A navigation menu is the set of links, usually placed in a site's header, that lets visitors move between a website's main pages and sections. It's one of the most important elements for both usability and overall site structure.
Common Navigation Menu Types
- Primary navigation — the main menu, typically shown in the header
- Footer navigation — secondary links commonly placed at the bottom of a page
- Mobile navigation — often collapsed into a "hamburger" icon on smaller screens
- Breadcrumb navigation — shows a visitor's current location within a site's overall structure
Building Menus in WordPress
WordPress's built-in menu system, found under Appearance → Menus, lets a site owner add pages, posts, and custom links to a navigation menu through a simple drag-and-drop interface, then assign that menu to whichever specific location a theme supports.
What Makes a Navigation Menu Effective
- Keep it focused — five to seven top-level items is generally a sensible limit
- Use clear, genuinely descriptive labels rather than vague or overly clever ones
- Prioritize a site's most important pages, giving them clear, direct visibility
- Make sure it works cleanly and reliably on mobile devices
A confusing or cluttered navigation menu is one of the more common — and more fixable — reasons visitors leave a site without finding what they actually came for.
« Back to Index