A navigation (nav) menu is a group of links that provide quick access for website visitors to view various pages on your website, attachments to be downloaded (such as a pdf), or an external resource. The most common usage of a navigation menu is to create the main menu links at the top of a website. Most WordPress themes allow for multiple nav menus to be created. This allows you to have different menus throughout a page or site, such as in the header, the footer, or a sidebar. This video and tutorial show you how to create and edit a navigation menu on a WordPress website.
Creating a Navigation Menu in WordPress
Log into the dashboard
Hover over ‘Appearance’ (in the left sidebar) and click on ‘Menu’
Choose a name for your menu. Be sure the name represents the purpose or location of the menu so it can be easily identified. For example, the main menu is typically placed horizontally in the header of the site, although sometimes you’ll see it in a left sidebar. It is also common for a different menu to be placed in the footer of the site. Other options include a top menu (usually reserved for contact information) and a social media menu with links to the company’s various social media pages.
At the bottom of the menu check the appropriate box to add the menu to the primary navigation spot or the footer (if applicable).
Click “Save Menu”.
Adding Pages and other Links to a Navigation Menu
Ensure the menu you want to edit is selected.
To add a new link to the menu, locate the link in the left sidebar of the menu section. The link could be to a page, post, category, custom link (url), or other types depending on your active plugins and theme. If you have WooCommerce installed, you could add a link to a product or product category.
Click the checkbox next to the link and click “Add to Menu”.
New links are placed at the bottom of the list, which will be the far right of a horizontal menu. (Recent versions of WordPress add the Home page link as the first link)
To reorder links in a nav menu, simply drag and drop them into the desired order
To make a sub menu, drag the sub menu link under the primary link and then over to the right so it is indented. You can nest multiple levels of navigation menu links. Depending on your theme, your website visitors will either have to hover over or click on the main menu item for the sub menu to open.
Editing Links
To edit the text of a link, click on the down arrow to the right of the link and edit the “Navigation Label” text.
To remove a link, click on the down arrow to the right of the link and click on ‘remove’.
Save the Menu.
Hopefully this tutorial showed you how easy it is to create and edit a nav menu on WordPress.
