How big should your WordPress menu be?
Your menu isn’t just a list of links — it’s a roadmap for your website. A cluttered or oversized menu can confuse visitors, increase bounce rates, and even hurt accessibility. On smaller screens, large menus can become especially difficult to use, leading to frustration and missed content.
You might think that offering more choices in your menu bar is beneficial, the more the merrier so to speak!
When it comes to menus, bigger isn’t always better. In fact, one of the most common mistakes people make is trying to include everything on a single menu. While it might feel helpful to give visitors lots of choices, too many options can actually overwhelm them and make it harder for them to decide what to click.
Actually, it’s not the case. Too many choices can leave readers afraid and confused.
A well-structured menu helps visitors:
Think of your menu as a conversation starter, not a full explanation.
What happens when readers get overwhelmed?
When there are too many options it encourages wrong decisions and it becomes hard to know where to begin.
Instead of reading on, they begin to skim. If things feel confusing or heavy, they often leave altogether. An overwhelmed reader is less likely to click, subscribe, or take any action — not because your content isn’t good, but because their brain is trying to reduce effort.
🗣 When readers get overwhelmed, they stop engaging!
Here’s what typically happens:
This is why clarity matters more than cleverness. When your content feels calm, structured, and easy to follow, readers relax — and relaxed readers stay longer, understand more, and are far more likely to take the next step.
how many menu items is the right amount?
As a general rule, your main navigation menu should include between 5 and 6 top-level items. This keeps your menu clean, easy to scan, and far less intimidating for visitors. People should be able to understand what your site is about within a few seconds of landing on it — your menu plays a huge role in that.
🗣 Keep it simple, between 3 – 5 and absolutely no more than 6!
Where To add other links?
If a page isn’t important enough to be in your main menu, that doesn’t mean it’s unimportant — it just means it may belong somewhere else.
If you have more content than will comfortably fit, that’s where sub-menus or secondary navigation come in. Group related pages together under a clear parent label. This keeps your main menu tidy while still allowing visitors to dig deeper when they’re ready.
🗣 If you do have other important pages that need to be seen, add them to your footer. It’s time to stop thinking readers don’t scroll that far!
Other alternatives great places for supporting pages are in-content links and call-to-action buttons.
What about mega menus?
In most cases, mega menus are best avoided. While they can look impressive, they often create more problems than they solve. Mega menus try to show too much information at once, which can overwhelm visitors and make it harder for them to decide where to go next.
They also tend to rely heavily on JavaScript, animations, and extra styling, all of which load when the page loads. This adds unnecessary weight to your site, increasing load times and negatively affecting performance — especially on mobile devices and slower connections. A slow menu can frustrate users before they’ve even engaged with your content.
From a usability perspective, mega menus can be tricky to navigate, particularly for keyboard users and those relying on screen readers. Small hover gaps, delayed animations, or accidental mouse movement can cause menus to close unexpectedly, leading to a poor user experience.
Unless you’re running a very large site with thousands of products or categories — such as a major eCommerce platform — a simple, well-organised menu will almost always perform better. Clear labels, logical grouping, and thoughtful page hierarchy will beat an over-engineered menu every time.
When Do Mega Menus Make Sense? Mega menus can be useful in very specific situations, such as large eCommerce websites or content-heavy platforms with hundreds of categories that genuinely need to be visible at once. When implemented carefully — with performance, accessibility, and mobile behavior properly optimized — they can help users scan complex structures more quickly.
For most small to medium websites, however, a well-planned standard menu with 5-6 links will be clearer, faster, and easier to manage.
🗣 Best practice is to avoid them, they’re too confusing and require a lot of script when your pages!
How to Assess Your Menu
If you’re unsure whether your menu is too big, ask yourself these questions:
A good test is to show your site to someone unfamiliar with it and ask them to find a specific page. If they hesitate or get lost, your menu likely needs simplifying.
How to Change Your Menu?
Your menu isn’t something you need to get perfect on day one. As your website grows, it’s completely normal for your navigation to evolve too. The key is to review it regularly.
Making small changes — like renaming a menu item or moving a link to the footer — can make a big difference to how people experience your site.
👉 If you’re using WordPress, most themes allow you to manage menus visually, without touching any code. And if you’d like step-by-step guidance, we’ve created tutorials that walk through menu changes clearly and calmly, so you can make updates with confidence when you’re ready.
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Disclaimer: Glamsy Designs shares this guide for learning only and cannot be held responsible for issues that may occur. While we strive to provide accurate and helpful advice, Glamsy Designs is not responsible for any issues, damages, or data loss that may occur as a result of following this guide. It is always recommended to back up your website.
