Creating a Menu in WordPress

You may want to setup a menu on your WordPress blog or perhaps you have setup your website using WordPress.  Having a menu is a good idea for organizing your content and making navigating your site easy for your visitors.

Here are a few tips on organizing to create a menu

Your Plan

When you are designing your website or blog – think of how the content should be organized. What are the main headings – what topics would fit under these main headings. As your website grows having an organized structure is a real help to the visitors so they can find information easily.   It also helps you as you add new pages and posts to know where you will put them.

Using Pages and Sub Pages

When you create a new page in WordPress you can assign it as a main page or a sub page.

Using Categories

Assigning a category is a first step in being able to create a menu item from your POSTS. Think about your categories and how they relate to the major topics of your blog or website. For example on the Out and About Nova Scotia website – PLACES is a category. Any new post that has to do with a PLACE is assigned this category and a place name is assigned as a sub-category. See the PLACES menu with its sub categories.

Managing Categories

If you wish to rename, delete of change a category you will find this under POSTS – CATEGORIES on your dashboard.   This is also a good place to see the overview of all your categories and the number of POSTS assigned to each category and the hierarchy.

Manage categories

Managing your Menu

The Menu manager is found under Appearances on your dashboard. On the left you see a list of all the PAGES you have created. Click the check box(es) next to the pages you want to add to the menu and drag them onto the menu on the right. Then reorder the pages according to your plan. You can make sub pages by indenting a page under another page.

If you wish to add a CATEGORY as a menu item – select the category from the list that you see when you click on “Categories” on the bottom left section. Then select the category you want and add it to the menu on the right.

Be sure to SAVE your menu.

You can select to add your pages automatically when you create them – or each time you want a new page on the menu go through the steps above. You can rearrange pages and posts as your site grows.

menu managae

Categories Widget

Use the CATEGORIES widget to add a categories drop down list with number of posts on your sidebar. This works well if you have a lot of categories and gives a good overview for the website visitor

Categories widget

Places category

menu outandabout

Examples

 

 

 

Your website backbone

Your website should be organized to make it easy for visitors to your site to find what they are looking for. Perhaps you started out with a simple website – but as time goes on you have needed to add new information and sometimes this leads to a lack of structure. Make a meaningful menu and some navigation aids.

Structure your information

Your website should be organized to make it easy for visitors to your site to find what they are looking for.  Perhaps you started out with a simple website – but as time goes on you have needed to add new information and sometimes this leads to a lack of structure.  Look at your website – of if you are planning a website try these methods to organize the website.

MENU

  • the main menu of the website should be broad enough that as you need to add new information you will know how it is placed in the structure.
  • The CONTACT page or contact information should be easily accessible from any location on the site.
  • If you have sub-pages in your website structure – then have a method to show the sub-pages in a consistent manner.  You could use drop down menus or list the sub pages with links in the sections
  • Menu names – some people like to come up with “cute” names for their menu items. However this can be very counter productive. People are rapidly searching for information and may not understand unusual names and words. Your intention is to make the site user friendly so a person can find what they need easily and quickly
  • The menu should also give people a guidance system so they don’t lose their place and they can see

SITE MAP

  • A site map is 1 page that lists all the sections and sub pages of the website.  It gives the person an overall view of the website and the structure.  It is a finding aid.
  • A site map is also useful for SEO and submission to Google and other search engines.

SEARCH

  • For larger websites a “Search” box can be a useful aid. You can get a free search box from Google and set it just to search your website.
  • If you are using WordPress add the SEARCH widget to your sidebar.

Denise Davies is an Internet Strategy Consultant working with nonprofits and small business.  Contact for further information davies@eckova.ca and visit the website at www.eckova.ca