How to Add a Menu Item to Your WordPress Website
This lesson demonstrates how to create a new post and add it to a WordPress navigation menu. The example shown creates a schedule page for P.L.E.M. Academy mentorship sessions and then places that page within an existing website menu structure.
Why Use Navigation Menus?
Navigation menus allow visitors to quickly locate important information on a website.
Common menu items include:
- Home.
- About.
- Courses.
- Schedule.
- Contact Information.
- Resources.
- Member Areas.
By organizing information into menus, visitors can locate important pages without searching through posts or categories.
Step 1: Create the New Post
The lesson begins by creating a new WordPress post that will later become a menu item.
In the example, a simple schedule page is created containing meeting information for upcoming mentorship sessions.
The basic process is:
- Create a new post.
- Enter a title.
- Add the desired content.
- Publish the post.
Once published, the page becomes available for use within WordPress menus.
Step 2: Open the WordPress Customizer
After publishing the post, the next step is opening the WordPress customization tools.
This can be accessed through:
- Customize.
- Dashboard → Appearance → Customize.
- Dashboard → Appearance → Themes → Customize.
Depending on the theme being used, navigation options may appear slightly different, but the general process remains the same.
Create the content first. Then add it to the navigation menu.
Step 3: Open the Menu Settings
Inside the customizer, navigate to the menu section.
The lesson demonstrates selecting an existing menu and then choosing:
Add Item
WordPress then displays available content that can be added to the navigation structure.
Possible options include:
- Posts.
- Pages.
- Categories.
- Custom Links.
- Products.
- Membership Content.
Step 4: Add the New Item
Once the desired post is located, simply select it and WordPress automatically places it into the navigation menu.
The lesson demonstrates adding a schedule page that contains mentorship meeting information.
The newly created page can then be:
- Placed at the top level.
- Nested under another menu item.
- Added to a dropdown menu.
- Reorganized by drag and drop.
Using Dropdown Menus
The lesson recommends limiting the number of top level menu items whenever possible.
Instead of creating an excessively long navigation bar, related pages can be organized beneath a parent item.
Examples include:
- My Account.
- Certificates.
- Courses.
- Resources.
- Research Position.
This keeps the website organized while reducing visual clutter.
Creating a Schedule Page
The example shown in the lesson creates a dedicated schedule page for mentorship meetings.
The schedule contains:
- Meeting days.
- Meeting times.
- Time zone information.
- Zoom access information.
- Membership access details.
By placing this information in a menu item, members can quickly locate upcoming events without searching through announcements.
Organizing Content Efficiently
The lesson also provides insight into the workflow used for building large lesson libraries.
Videos are typically:
- Recorded first.
- Uploaded to YouTube.
- Transcribed.
- Converted into written lessons.
- Organized into categories.
- Placed into structured lesson libraries.
This process gradually builds a searchable educational resource over time.
A well organized menu helps visitors find information quickly and improves the overall user experience.
Final Message
This lesson demonstrates how to create a new post, publish it, and add it to a WordPress navigation menu. By combining organized content with clear menu structures, website owners can make information easier to access while creating a more professional experience for visitors.
Original Transcript
All right, kids. Um, in this video, I’m going to show you how to add a uh add a menu item to your WordPress. This is just another for the for the research positions here for the modern web developer. Just show you some scattered stuff. I need to have a place that is going to provide the schedule for my for my um Plum Academy Zoom meetings. So, I am going to do this. I’m going to make a new post here. I’m going to do it under a post. It doesn’t matter if you’re post or page for what I’m doing here. And just I’m gonna type in uh Zoom schedule or just uh let’s see um mentorship ship. I just type in schedule for now if I can type. Uh so tomorrow tomorrow we’ll start tomorrow I’m starting 10:30 central. So the first one I’m going to do is wed day wed day. They put a uh Wednesday 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Central. That’s CST. And uh so I I need a schedule. So I just this is I’m just making a quick post here. And I’m going to hit publish. Uh and this is also for the schedule is for the I need to change the the availability. This is not for the basic access. So it’s for everybody but the basic access. Let me save that. And now I am going to now go to the main website and I want to have this schedule right here on the top bar. So, I’m going to go to customize and I’m going to go to menu and I already have the main menu made and um so I’m going to add item. I might I might just I’m going to go to post here and just hit schedule and I might actually just leave that underneath the my account. So, let me see what that looks like here. So, right here, schedule. I’d leave it like that. Having too many menu items up here. So, so I’m going to be doing Wednesday and then the Zoom link. The Zoom link, you guys that are logged in will be able to access the Zoom link and which will be here. I’ll put that in later. This is just a quick video that’ll be categorized in the playlist. Just so you guys, if you guys are new here, I make like 10 20 videos um a day and then I go through and then I organize them the next day in all of these all of these individual files here and or post whatever and then um the instructions, the step-by-step instructions here. So you might see the videos show up on YouTube and then the next day I I make a screen I make the featured image for it with the with the title here and then have AI take the transcript and rewrite the transcript to and put it into the accordion here for the instructions just so you guys know. So this is just a quick lesson on how to add a how to make a post and add a menu item to your drop down there. All right.