looks something like this.
To create a new menu, type the name of your menu in the “Menu Name” box. I am titling mine “Menu” just to keep it simple. Then click the Create Menu button. Make sure to check the box that says “Primary Location” or “Top menu“.
From here, you can add the pages you have created to your menu. On the left-hand side of the screen you should see a column labeled “Pages“. In this column, check the box next to the pages you want to add your site then click “Add to Menu“. Remember to click “Save” to save changes made to your menu.
By adding different pages to the menu, you are making it possible for users to navigate and view these pages. Once you have a few pages added to your menu, you can organize them by dragging the boxes around the screen. Dragging a page to the right turns it into a sub page. This allows you to create a drop-down menu fora page. This can be used to help you categorize and organize around related pages. Always check out the menu any time you change WordPress themes, because the menu could look completely different from one theme to the next.
In this tab, you can also delete menu items by clicking on the gray drop-down arrow on the right site of the menu item box. Click “Remove” if you do not want a page to appear in your menu. Note: This will not delete the page!
Once you have organized the menu the way you want, click “Save Menu“. Here is how the organization above looks on our tutorial site.
Now that you know how to create a menu, add and edit pages, content, and customize your site, you are ready to begin creating your WordPress site!