A premium WordPress theme can be one of the best ways to really improve the looks of your WordPress web site.

Because WordPress is free you don’t have to spend money purchasing it,so with the money you’ll save you can afford to get a great looking premium theme—and it’ll still be cheaper than a custom-designed site.

When you purchase a premium theme you can avoid the somewhat shoddy work that sometimes shows up in free themes. That’s not to say free themes aren’t any good, because many of them are great themes, but often a lot of the detail work that really makes a theme special is missing.

Anyone can put together a free theme and offer it to the public, but it takes a lot more skill, care, and dedication to build themes people are actually willing to pay money for.

One the other side of the coin, just because you pay for a theme doesn’t mean it’s worth what you paid for it. There are bad premium themes, good premium themes, and great premium themes. And even the good and great ones may not work to exactly fill your needs.

This article is all about helping you make intelligent decisions when choosing premium themes.

Some things we will discuss:

1. Things to consider and plan for before you even start looking at themes.

2. How can you best assess a theme’s quality?

3. What you should be getting when you purchase a premium WordPress theme.

Item 1: Needs, Wants, and Expectations

The very first step to selecting a premium theme is to gauge your own needs, wants, and expectations. You surely can’t pick the right theme if you don’t even know what’s right for you and what you really need.

So, first step, before you start looking at all of the really cool themes and get excited about all of the really fancy designs, you need to sort out what it is that you really need and want. What do you really want your site to look like, and what do you want it to do?

And before you even do that first step, you should probably understand what you’re getting in a premium theme.

What, exactly, makes a theme a Premium Theme?

No discussion on premium themes would be complete if it didn’t answer one question: What is a premium theme?

There are a lot of different opinions on what a premium theme should include, including but not limited to:
customization, documentation, support, higher quality code, better “design” work, etc.

What it comes down to though is that a premium theme is a theme you pay for, it’s as simple as that. All the other potential extras and goodies depend on what the creator of the theme actually delivers to you.

You can see some demo sites featuring premium themes at iTheme and Revolution.

For sure, not all premium theme creators are equal, and not all premium themes are equal. Everyone has a different opinion on what makes a theme great. Where one premium theme creator may have a lot of professional experience, another may only produce themes as a hobby. Both themes may be equally good but you’ll get a different experience from each.

If you choose to buy a theme from a hobbyist you can’t expect the levels of support a pro-theme creator can offer. If you buy a theme from a company that offers premium themes as a second thought, you might get terrible or non-existant service. These are things you need to consider.

Bottom line, do your research, don’t let slick marketing fool you, and make your decision based on facts.

What Do You Need in a Website, what do you need it to do?

Before you start picking themes you need to make some decisions. If you don’t do your homework now, you may end up regretting it later. The most important thing to figure out is what you need your website to do.

• What type of content do you need to manage?
• Do you need blog capabilities (news, portfolio, press releases, catalog, etc.)?
• Does your site need a specific call to action (like an e-commerce component)?
• How many pages will your site need?
• Will those pages need a hierarchy?
• What do you want to show or feature on the homepage?

These are the sort of questions you need to answer. You’re trying to figure out what you need
from your website. Once you have that sorted out, it’s easier to find a theme that offers what you need.

What Kind of Theme Should You Buy?

One of the most common mistakes in choosing a theme is assuming it will fit your needs. Premium themes
come in all shapes and sizes and colors. Some focus on a specific need while others focus on generic blogging.

Some themes are designed to put the focus on the content. At the other extreme are the corporate themes. These tend to focus on static pages and relegate the blog content to a small news section. The key is to not make assumptions about what the theme will or won’t do.

Shown here is the iTheme eCommerce premium WordPress theme that can be used to sell your products through an internet storefront created with WordPress. This is a good example of a specialized premium WordPress theme, in this case the theme was designed to showcase an ecommerce web site.

Just because WordPress is a blogging platform doesn’t mean that any theme will be great for blogging. WordPress is extremely flexible and more and more themes are focusing on sites that don’t focus on blogging at all.

What Features Do You Need?

Before you start shopping for themes you should decide what features you need. Some features may appeal to you when you read about the theme and view the demo, but if you don’t really need them then you may be paying for something you’ll never use.

In some cases those fancy features could actually interfere with what you do actually need. Finding the right theme for your needs is much more practical than finding a cool looking theme and bending and sacrificing your needs to make it work.

