Every website is as unique as a rainbow. No matter the purpose of your site, you don’t want your visitors getting lost and confused among the clutter.
A poor site structure could lead to a chaotic experience for people trying to navigate your site. The key to a winning navigation path lies in reviewing how you’re leading visitors to the desired content on your site.
To begin, head over to your WordPress dashboard and click on “Appearance,” and then “Menus.”
Here are 3 ways to restructure the menus on your site:
1.) Organize Your Navigation Structure
Your menu shows the visual structure that visitors will see on the front end of your site. You can easily rearrange the structure by dragging and dropping the menu item to the location you desire on the site.
Not sure if you have essential information on your menus? Most menus have a limited amount of top-tier subjects such as “Home,” “About Us,” “Contact Us,” and “Products/Services.” This is also a great time to look at the topics of your menu and decide if you want to rename any sections.
2.) Create Drop-Down Menus
After you have all menu items organized, you can change your layout by adding a “nesting menu,” or what is known as a “drop-down menu,” that can be accessed by dragging and dropping different items. Various WordPress themes can feature this menu style which allows a user to add a structured navigation system to their site.
What appears on the main menu is known as a “parent,” item and the menu items underneath are often accessed when a user hovers over that item on the page.
For example, if you created an “About Us,” section of a menu, you’d want to consider adding a drop-down menu with sections like “History,” or “Careers,” underneath. You can add as many sections as you’d like underneath a parent item to keep your menus organized and free of clutter.
3.) Create and Add Categories to Your Menu
A good menu not only guides visitors to key areas in your site, but is specific and tailored to your brand. Whether you’re a blog or eCommerce store, you can optimize your site by adding categories that contribute to your site structure. Designating categories in relation to your content can with organization and increase the SEO value to help your site rank for specific terms.
In your WordPress dashboard, you can navigate to your categories by clicking “Posts,” and selecting “Categories,” underneath. This screen allows you to create new categories, edit or delete existing ones, and organize your categories.
When you are adding a new category you’ll fill in the name, slug, parent, and description before you add that category to your site.
Once you create your new categories they populate on the right side of the page and are organized alphabetically.
1.) In your WordPress dashboard, you can navigate to the Menu by clicking “Appearance,” then “Menus.” On the left side you can select “Categories,” from the drop-menu.
2.) Once you select “Categories,” you’ll have the ability to add any category you created to your site menu by clicking “Add to menu.”
3.) You can check how each menu is categorized by selecting the arrow key and it’ll show you the navigation label with the assigned category underneath.
After you save your menu, you can visit your site to see how the menu items are organized on the front end for your visitors. You can hover over your menu topics to see your drop-down menus and decide if you like the structure or want to reorganize them again.
Use the new spring season to revamp your menu and start fresh. Online tools like goingup! can also help you identify holes in your site navigation by monitoring your site traffic. As you get comfortable with your site content, you can adapt the menu structure with SEO tools to make your site more visible to potential customers.
Have you rearranged your menu structure lately? Let us know in the comments below!
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