How to create and add Menu in WordPress Website?

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One of the most important navigational elements of a website is its “Menu”. It appears typically at the top of a website. Also, some WordPress themes allow creating multiple menus and placing them on additional areas on the site such as in the footer area.

In this post, we are going to cover how to create a menu in WordPress and add it to a specific position.

Create a Menu

Step 1) Go to the Menu Interface from WordPress Dashboard

First, go to Appearance > Menus from your WordPress dashboard menu.

go to menus wordpress menu settings
go to appearance >> menus

There, you can see the interface like this.

menu dashboard wordpress menu settings
WordPress Menu Dashboard

On the left, you can see ‘Add Menu Items’ where you can find the items that can add to the menu. It lets you add not only pages but also posts, custom links, and categories.

On the right under ‘Menu Structure’, there are the options to name the menu, organize menu items, remove items, etc.

Step 2) Create a New Menu

You can either create a new menu or edit an existing one. For now, let’s create a new menu from scratch.

For that, click on create a new menu on the page.

click on create a new menu wordpress menu settings
click on create a new menu

Start by giving the menu a name. Then, click on the Create Menu button at the bottom.

name the menu wordpress menu settings

Step 3) Add Pages on the Menu

Now, you are ready to add the pages, posts, custom post types, links, or other items to the menu. For that, just click on the small dropdown arrow and select what you want to add. After that, click on Add to Menu.

adding pages to menu wordpress menu settings
adding pages to menu

Similarly, you can do the same for posts, custom links, and categories.

Step 4) Set up Menu Structure

Everything you add will be displayed on the right side under ‘Menu Structure.

Now, here you can drag and drop the items to place them as you like.

Also, you can do other actions like editing the items’ labels on the menu. Just click on the dropdown button next to the item. Then type in the label on the text bar.

edit menu label wordpress menu settings
edit menu item label

If you want to remove the item from the menu, then click on the Remove link after opening the dropdown arrow.

removing item from menu wordpress menu settings
removing item from menu

Step 5) Save the Menu

After configuring everything, click on the Save Menu button at the bottom of the page.

save menu wordpress menu settings
save menu

Add Menu to a Location

Now, you would want to place the menu somewhere on your website for navigation. For that, click on Manage Locations at the top of the page.

click on manage locations wordpress menu settings
click on manage locations

As we have the Blocksy theme on, you can see that it offers 4 different locations for assigning the created menus.

To add the menu, click on the dropdown next to the location and select the menu.

For example, let’s add the recently created menu ‘Primary Menu’ to Header Menu 1.

assigning menu to a location wordpress menu settings
assigning menu to a location

Don’t forget to click on Save Changes to update it.

After that, you will see a success notification alert like this.

menu location updated wordpress menu settings
menu location updated

Now, this is what it looks like on the website frontend.

menu on the website wordpress menu settings
menu on the website
Ankit S J B Rana

Ankit S J B Rana

Ankit S J B Rana is a marketing enthusiast originally from the Himalayas of Nepal and currently based out of Bangkok, Thailand.

He is currently the Marketing Director at Mbrella Films and Filma.io

Marketing With WP is Ankit's blog full of marketing insights to turn your website into a 24 hour marketing machine.

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