The short answer
Keep the main menu short, with plain labels that name what visitors will find. Put your most important pages in it and the rest in a sub-level or footer. Check the mobile version separately. Menu links are internal links, so renaming or removing items affects how search engines find pages. Never remove a page without a redirect plan.
What the menu is for
A menu answers one question fast: "Can I find what I came for here?" WordPress's own documentation says it is essential to have a simplified navigation menu so as not to confuse visitors. That is the standard: if a first-time visitor cannot guess where a thing lives in a few seconds, the menu needs work.
Think of each main menu item as a promise. "Services" promises a list of what you do. "Contact" promises a way to reach you. Every item should keep its promise on the page it opens.
Structure: what goes where
WordPress compares menu structure to the headings in a formal report: top-level items are the main sections, and items indented beneath them are sub-sections. You can drag items to reorder them and to nest one under another. On sites using a block theme, newer WordPress versions manage navigation through the Navigation block instead of the older Appearance > Menus screen. The idea is the same, and we handle whichever your site uses.
| Place | What belongs there | Typical size |
|---|---|---|
| Main menu | Your core services or products, About, Contact | Short; every item must earn its place |
| Sub-menu (dropdown) | Related pages under one main item | One level; avoid going deeper |
| Footer menu | Legal pages, careers, secondary links | Can be longer |
| Button in the header | The single action you most want, such as Get a quote | One |
| In-page links | Everything else, linked from relevant text | As needed |
Labels: short, plain, familiar
Nielsen Norman Group advises using clear, specific and familiar wording and says the menu is not the place for made-up words. Avoid internal jargon. A visitor does not know your internal name for a service. "Roof repair" beats "Rooftop solutions." "Pricing" beats "Investment."
Keep labels to one to three words where you can. Put the key word first. Use the words your customers use, which you can learn from your enquiries and from the phrases showing in Search Console.
Example: Cleaning up a crowded menu
A veterinary clinic's menu has eleven top-level items: Home, About Us, Our Philosophy, Meet the Team, Services, Dogs, Cats, Exotic Pets, News, Book Online and Contact. The owner asks to add "Pet Dental Month" as a twelfth. Instead we propose: Services (with Dogs, Cats and Exotic pets underneath), About (with Team and Philosophy), Blog, Contact, and a Book online button. The Dental Month offer is linked from the home page and the Services page. Visitors see five choices and one button instead of twelve. Every old page is still reachable and no page was deleted.
The mobile menu is a separate design
On a phone the menu is usually collapsed behind an icon, often called a hamburger menu. Nielsen Norman Group calls hidden navigation a necessary evil on small screens, and notes that hiding it removes cues about what a site offers. So keep the mobile list short, make the tap targets large enough, and put the important action, such as call or book, where it is visible without opening the menu.
The same source advises against deep dropdowns: one level is fine, and more than two levels becomes hard to use. Submenus should open on tap or click, not hover, because touchscreens and keyboards have no hover. Always test the menu on a real phone, then on a tablet. See site looks wrong on mobile if something breaks.
What menu changes do to SEO and internal links
Menu items are links, and they usually appear on every page. Google's documentation says it generally needs a standard link with an href to follow it, and it recommends descriptive anchor text that tells users and Google what the target page is about. It also says every page you care about should have a link from at least one other page on your site. The menu is the strongest signal of which pages you consider important, because it links to them from everywhere.
That means three things. First, taking a page out of the menu can leave it with few or no links, so it becomes hard to find. Second, renaming a label changes the anchor text on every page. Make sure the new words still describe the destination. Third, a very long menu spreads attention thinly across too many links.
Removing or renaming pages: handle with care
- 1Never delete a page just because it is leaving the menu. A page can stay live and be linked from elsewhere.
- 2If a page really is going, send its visitors somewhere useful with a permanent redirect. Google's documentation notes that redirects fit when you removed a page and want to send users to a new one, and that 301 and 308 codes indicate a permanent move. See redirects.
- 3If you only rename a label, the page address stays the same and no redirect is needed.
- 4After the change, click every item on desktop and mobile and check none leads to an error page.
- 5Look at Search Console over the following weeks for pages that suddenly lose visits.
Do not link to a page that no longer exists. Broken menu links appear on every page and frustrate visitors immediately.
When to ask us
Send a request through the support form with the menu as you want it, written as an outline: main items in order, with sub-items indented below. Mention which items are new pages and which exist already, any that are being removed, and the wording of each label. If a new page does not exist yet, see add a new page first. We will show a preview of both desktop and mobile versions. Never send passwords.
