How to Change the Order of Tabs in a WordPress Nav

“Shake, shake, shake it up!” ~ Shake It Up, The Cars

Sometimes we just like to mix things up or highlight a specific menu item, like an upcoming event, discount or offer. No matter your reason for a Nav bar shake-up, it’s simple enough to re-order your tabs in a flash. In this tutorial I show you step by step how to change your Nav tab order in WordPress. While there may be plenty of times when you need to call your WordPress developer for help, this will not be one of those times. Bonus: There are also a few tips from KISSmetrics about the importance of clear and well-organized navigation at the bottom of this post.

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Step 1: Hover the cursor to highlight Appearance.

Step 2: Click on Menus.

 Step 3: Left-click and hold your menu item that you want to move.

Step 4: Drag your menu item up or down and release the mouse button when you’ve chosen the new order. Sub-menu items can be moved around in the same way.

Step 5: Don’t forget to click Save Menu.

Website Navigation Tips

[youtube=http://youtu.be/mbKVCbe7V9s]

According to an article by Kiss Metrics the order of your navigation matters greatly.

Items that appear first or last on any list are most effective. Navigation is no exception. Psychology studies show that attention and retention are highest for things that appear at the beginning and at the end. It’s called the “serial position effect,” and it’s based on the principles of primacy and recency.

 Be descriptive in your navigation titles.

Just saying services on your Nav does not tell anyone what type of services that you offer. Instead try putting Lawn Services or Blog Design in your nav. By doing this you are slightly helping your SEO efforts and greatly helping your website visitors answer the “Why am I here?” question.

Don’t make it hard on the eyes.

Usually, black text on a white background is the easiest thing for people to read. With that said, we all like to add a bit of color to our blog designs. My suggestion is to always have a dark color on a light background, like yellow text on navy, for example.