Here are just a few examples of some features that are available on premium themes:

• Featured post on the home page instead of the latest post
• Featured photographs from Flickr
• Featured video(s) from YouTube
• Advertising integration (Adsense, etc)
• Advertising management features
• Optional color themes to choose from
• Control panels for easily adding tracking code or feed URLs
• Header image replacement, resizing, and cropping capabilities
• Contact form (so you don’t publicize your email address to spammers)
• Tabbed sidebars
• Tabbed featured posts
• Multiple positions for sidebars and widget capable sidebars
• Multiple page layouts
• Menus auto generated from WordPress pages
• Menus auto generated from categories
• Menus generated from the blogroll
• Manual menu control
• Drop down menus
• Built in asides / sideblog
• Advanced search functionality
• Niche specific templates; e.g. real estate, auto sales, photography, etc
• E-commerce integration if desired
• Image / banner rotation if desired
• Reordering the home page
• Alternative graphics packs
• And more…

There are so many choices that you have your work cut out for you in choosing that “just right” theme.

How Much Customization Are You Really Capable Of And Comfortable With?

If the thought of writing or changing code or installing plugins makes you nervous, you better pick a theme that has everything you need out of the box. On the other hand, if you’re fine with tweaking code, installing plugins or adjusting the CSS, then you can be a lot more flexible when you pick a theme.

A lot of the features shown above are built right into some premium themes, and many of them can
easily be added to themes with plugins. If you’re OK making some of those changes yourself, it might give you a little more leeway in choosing a theme you like for other reasons.

Next up in Choosing A WordPress Theme-Part 2, we’ll cover specific details on what to look for when choosing a premium theme.

Google loathes duplicate content!

Google is trying to index and categorize the billions of pages on the web and calculate each page’s relevance to specific search queries. Therefore, to have any chance of attaining appearance in Top 30 SERPs (search engine results pages), pages must be accurately described…

Keep in mind that Google is an entirely automated text indexing system doing its absolute best to deliver the most relevant content to its core users. Those core users are NOT website owners! Google’s main focus is on its search customers.

If you want your website to get noticed, you’ve got to assist Google et al in every way possible, by accurately describing your own content. Make it clear and unequivocal what each page is about. Ensure it is original content, properly described, and easily accessible.

Apparently, there are over 200 elements that Google assesses as it’s trying to calculate a page’s relevance to a specific search query. Individually, some of them are almost insignificant. Collectively they add up to prominence or obscurity! The thinking man understands that the more elements you get right, the higher the probability of appearance in Top 30 SERPs.

Here’s a dozen of the primary indicators of unique content to an SE spider;

1. URLs: precise control of every page URL, carefully using primary keywords / phrase. Use Permalinks wisely!

2. Title Tag – 70 characters limit: Accurate, carefully using primary keywords / phrase. The single most important element for every page!

3. Meta Description – 150 chars limit: Accurate, carefully using primary keywords / phrase. By default, its used verbatim in Google SERP’s. Its very important to write a catchy phrase incorporating primary keyword phrase, one that impels viewers to click on it! I always use All In One SEO because I’m a “content control freak” and want to make sure every word is in the right place. Dynamic meta-tags are better than no meta-tags – but the ability to manually input as many elements as is possible is what makes the overall difference to SE Rankings.

4. Meta Keywords: Accurate, carefully using primary / relevant keywords and phrases. This should NOT be vaguely related words! It should be a set of long-tailed keyword phrases specifically relevant to the page content. I’d never use more than 8-10 phrases separated by commas.

5. 1st On-page Title/Heading: Headings offer limited space, but ALWAYS try and get at least one primary keyword into the title, and the tag must be H1 or H2, not an ‘imitation’ with large/bold text.

6. First Paragraph: Very important to get the primary keyword phrase into the beginning of the first sentence!

7. Last Heading: If you use one, reiterate a primary or secondary keyword phrase.

8. Last Paragraph: Quite important to get the primary or secondary keyword phrase into the beginning of the first sentence!

9. Images: Use keyword-rich image file names! Provide a descriptive and accurate image ALT text that uses a primary keyword phrase. Don’t overdo it – just lightly reinforce the page content descriptions.

