How To Build a Wix Website Menu
Updated: Jul 4, 2022
What Is A Website Menu?
A website menu is the main source of user navigation for a website. Having a menu on your site will allow for an organized list of different site pages in a conveniently located spot. Most site menus have their main pages featured as categories, while related “sub-pages” are linked on the menu through a drop down feature. The idea of creating categories for viewers to choose from allows for less confusion within your crowd. Ideally, the menu that you create should funnel all of your website traffic towards the page you want them to see.
Now that you understand what the menu feature is, how should you be utilizing it? This article will be covering multiple different menu related topics including design, location, and content that should be included on your site's menu.
How To Add A Menu On Wix
Before we get into the specifics about menu design and location, here’s how you actually add a menu to your site.
When viewing the Wix editor page you click on the + icon labeled “add” in the top left of the editor.
Find the category labeled “menu & anchor”. This is currently placed as the 11th category on the list.
Decide if a vertical or horizontal menu works better for your website.
Click on the menu you like best!
Where To Put A Site Menu
Now that you have decided on a menu style, it’s time to choose where you want it to be located. It’s essential that users can find the menu and that it fits in well with your page. Here are some popular locations that other websites place their menus on.
Header:
The traditional location for a website to place their menu is in the header. The header of a site stays the same throughout each page that it is visualized on, therefore making it an appropriate place for a menu. The header is also a great spot for a website menu because viewers are used to it being located there. Arguably, placing a site menu anywhere else could cause slight confusion for certain crowds.
Footer:
The footer is an option that some businesses take into consideration when making a landing or home page. By placing a menu in the footer it ensures any traffic throughout a website has been viewed prior to advancing further into the site’s content.
Top Of The Page:
Having a menu located at the top of the page, but not the header, is another option. For similar reasons to the header, this location is going to be one of the first spots a viewer gives their attention towards. When choosing this option through Wix, remember that you will have to add a menu individually to each page of your site. Wix will not automatically place a menu on each page unless it is in the header or footer.
Lightbox:
Choosing to place your menu within a light box is another fun option. Lightboxes can be set to automatically pop-up on any page with a custom set delay. In addition, lightboxes can be opened by clicking on an element. This makes creating an element and labeling it as a menu a valid option for your site. The one downfall to this strategy is that attempting to make lightboxes mobile friendly can be frustrating, yet worth it when executed correctly.
What To Include In A Site Menu
Choosing what is included on your website's menu is 100% up to you. A website should have a menu that is custom to what it needs, not what other people have. One recommendation that we have is to keep your page/category names short. This tip will allow for the menu to take up less room and look professional. With this being said, here are some ideas that you could include in your menu.
Home - This will allow for traffic to originate back to your home page.
Shop / Products / Services - Most of the time your website will be selling or promoting something. Make sure all web traffic can easily find where this is being sold.
Blog - Blog posts and articles generate traffic. If you have one, let it be known.
Portfolio - If someone is on your website they are interested in what you do, make it easy for them to find it!
How To Design A Wix Menu
Now that you have a layout for your website’s menu, it’s time to decorate it! To decorate the menu, you click on the menu and choose layout. This will allow for you to choose the order in which your links will show up, along with a couple of other features. Next, close the layout tab and open design. Here you can either choose a preset design or you can choose custom at the bottom of the tab. Choosing “customize design” will allow you to build a menu that better suits your site.
When going through the custom options it is important to fill out everything. Remember to change all of the settings on each of the 3 different categories (regular, hover, and clicked) as they will not automatically update after changing one section. We find that making the text color under the "hover section" a bright or contrasting color works well. This allows the website viewers to know there is a button they can click when hovering.
A couple of additional tips when designing a menu include making the regular text color a contrasting color to the background, making text large enough to read, and updating the menu colors as you progress further into your website.
Good Luck!
Here at JJTPOSTS we wish you the best of luck in your website creation and maintenance career. Designing your site menu should be fun and feel good, it’s a crucial step to making your website beautiful. If you ever find yourself needing website work performed feel free to check us out at https://jjtposts.com/website-design or by clicking on “Website Design” from the menu on top of this page.