The navigation menu is what connects all the pages on a site. Get it wrong and visitors miss content, lose their place, or leave. Get it right and the site feels natural to move through — even on a first visit.
WordPress has had a built-in menu system for years, but there are now two different ways to work with it depending on your theme. Classic themes use the Appearance → Menus screen. Block themes use the Navigation block inside the Site Editor. This guide covers both approaches so you can set up menus properly regardless of which theme type you are using.
If you are not sure which you have, check under Appearance in the WordPress dashboard. If you see a Menus option, you are on a classic theme. If you see Editor instead, you are on a block theme.
Quick Answer
In a classic theme, go to Appearance → Menus, create a menu, add your pages, set a display location, and save. In a block theme, go to Appearance → Editor → Navigation, click to add menu items, and publish. Both methods take about ten minutes once you know where everything is.
Why Your Navigation Menu Structure Matters
Navigation menus do more than link to pages. They communicate what the site is about and how it is organised. A menu with too many items overwhelms visitors. One with too few makes the site feel incomplete. The structure you choose also influences how search engines crawl and index the site — pages buried three levels deep in a dropdown often get less attention than top-level entries.
In most sites I build, the primary navigation holds between four and seven items. Sub-menus are used only when a topic genuinely has multiple distinct sections that warrant their own entries. If you find yourself adding a dropdown just to organise things visually, it’s usually a sign the information architecture needs rethinking rather than more menu items.
How to Create a Navigation Menu in a Classic Theme
Step 1: Open the Menus screen
Go to Appearance → Menus in your WordPress dashboard. You will see a screen with two main panels: one for adding items on the left, and one showing the menu structure on the right. The WordPress.org documentation for the Appearance Menus Screen covers the full interface in detail.
Step 2: Create a new menu
Click Create a new menu. Give it a descriptive name — “Primary Navigation” or “Main Menu” works well. The name is only visible in the admin. Click Create Menu.
Step 3: Add items to the menu
In the left panel you will see tabs for Pages, Posts, Custom Links, and Categories. Tick the pages you want to include and click Add to Menu. The items appear in the menu structure panel on the right. You can drag them up and down to reorder, or drag slightly to the right to nest them under a parent item as a dropdown.
Custom Links let you add any URL — useful for linking to an external site, a specific post, or an anchor on the page. Give it a clear label and add the full URL.
Step 4: Assign the menu to a location
Scroll down to Menu Settings at the bottom of the right panel. Under Display location, tick the location where you want the menu to appear — typically Primary Menu or Header Menu depending on the theme. If no location is assigned, the menu exists but will not appear anywhere on the site.
Step 5: Save the menu
Click Save Menu. Visit the front end of your site to check how it looks. Test any dropdowns on mobile — some themes handle nested menus better than others.
How to Create a Navigation Menu in a Block Theme
Block themes replace the classic Menus screen with the Navigation block inside the Site Editor. The behaviour is different but the outcome is the same.
Step 1: Open the Site Editor
Go to Appearance → Editor. The Site Editor opens with a visual representation of your site’s template.
Step 2: Find the Navigation block
Click on the header area of the template. Look for the Navigation block — it will be highlighted when you click on it. If your theme does not have a navigation block in the header yet, you can add one by clicking the + block inserter and searching for “Navigation”.
Step 3: Add menu items
With the Navigation block selected, click the + button inside it to add items. You can search for pages, posts, or paste a custom URL. Each item becomes a link in the navigation. To create a dropdown, add a submenu block and nest items inside it.
Step 4: Publish the changes
Click Save in the top right of the Site Editor to publish your changes. The menu will appear on the front end immediately.
Practical Tips
- Keep the primary menu to six items or fewer. Beyond that, it becomes harder to scan. If you have more pages than that, consider grouping related ones under a dropdown or removing lower-priority pages from the main navigation.
- Use short, descriptive labels. “About” is better than “About Our Company and Team”. Navigation labels should be scannable at a glance — visitors are not reading them, they are skimming.
- Add a footer menu. A second menu in the footer typically holds links like Privacy Policy, Contact, and Disclosure — pages that need to be accessible but do not belong in the primary navigation. Set this up in the same Menus screen under a different location.
- Test dropdowns on mobile. On touch screens, hover-based dropdowns can be unreliable. Check that your theme renders sub-menus as tappable elements on mobile, not hover-only interactions.
- Check the active state. WordPress automatically adds an “active” or “current-menu-item” class to the menu item that matches the current page. Confirm your theme styles this clearly so visitors always know where they are.
Common Mistakes
- Forgetting to assign a display location. This is the most common reason a newly created menu does not appear on the site. Always check that the menu is assigned to at least one location after saving.
- Including too many pages. Every page in the site does not need to be in the navigation. Focus on the pages visitors actually need to find quickly. Supporting pages belong in the footer or in contextual links within the content.
- Using the default “Page” label for the homepage. If your homepage is a static page, the menu item defaults to whatever the page title is. Make sure the label reads something clear and short, like “Home”.
- Nesting dropdowns more than one level deep. Double dropdowns — menus within menus — are difficult to use on both desktop and mobile. Keep the hierarchy to one level of sub-items at most.
When to Use a Mega Menu
Mega menus — large dropdown panels that display multiple columns of links — are useful for sites with a large amount of content that needs to be navigable from any page. E-commerce sites and large publications often use them. For a typical small-to-medium WordPress site, a standard dropdown menu is easier to maintain and works better on mobile. A mega menu plugin adds complexity that is only justified when the site genuinely has the content volume to fill it.
Conclusion
Set up your primary menu early, keep it focused on the pages visitors actually need, and test it on mobile before launch. The navigation is one of the few parts of a site that affects every single visitor on every single page — it is worth getting right. If you are still configuring your site’s structure, it is also worth reviewing how your header and footer are set up in WordPress alongside the menu.
Etienne Basson works with website systems, SEO-driven site architecture, and technical implementation. He writes practical guides on building, structuring, and optimizing websites for long-term growth.