How to customize WordPress navigation

Keep navigation focused on the pages visitors need. WordPress 7.1's Navigation block can use an automatic page list or individually managed links; those behave differently when you publish another page.

Find the menu you are changing

For a block theme, open Appearance → Editor and either inspect Navigation or edit the header containing the relevant Navigation block. Use List View to select the block. Confirm the menu name before changing it: more than one Navigation block can use the same menu.

For a classic theme, use its menu controls, commonly Appearance → Menus or the Customizer. Choose the correct display location. The remaining block-specific steps apply to a Navigation block.

Replace an automatic page list

A newly inserted Navigation block can begin with Page List, which includes published pages automatically. Select that Page List and choose Edit in its toolbar, then confirm the conversion. It becomes individually editable page links.

After conversion, newly published pages are no longer automatically added to that list. This gives you control over menu content, but you need to add future pages yourself.

Add, edit and order links

1. Select a menu item and use its settings to change the displayed Text or Link to destination.
2. Use + (Add page) to find an existing page by title. Choose the correct page from the results.
3. For a custom URL, use Add block → Custom Link and enter the destination.
4. Move items with toolbar movement controls or drag them in List View.
5. To group related links, select an item and use Add submenu, then add the child links.
6. Save and review the menu and template-part changes listed by WordPress.

Use short descriptive labels. Deleting a menu link does not delete the page it points to. When creating a page from the menu interface, pay attention to its publish setting so a blank page is not made public unintentionally.

Configure the mobile menu

Select the Navigation block and open Settings → Overlay. The current Overlay visibility choices are Off, Mobile and Always. Mobile collapses navigation at smaller widths; Always uses the menu control at every width.

Select the menu preview to inspect the available icon options. WordPress 7.1 also documents an overlay-template customization flow. Start with the default overlay until your ordinary links work; a custom overlay requires checking its own layout and interactions.

Verify the result

Open the public page on a phone and operate the menu with a keyboard. Confirm that focus is visible, submenus can be opened, the overlay can be closed and no link runs off screen. Test every destination.

If another header still shows the old links, inspect which menu its Navigation block uses. If changes are absent everywhere, confirm that you saved the navigation item and clear the relevant cache.