# Menus This is where the links at the top of your website live. The links in the footer live here too. Go to **Manage**, then **Menus**. :::note[Important] There are two screens called Menus, and they do different jobs. **Manage**, then **Menus**, is this one. It is your website's navigation. **Content**, then **Menus (Food)**, is a food menu: dishes and prices. See [Menus (Food)](/content/menus-food/) for that one. ::: ## The four menus ![The Menus screen with four numbered marks: 1 on Primary Navigation, 2 on its Edit button, 3 on the trash icon beside it, 4 on Create Menu.](../../../assets/screenshots/nav-menus-list.png) *Four menus. Only these four show up on your website.* **1. Primary Navigation.** The links across the top of every page. This is the one you will open. **2. Edit.** Opens the menu so you can change its links. **3. The trash icon.** Deletes the whole menu. Read the warning below first. **4. Create Menu.** Makes a new menu. Read the note below first. The other three are your footer. **Footer: Product** fills the Product column, **Footer: Company** fills the Company column, and **Footer: Support** fills the Support column. The gray line under each name tells you how many links it holds. :::note[Important] **Footer: Company** starts with three links that came with the design: About, Blog and Careers. Your website has no such pages, so all three land on a "page not found" screen. Take them out. [Step 6](/setup/navigation/) shows you how. ::: :::caution[Warning] The trash icon deletes the menu and every link in it, and your visitors see the result at once. Delete **Primary Navigation** and the top of your website has no links left at all: just your name and the **Get A Quote** button. Nothing on this screen puts a deleted menu back. Email us instead. ::: :::note[Important] **Create Menu** makes a menu your website never reads. It shows up on this screen and nowhere else. There is no harm in it, but there is no point either. You only ever need the four you have. ::: ## Changes go live at once There is no **Save** and no **Publish** on these screens. Add a link and it is on your website that second. Same for a rename, a reorder, or a removal. That is different from the rest of the panel, where your work waits until you publish. Read [Saving and publishing](/start-here/saving-and-publishing/) for how the rest of it works. :::tip[Tip] After every change here, click **View Site** at the top right and look at your own website. It takes five seconds and it is the only way to be sure. ::: ## The menu editor Click **Edit** on **Primary Navigation**. ![The Primary Navigation editor with four numbered marks: 1 on Add Content, 2 on Add Custom Link, 3 on the up arrow in a row, 4 on the trash icon in a row.](../../../assets/screenshots/nav-menus-edit.png) *One row is one link. Top of the list is the leftmost link on your website.* **1. Add Content.** Adds a link by picking one of your pages from a list. **2. Add Custom Link.** Adds a link by typing the address yourself. This is the one to use. **3. The arrows.** Move a link up or down the list. **4. The trash icon.** Removes that link. Read the warning further down. Between the arrows and the trash icon sits **Edit**. It opens the link so you can change its words or its address. ## Adding a link Click **Add Custom Link**. ![The Add Custom Link box with three numbered marks: 1 on Label, 2 on URL, 3 on Target. Label reads Food Menu and URL reads slash menu.](../../../assets/screenshots/nav-menus-add-link.png) *Label is what people read. URL is where they land.* **1. Label.** The words your visitors see, such as `Food Menu`. Keep it to one or two words. Long labels crowd the bar. **2. URL.** The address. For a page on your own website, start with a slash: `/pricing`, `/contact`, `/gallery`. For somewhere else, paste the whole address, starting with `https://`. **3. Target.** **Same window** replaces the page they are on. **New window** opens a second tab and leaves your website open behind it. Use **New window** for links to other people's websites, and **Same window** for your own. :::caution[Warning] Check the address before you click **Add**. Nothing here tests it. A wrong address, or a link to a page you have not published, sends every visitor who clicks it to a "page not found" screen. Your website will not warn you, and the link looks perfectly normal until somebody uses it. Type the address into your browser first. If it opens the page you meant, it is safe to use here. ::: Click **Add**. The link appears at the bottom of the list, and at the right hand end of the bar on your website. ![The top of the live website. The link bar reads Services, Service Areas, Gallery, Pricing, Contact, Food Menu, then a Get A Quote button.](../../../assets/screenshots/nav-menus-live.png) *The same links, on the live site, the moment they were added.* ### About Add Content **Add Content** shows you a list of your pages and adds the one you pick. It works, but it builds a longer address that bounces the visitor through a second web address on the way. **Add Custom Link** with `/pricing` typed in is tidier, and it is the same amount of work. ### Linking to your food menu page If your website has a food menu, it sits at `/menu`. Nothing links to it out of the box, so add the link yourself: **Add Custom Link**, label `Menu`, URL `/menu`. ## Changing the order Use the up and down arrows on each row. One click moves the link one place. Top of the list is the leftmost link on your website. Bottom of the list is the rightmost, next to the **Get A Quote** button. Put the things people came for first. Services and Contact earn their place at the front. Anything nobody clicks belongs at the back, or nowhere. ## Renaming a link :::caution[Warning] The new wording is on your website the second you click **Save**. Renaming does not change the address, so nothing breaks. It does change what regular visitors are looking for. If **Pricing** becomes **Our Rates**, the people who knew where to click now have to hunt. ::: Click **Edit** on its row, change the **Label**, and click **Save**. ## Removing a link :::caution[Warning] The trash icon takes the link off your website right away. Every visitor loses that route, including people who use it every week. The page itself is untouched. It is still there, still published, still at the same address. Only the link to it is gone, so the only way to that page is now a search engine or a bookmark. Before you remove a link, make sure another page still links to that page. If none does, leave the link where it is. ::: Click the trash icon on the row. The link goes. Put it back with **Add Custom Link** and the same label and address. ## Do not set a Parent The **Edit** box has a **Parent** setting. Leave it on **No parent (top level)**. :::caution[Warning] Your website draws one flat row of links. It has no drop-down menus. Give a link a parent and it disappears from your website completely. It is still on this screen, so nothing looks wrong here, but no visitor can see it or click it. If a link has vanished from your site but is still listed here, open it and check **Parent**. ::: ## When something goes wrong :::danger[Contact support] Contact us if: - the links across the top of your website are gone - you deleted a menu by mistake - a menu is missing from this screen Tell us which menu and roughly when. We keep a copy of how your navigation was set up, and putting it back takes us minutes. Email [support@lookoutridgeit.com](mailto:support@lookoutridgeit.com). [Getting support](/help/getting-support/) says what to put in the message. :::