Menus in WordPress: building the main menu and choosing where it appears

The short answer: a menu is the list of links at the top (or bottom) of the site. In WordPress you build it once, with the pages you want to show, and say where it appears. In a classic theme it is under Appearance > Menus; in a block theme, in the Editor, under Navigation. Names vary a little with version and language.

What is in a menu

Part What to do
Items Pages, posts, categories or free links. Choose only the pages the visitor looks for: home, services, about, contact.
Order and submenus Drag to change the order. Dragging an item slightly to the right makes it a submenu of the one above.
Item text It can be shorter than the page title (“Contact”, not “Talk to us today”).
Where it appears The theme offers “locations” (primary menu, footer). Tick the one you want. Without this the menu exists but is not seen.
On a phone The same menu usually turns into a three-line button. Always test there.

Step by step (classic theme)

1 Create the pages first: Creating and editing pages in WordPress.
2 Go to Appearance > Menus, name the menu and press Create.
3 Add the pages on the left, under “Pages”, and put them in the order you want.
4 Tick the location (“Primary menu” or similar) and save.
5 Open the site on a phone and confirm it opens and each link goes to the right place.
6 In a block theme, the path is different (Appearance > Editor > Navigation): see Block theme or classic theme.
Less is more. Five to seven main items are enough; if you need more, use submenus. A huge menu hides what matters. Do not put a page that does not exist yet in the menu: it gives a 404 (The 404 after changing links).
What the visitor should find in the menu is what is on the home page: What goes on your home page.

Cannot find the menu in your dashboard or the theme does not show it? Open a ticket with the address and the theme’s name.

Open a support ticket

SEE ALSO

Creating and editing pages in WordPress

Block theme or classic theme in WordPress: what is the difference and which to pick

Internal links: how to link your own pages so nothing stays hidden

What goes on your home page: five things a visitor looks for in the first ten seconds

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