WordPress Custom Menu Tips
Before WordPress 3.X your site navigation menus were not that easy to customize. You generally had a one menu for your pages (the standard and customary stuff site visitors expect to find that rarely changed) and your categories that contained your posts that you added on regular basis.
Your menu order was displayed in the default alpha-numeric order that you could reorder to your liking but it was a clumsy process or you had to rely on a plugin.
Now, however, you can customize your menus and order of items beyond the WordPress basic alpha-numeric order. And better yet, most themes offer the ability to add two or more menus that you can customize and order any way you like.
You can control your menus by going to: Appearance > Menus.
- To create a new menu, click the plus sign tab and name your menu. You also have the option of checking the box “Automatically add new top-level pages”. Checking this box will automatically add any new pages you create to the new menu. Just remember when you engage this option to check your menu order and rearrange as you desire after adding a new page.
- To add a menu item, after creating your new page or category, select the menu tab for the menu you want to add to, then check the new item in the left sidebar and click Add to Menu. At that point you can drag-n-drop the new menu item to the location you want within your established menu.
- To reorder your menus, click on the tab for the menu you want to modify, and drag and drop the menu items into the order you desire.
- To create a submenu item, simply move that item under the main title you want it subbed under and then jog it to the right a bit so it appears indented. That page or category will then become a submenu item of the title above.
- To add a custom link, use the custom link box you see on the left to add the URL and Label (title). Then click Add to Menu and position your new link within your menu. This is a great feature for off-site links like your eStore, social media or other Web sites.
WordPress Custom Menu Tips
While we can add and reorder our custom WordPress menus to what we desire, we still want to keep in mind the following tips.
- That your top navigational menu should still be for your main site informational pages.
- Your categories should be listed in a logical and intuitive manner.
- Menu item titles should be short and sweet.
- Submenu items should be listed only under the main title that it directly applies to.
- We only have so much width in our nav menus. When adding to your menus always view your site to make sure we did not go too wide and break the design.
- We also only have so much height. If you have a submenu that is a long drop down list it will drop below the fold and basically become unusable. Try to only have a handful or so of submenu and sub-submenu items. We want our navigation to be tight and guide visitors to the info they seek in no more than two clicks if possible!
- Make sure your menu items are spelled properly and are terms your site visitors use and will recognize. Try to stay away from industry jargon and buzz words. You want to speak to your site visitors – not at them.
- There are times where it makes sense to list categories in your main page navigation for topics that you do plan on adding to on a regular basis. But this is more the exception than the rule.
- Integrate your main keyword phrases into your menu items when apropos to enhance your SEO efforts.
You also have the option of displaying your custom menus in your sidebars. If you want to do this, go to Appearance > Widgets and look for the Custom Menus widget. Simply drag that widget over to the sidebar area on the right. Title your widget and select which menu you want to display, and then Save. You can even create a custom menu just for use in your sidebar.
Another nifty thing I like about custom menus is that we can now exclude certain pages in our navigation. Before, WordPress would show all pages. Now if you have a member’s only page, a private page or a password protected page that you don’t want visitors to see — just don’t add it to your menus.
Here is an Introduction to WordPress’ Custom Menus:
With this level of flexibility and control you can truly create the navigation that you know will cater to your site visitor’s needs and your goals!
At your service,
Your WordPress Consultant
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