Add or Edit the WordPress Navigation Menu

Like a lot of tasks in WordPress, editing the WordPress navigation menu is easy once you know how, but not necessarily intuitive. If you’d like to learn how to edit the menu in WordPress, watch the video above, or follow along below with the step-by-step instructions.

What is the WordPress Navigation Menu?

The navigation menus are lists of links that take you to other parts of the site. In the example below, you can see both the header and footer navigation menus highlighted in red. They help to organize the site content for site visitors, much like a Table of Contents.

You are not limited to the Primary Menu and Footer menu. You can create as many menus as your particular WordPress theme will let you use.

Where is the navigation Menu in WordPress?

There are several ways to acces the WordPress edit navigation menu tools:

1. 1. Once you are logged in as an administrator, hover over the site title at top left. Choose Menus in the options.
   2. From the Dashboard, go to Appearance>Menus.

Editing the WordPress Navigation Menu

1. 1. Once the menu dashboard is open, you can select the menu you’d like to edit from the dropdown list. Most often, the Primary Menu is the one clients want to edit. If you are creating a new menu for a different part of your site, you can click the “create a new menu” option just to the right of the menu select dialog box.
   2. Pages you have created will be listed under the “Add menu items” section. The recent ones will be shown by default, but if you can’t find what you want, use the View All or Search tab. Simple click the box next to items you’d like to add, and choose Add to Menu directly below. They will appear at the bottom of the Menu Structure list on the right. Click and drag the menu item into the order you’d like it to show in your menu.
   3. To add custom links (for instance, a link to a PDF in the menu library, or to a page from another site) you can expand the Custom Links box, add the url, and give it the name you’d like to see appear in the menu.
   4. You may have blog post categories you’d like to appear in your menu. Those will be selectable in the Categories option.
   5. If you’d like sub-menus (menu items that show up underneath other items when you hover) simply drag the menu item to the right slightly and let go, creating a sub-menu.
   6. Lastly, save your menu before navigating away from this page!