Tips to Create a Vertical Navigation Menu in WordPress

July 15. 2022

WordPress is all about great user experience and that’s why it gives you plenty of options to design a unique website your visitors will love. You can decide on the smallest details such as how you want to show your navigation menus or client testimonials. We at WP Full Care believe that the key to a beautiful and functional site lies in getting those details right. That’s why we’ve chosen to dedicate this article to explaining simple ways to create a vertical navigation menu in WordPress. Now let’s get to work!

What is a WordPress navigation menu and how to create a vertical one for your website?

A website’s navigation menu is a list of links that lead to its most important parts and pages. On a WordPress website, they are typically shown in the form of a bar of links that runs horizontally across the top of every page. On top of that, adding a navigation menu to your WordPress website is very simple and easy even for beginners.

Navigation menus are there to provide structure to your website and assist your users in easily locating the information they need. You have the ability to add links to your most essential pages, categories, blog posts, and even custom links like your social media profile. There’s even an option to add no-follow links to your website’s navigation menu.

As you probably noticed, navigation menus are typically arranged in a horizontal fashion at the very top of a website. Even though they are convenient and something that we’re all used to, vertical navigation menus offer a wide variety of applications and benefits, too.

Having said all of that, let’s take a look at the two simplest ways to create a vertical navigation menu in WordPress. Here’s what we’ll focus on in this article:

• Test different menu locations
• Create a vertical navigation menu using in WordPress using a Theme Builder plugin

Test different menu locations

When you add a navigation menu to your website you can choose whether you want to display it vertically or horizontally. This will depend on your theme and where you choose to put your menu. For instance, the Twenty Twenty-One theme doesn’t have any vertical locations. However, the Twenty Twenty theme does – just look for “Desktop Expanded Menu“.

Depending on the theme you’re using, you can choose from a different number of menu locations. Some of them may have their menus set up vertically. In order to see if this works with your theme, simply go to “Appearance” and click on “Menus“. Here, you can try out different locations and determine which places are available on your website. As you will be able to see how each of those locations will show your navigation menu, you can choose the most suitable one for you.

Are you using full site editing?

It’s possible that you see “Appearance » Editor (Beta)” instead of “Appearance » Menus”. If that’s the case, it means that the Full Site Editing (FSE) is turned on for your theme. This simply means that you’ll have to create a vertical navigation menu for your WordPress website in a slightly different way.

To do this, you will need to navigate to the “Appearance” and then choose “Editor” on your WordPress dashboard. When you are ready, go ahead and click on the navigational menu that appears at the very top of the website header. The next step is for you to select the “Select Navigation” button and on the panel to the right, you should now see many customization options for your navigation menu. In order to get a vertical menu, you need only to click the down arrow for vertical orientation.

Create a vertical navigation menu using in WordPress using a Theme Builder plugin

The SeedProd page builder and custom theme builder plugin is currently the industry standard for excellence. It gives you the option to easily create a vertical navigation menu anywhere on your WordPress website.

Keep in mind that there are both free and premium versions of this plugin. The free version will allow you to add vertical navigation menus only to specific pages. However, if you want to access the theme builder and add a navigation menu to your theme templates, you will need the premium version. It offers straightforward tools and the option to develop a bespoke theme for your WordPress website.

To create your custom theme, first, you need to access the “Theme Builder” page. You can also check out a pre-made theme gallery and possibly find a theme that’s perfect for your website.  This is a very simple task, too – simply select the “Themes” option and you’re there. You’ll find a list of themes that have been expertly built for various kinds of websites. This makes your search easier as you can simply type in keywords such as “Marketing Agency” or “Mortgage Broker” and you can check out different options. Once you check out available choices, you can simply click the checkbox next to the theme that seems to meet your requirements the most closely.

Adding a vertical navigation menu in SeedProd

Now you can proceed to add a vertical navigation menu. To do this, hover your mouse over the theme you want to edit and click on “Edit Design“. This will open the page builder in SeedProd that allows you to drag and drop elements. On the left, you’ll see a variety of blocks that you may add to your website, and on the right, you’ll see a sample of your website.  You’ll have to scroll all the way down until you get to the Advanced section.

As soon as you find the Nav Menu block, you should drag it onto your sidebar or wherever else you want the navigation menu to appear. At this point, you should select the “Advanced” tab by clicking on it. You will discover an option in this section that allows you to orient the navigation menu either vertically or horizontally.

Final thoughts

There are plenty more simple ways to create a vertical navigation menu in WordPress. The best part is that they are all fairly simple and suitable even for beginners. But no matter how easy it might be, no one said that it will be fun. So why not reach out to WordPress experts and let them handle every aspect of your website? You can focus on doing what you love knowing your website is handled in the best way possible.