10. Anchor Text: Provide links to other Internal Pages from primary/secondary keyword phrases within page content. Don’t waste the opportunity available to give clues to content on other pages! Using “Click Here For More” is not productive.

11. Menus: CSS drop-down menus are good. Text menus are good because they (usually) describe briefly the content of the page at the end of the link, providing an additional clue/reinforcement for the SE spiders. JavaScript menus are a disaster because they are completely invisible to Google et al.

12. Latent Semantic Indexing: Within the overall content, don’t use excessive primary/secondary keyword repetition. Instead, employ a sprinkle of similar words having the same meaning… and variations of the primary words; e.g. mortgage, mortgaged, mortgagee, mortgagor, lend, lending, lender, financing, funding, loan, loans, loaned etc… Reinforce the primary / secondary keyword phrases with supporting content. LSI is based on a mathematical probability that if a page says its about something, AND general content also contains related words / phrases, then it IS accurately described and IS specifically relevant to related search queries.

13. USE Google! They’ve got two absolutely essential items designed to help you! The first is the Google sitemap, and there are plugins available which totally automate generation of the sitemap.xml file every time you add or edit page or post content. The 2nd is Feedburner… Create a Feedburner account, and add your RSS Feed to it. That gives you an intravenous pipeline directly into the belly of the beast! I’ve regularly got blog posts and page content appearing in “Google Alert” distributions within 2 – 3 hours of publishing the post or page! Feedburner also offers you a managed email subscription service which routes your new content directly to interested users…

The above SEO tips provided courtesy of iThemes Premium WordPress Themes ]]> http://easywordpresssite.com/seo-tips/feed/ 0 http://wpsitebuilder.com/builder-theme-gives-ultimate-menu-flexibility/ http://wpsitebuilder.com/builder-theme-gives-ultimate-menu-flexibility/#comments Mon, 09 May 2011 00:16:17 +0000 Lewis Poteet http://wpsitebuilder.com/?p=890
Premium Wordpress Themes, Premium Wordpress Plugins, and Premium Wordpress Training Available At WpSiteBuilder.com

]]> Builder Theme Menu System Makes Your WordPress Websites Easy To Navigate

Making your website easy to navigate is essential if you want to have a professional looking and user friendly website.

For many years, working with menus in WordPress was very limited. It was a very basic menu system. What it actually amounted to was that the “menu” system just spit out the list of all your pages on your site. It was up to you to work overtime installing plugins or writing code that would either exclude or include certain pages so as to get your menu to look exactly how you wanted.

iThemes came along and introduced a much better and easier method of working with menus. They provided a listing of pages and categories and the WordPress user could simply “check” the box next to the page or category that they wanted included in the menu. This simple but effective feature provided users with little or no coding experience (or those who just wanted a simple solution) the ability to customize menus on their WordPress site quickly and easily.

Then came the release of the 3.0 version of WordPress. Version 3.0 provided a completely new menu management solution for WordPress that allowed users to create as many menus as they desired and (depending on the theme being used) allowed them to insert the different menus wherever desired.

The Builder Theme by iThemes then stepped up and gave users the best of all worlds when it comes to menus and navigation. Builder theme users can choose from three options (and even a combination of options) when building their sites. This really is very flexible if you understand the benefits of each type of menu / navigation construction.

Lets take a look at the different menu options the Builder theme offers users.

Builder And WordPress 3.0 Bring Everything Together…..

As is evident from looking at the above screenshot, the Builder Theme by iThemes allows for users to choose between all three options. Every time you create a custom menu, it auto-populates in the navigation drop-down menu giving unlimited flexibility to create as many menus and to display them wherever you want. That’s just one of the many advantages you gain when using Builder to build your WordPress websites.

Just when you thought a WordPress plugin that backs up your website couldn’t get any better, the guy’s at iThemes that developed BackupBuddy proves you’re wrong.

Of course, BackupBuddy isn’t your daddy’s old backup plugin either, so it really isn’t any surprise that it only gets better and better.

Here Is A BackupBuddy 2.0 Feature Peek, Presented By The Developers Themselves

In celebration of BackupBuddy’s successful year of backing up WordPress sites (over 16,000 to date!) we’ve been hard at work in once again setting the bar higher for WordPress backup solutions with BackupBuddy version 2.0. With well over 75 new features and enhancements this version is sure to further improve and strengthen the power that BackupBuddy puts in your hands. When can you get it? We’re aiming around late March.

