How to set up header and footer menu for your niche website

The header and footer menu bar or the navigation bar is very important for your niche website. In this article, I will explain, step by step how to set up a header and footer menu for your niche website using WordPress and generatepress.

If you are new to blogging and niche sites, follow an article on how to set up a niche website step by step. And our target audience for these niche websites is the United States of America.

For a website, navigation options are quite important for your users or readers. They can easily go to their favorite topics by using the navigation menus.

A navigation bar is not only important for the readers, it is also quite important when you will apply your site for the Google Adsense program. If you will not have a proper site navigation menu, then your site might get rejected for Adsense with an error saying “Site Behavior: Navigation“.

You can see here, on this website, I have added a header navigation menu that has options like (Home, Blogging, YouTube, Earn Money, Income Reports & Niche Site Case Study) and also I have set up a footer menu, that has options like About, Contact, Privacy Policy, Sitemap)

And both the menus look like the below:

set up header and footer menu niche website
set up header and footer menu niche website

We will see here, how we can create a navigation menu like the above on our WordPress website.

Create header and footer menu in WordPress

Now, let us see, how to create a header and footer menu in WordPress. First, we will create the header menu and then we will create the footer menu.

How to create a header menu on a WordPress website

Let us how to create a header menu for our niche website. Here mostly, I have added the main Categories into the header menu.

If you have not yet created any Categories, then follow the below steps to add the categories that you want to add to the navigation menu.

  • Open the WordPress Admin area, then expand Posts -> Categories. This will show you all your categories and also allow options to add a new category.
  • Here provide a name for the category, slug (URL), parent category, and a short description. It looks like the below:
create custom menu in wordpress
add a new category to WordPress site
  • This way, I have created all the required categories on my WordPress niche website.
Create a Custom Navigation Menu in WordPress
Create a Custom Navigation Menu in WordPress

Once we have created our categories, now we can create the main menu.

  • From your website admin area, click on Appearance -> Menus. If you do not see the Menus options, make sure to check if you have installed the GeneratePress theme or not. Once you will install it, the option should appear.
make primary menu wordpress
Create a primary menu wordpress
  • By default, it will show to create your first menu. You will be able to see the Menu name, Menus (Home & Sample Page).
  • From the left site, you can add menus from the Pages, Posts, Custom Links & Categories section.
custom menu in wordpress
custom menu in WordPress
  • Here, I have customized the menu, like I have added the Home menu option from the Pages tab.
  • Then from the Posts, I have added a particular page to the menu, in this case, the page is “Niche Site Case Study”.
  • And then I selected all the categories from the Categories tab like below.
how to custom menu in wordpress
How to custom menu in wordpress
  • Then click on “Create Menu“, which will create our menu.
  • If you want to change the order or change the menu label, click on the Menu and change the label from Navigation Label.
  • You can use the Up one, down one links to re-order the menu. And in case you want to remove the menu, click on the Remove link below:
create a custom menu in wordpress
create a custom menu in wordpress
  • This is how to create a custom menu on the WordPress website.

Create a footer menu on WordPress website

You can follow the exact steps and create another menu. Click on the create a new menu link and it will create another menu.

On the footer menu, I have added all the pages like:

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Sitemap, etc.

All the pages, I have added as menu items from the Pages tab. And the footer menu structure looks like the below:

Add footer menu in wordpress
Add footer menu in wordpress

So, by this time, our header and footer menu has been created.

Next, we will see, how to add these two menus into the Primary navigation and in the footer bar on our WordPress website.

Configure Header and Footer Menu in GeneratePress

Let us know, how to configure the menus in generatepress.

  • Open your WordPress admin area, then click on Appearance -> Customize. This will open the Customization page. Here click on Menus.
add custom menu in wordpress admin
add custom menu in wordpress admin
  • Here you will be able to see your Main Menu has been set as your primary menu. It should look like the below:
wordpress navigation menu
WordPress navigation menu
  • If you have multiple menus, you can see your Menus like below:
wordpress website navigation menu
WordPress website navigation menu

Setting up the primary menu or the main menu is quite straightforward in generatepress WordPress theme.

Follow the below steps to add the footer menu on the footer bar

  • From the same customization page, click on Widgets.
Create a custom navigation menu in wordpress
Create a custom navigation menu in WordPress
  • Then in the Widgets, click on Footer Bar.
Add footer menu in wordpress website
Add footer menu in WordPress website
  • Then in the Footer Bar widget, click on the + Add block icon.
wordpress footer navigation
WordPress footer navigation
  • Here, search for Navigation and you will see the Navigation Menu. Click on it to add the Navigation widget.
footer menu wordpress
footer menu WordPress
  • It will display all your menus, select the Menu which you want to appear here. I have chosen here Footer menu.
how to make footer wordpress
How to make footer WordPress
  • Once you select and click on the Publish button.
WordPress website footer menu
WordPress website footer menu
  • Once you click on the Publish button. You will be able to see the Footer menu appears on the Footer bar of your wordpress niche website.
WordPress website footer menu generatepress
WordPress website footer menu generatepress

From generatepress theme, this is how to set the header or primary menu and footer menu for your website.

Conclusion

Header and footer menus are an important part of any website, helping to organize content and provide easy access to key areas. Here, I have walk you through how to set up your header and footer menus for your niche website.

The header menu is important as, it allows you to control the user experience and keep them on your site. And it also provides an opportunity to include important pages or links that may not be included in the main navigation bar. When creating a header menu, think about what’s most important to your niche audience and make sure those items are easily accessible.

The footer menu is a great place to add additional links to pages on your website, such as the contact us, terms of service or privacy policy, etc.

I hope you got an idea on how to set up header and footer menu for your niche website using WordPress and GeneratePress theme.

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