How to add to or adjust the navbar on your website

The navbar (short for navigation bar) is the clickable menu that is found at the top of most websites which navigates you to other pages on the website. On your publication website, you can choose to put any internal or external link in your navbar. 

The links in your navbar backlink across category-specific content as well as point to other content across your publication. This can have powerful SEO benefits and help your site and content pages rank higher in search results. 

The ability to add to and adjust the look of your website’s navbar lies within the Website Builder controls in your account. In this article, we’ll cover how to add menu items to your navbar. Then we’ll go over how to add a custom page to your navbar while you’re creating it, saving you time and simplifying your experience. 

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Watch and learn: How to Customize the Navigation Bar on Your beehiiv Website

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How to add menu items to your website navbar

1. From the left panel Dashboard, go to Design > Website Builder.
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. The Website Builder will open on the options for your Home Page and on the Styles tab, click on the Layout tab instead. Then, select the Global Navigation Layout option from the left panel.
   
   
   
   
   
   Note: The Layout tab is only accessible on paid beehiiv plans.
3. You can enable a login option for your publication site by toggling it on under Navigation Menu Options. Checking this will display a login button on the navbar of your beehiiv site.
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. To add a new menu item (aka group) to your navbar, click on + Add Menu Item.
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. A form will appear on the right where you’ll need to add a Title (required), which is the text that your site visitors will see in the navbar. Then click on the Create button.
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. Each menu group that you create will populate under the + Add Menu Item button.
   
   To access edit options for the group, click on the 3-dots menu on the right. Or, to drag and drop your menu groups into any order you wish, click on the 6-dots menu on the left.
   
   
   Tech Note: In order to see a new group/menu item on your site, you must have at least one content tag created for the group and link it to a post. Additionally, if you only have one post in a group, it will display as a single link in the navbar, not as a dropdown menu.
7. To create a new group with your existing content tags, click on Add Categories Group. This will add a dropdown menu item for the tag to your navbar with links to all the category specific content that uses the tag.
   
   
   
   
   
   
8. You’ll be asked to confirm your category group choice, noting that links will be automatically added to your site for posts with the specified tag. Click on Add to confirm.
   
   
   
   
   
   
9. After adding groups, a toggle option will appear under Categories. By default, you’ll see all of your created content tags (now used as categories). To customize which categories appear, first toggle the option on so that it shows as being checked.
   
   Each of your categories will appear gray, click them to turn them pink and add them to your menu. If you wish to remove them, simply click again so it turns gray.
   
   
   
   
   
   
10. You can add individual pages to both your website and your navbar. Choose between Standalone pages that don’t appear in your navbar, or Draft pages that do. To add either type of page, scroll down to the Standalone Pages or Draft Pages options, then click + Add Page.
    
    Standalone pages will take you to the custom page options. Draft page will let you choose between Internal pages (which will take you to the custom page options) or adding an External page.
    
    Learn how to set up custom pages by reading this article. For the specific instructions for how to add your custom page to your navbar as you create it, jump down to the next set of instructions.
    
    
    
    
    
    
11. If you choose to add an External page, a form will appear on the right for you to add your Title, URL, and to select which menu items you want to add the page to. Once complete, click Create to save.
    
    
    

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How to add to your navbar while creating a Custom Page 

1. From within the Custom Page editor, on the right hand menu, click into the dropdown options under Add to Website.
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. You can choose between the different menu groups that you’ve added and wish to add your page to. Make your selections and then click Create Page in the upper right corner.
   
   
   

Refer to this article for more details about Custom Pages.