While there are too many features to list one-by-one (and some just too secret to release right now), the list below helps give an idea of some of the many improvements coming. A great deal of focus has been put on improving reliability and usability with this major release as well.
This list is by no means comprehensive and leaves out some Top Secret features to be unveiled in the near future. We are saving the best for last — stay tuned for those.

New Features

• Enhanced built-in help with popup in-page video tutorials throughout
• More remote storage methods: Rackspace Cloud Storage, Dropbox.com, & Amazon S3
• High security mode backups (database & admin password stripped for security or making ready-to-deploy packaged sites — developers: sell pre-packaged ready-to-go configured sites!)
• Background manual backups (start a backup, close your browser, and walk away)
• Configure remote backup destination & notifications per schedule (developers: use this to set up scheduled backups of your clients’ sites to your servers & get notified, even if the customer adds their own schedules!)
• Server Information section: server diagnosis, basic security checks, server benchmarking (how slow is your server?), graphical space usage charting (easily see where your space is being used up on your server), CRON viewer, and much more
• Backup on creating or editing a post or page (never forget to backup again!)
• Detailed database table inclusion/exclusion options (make sure everything you want is backed up and nothing more)
• Directly pull backups to destination server via importbuddy (streamline migrations/restorations without having to download and re-upload files over your connection)

Improvements

• Better support for larger sites (especially those with large databases)
• Improved compatibility with slower servers
• Improved feedback during backup & restore processes
• Better error handling & recovery in case something goes wrong
• Improved backup integrity checking performance (be confident in your backups)
• Streamlined and simplified backup & restore process (easier to use but just as powerful)

And much much more…

Visit the developers website for Information & Pricing On BackupBuddy & Other Premium WordPress Plugins

You Can Get All Of The Plugins Now Available From PluginBuddy For One Price (developer licenses)

Due to popular request, PluginBuddy now offers a combo package, designed for developers, and it includes all of their recent (and upcoming) plugins at PluginBuddy …

Here Are Some Of The Great Benefits Included:

* Saves you money – You get all PluginBuddy premium plugins for one price
* You get one year of support and upgrades
* You get Developer Plans for all plugins – includes automatic upgrades on unlimited sites
* You get any new PluginBuddy plugins that are released during your membership year

Here Are The Current Plugins Included In The Developer Suite:

* BackupBuddy ($150 value)
* EmailBuddy (Available only in the Developer Suite!)
* Mobile ($150 value)
* DisplayBuddy ($150 value)
Includes: SlideShow, Video Showcase, Carousel, Featured Posts, Rotating Text, Billboard, Rotating Images, and Copious Comments
* VidEmbed ($20 value)
* Any other of their plugins listed on their site.
* And more plugins coming in the future!

Get the Developer Suite Today!

This Developer Suite is ideal for WordPress developers and designers.

The Vidembed Plugin by PluginBuddy is a powerful yet simple to use solution for adding videos inline within your WordPress posts, pages, and widget areas.

VidEmbed offers support for both self-hosted videos as well as YouTube and Vimeo. With VidEmbed, you can quickly and easily add videos from many sources.

We all know about the explosion of media on the web, and how important it is to be able to easily and quickly provide video content to your site visitors. VidEmbed makes it easy.

Some Of The Key Benefits of VidEmbed:

• * Allows you to imbed videos directly in your posts at the click of a button.
• * Ability to imbed stand-alone videos (flv, mp4, and mov formats).
• * Easily imbed YouTube & Vimeo videos.
• * Includes support for Amazon S3 hosted videos.
• * Uses an open source video player.
• * Includes widget support.
• * Handy shortcode button.
• * Allows for site-wide player customizations & styling.
• * Classes available for advanced CSS customization.

Here is a video giving a quick overview of the VidEmbed plugin…..

Here’s How Easy It Is To Install A PluginBuddy Plugin…..

• * Unzip the downloaded plugin file.
• * Use your favorite FTP client, FileZilla for example, to put the folder in your plugins directory (wp-content/plugins)
• * Login and go to the plugins page in your WordPress Dashboard
• * Activate the plugin

Want detailed video instructions showing how to get started using WordPress and installing your plugins? Check out our Quick Steps to Getting Started video tutorials here.

