A site menu — also called a navigation menu, main menu, page menu or even a hamburger menu! — is the set of links that helps visitors move around your website. It’s usually found at the top of the page (sometimes in a sidebar or footer) and includes links to your most important pages, like Home, About, Services, Blog, Contact, etc.

Think of the site menu as your website’s roadmap. It gives people an easy way to explore what you offer without feeling lost. A clear, well-organized menu creates a smoother experience — helping visitors find what they need quickly and encouraging them to stay longer.

Note:

A “hamburger menu” is a bit more modern, borrowed from the mobile world where there isn’t as much room for a full menu, so it’s condensed into a stack of three short lines, or something similar. As the distinctions between mobile-only and desktop-only become increasingly blurred, some design features like the hamburger menu are being used more interchangeably.

Plotting The Navigation

Designing a site’s navigation is a bit of art and a bit of science, where some strategy is needed to direct visitors where we want them to go, without losing any functionality on the site. You could, for example, have 30 active pages on your website, but only 5 showing in the main menu -- so it’s not too overcrowded and confusing for your visitor to figure out where they’re supposed to go.

If numerous visible pages are truly necessary, there are creative workarounds to consider (such as drop-down submenus) before cramming them all into the main menu.