Here are some videos showing you how to get started using WordPress and your plugins.

STEP ONE…..How To Get Your Domain Name And Web Hosting

You need Linux hosting with Fantastico to make installing WordPress a very fast and easy task.

We use and recommend HostGator Web Hosting.

Here’s Why…..

• They have outstanding support
• They have extremely competitive prices
• They have several hosting plans to choose from
• They have outstanding uptime

STEP TWO…..Install WordPress

[flowplayer src=install-wp.mp4 splash=install-wp.png width=500 height=308 autoplay=false popup='

PluginBuddy Info/Prices

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Watch a detailed explanation on Installing WordPress Using cPanel and Fantastico

STEP THREE…..Purchase your plugin

Look through the plugins available at PluginBuddy Store to purchase the plugin of your choice. The best deal is the PluginBuddy Developer Suite, because you get all of the plugins now available, and you also get all plugins released in your membership year. The choice is yours, buy only one, or buy them all.

Watch the video below for detailed instructions.

[flowplayer src=buy-plugin.mp4 splash=buy-plugin.png width=500 height=308 autoplay=false popup='

PluginBuddy Info/Pricing

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STEP FOUR…..Upload your plugin and activate it

[flowplayer src=activate-plugin.mp4 splash=activate-plugin.png width=500 height=308 autoplay=false popup='

PluginBuddy Info/Pricing

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STEP FIVE…..Manage your plugin licenses and auto-upgrades.

[flowplayer src=license.mp4 splash=license.png width=578 height=361 autoplay=false popup='

PluginBuddy Info/Pricing

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You can find more information on plugin use and settings on the sales page of most plugins.

And as you would expect from PluginBuddy, they provide full instructions on all of their plugins.

Below are screenshots of some of the Child Themes you will receive with your Builder Theme purchase. On the date of this post, there was a total of 24 Child Themes available, and more are being added all of the time.

This post is meant to give you a lot of information on iThemes in general and the Builder Theme in particular.

I started using iThemes themes when they were just getting started in the business of providing custom themes for WordPress. I had previously used a lot of free themes, some good and some bad, and a few custom themes by other companies. I had such good luck with iThemes themes, and the support they provided, that I now use them exclusively for all of my WordPress websites.

I should point out that all of my websites now are built using WordPress because I haven’t found anything that I want to do in the way of building a website that can’t be accomplished using WordPress. I also should point out that all of my websites use iThemes themes with the exception of my ecommerce site at TutorDaddy.com, where I sell video tutorials, and this site you are on now, which uses a plugin and included theme provided by AuthorityPro for building authority sites.

The premier theme that iThemes has developed is the Builder theme, and the videos and information below will give you the real lowdown on just how powerful and versatile this theme really is.

In case you’re wondering why they named it “Builder”, just watch the videos below and it will become evident that “Builder” is the perfect name for this theme.

Here are a few reasons…..

• Want to have a site with a different layout for every single post on your site? No problem, you can do it with Builder!
• Want to have a site with a different layout for every single page on your site? No problem again, you can do it with Builder!
• Want to have custom menus, as many as you want, where you want, with the links you want? No problem again!
• Want to be able to change things like font, colors, backgrounds, etc, without knowing code?You guessed it, Builder can do it!

Guess that’s why they named it “Builder”.

[flowplayer src=Builder2.mp4 splash=builder2.png width=640 height=360 autoplay=false popup='

Purchase iThemes Builder Theme

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Another big advantage that you get when using Builder as your theme is the huge (and growing) selection of child themes that you get, free of charge, with Builder. Child themes give you the ability to instantly change the whole look and feel of your website. And, once again no coding skills required, you do it with a simple click of your mouse.

Click Here to see images of some of the Builder Child Themes available at this time.

[flowplayer src=builder3.mp4 splash=builder3.png width=640 height=360 autoplay=false popup='

Purchase iThemes Builder Theme

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Style Manager makes it “click-of-the-mouse” easy to change individual features like background color or image, font, and more without knowing any code at all. Tweak your website and get it to looking exactly like you want, and it’s no problem with Builder.

[flowplayer src=builder4.mp4 splash=builder4.png width=640 height=360 autoplay=false popup='

Purchase iThemes Builder Theme

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As would be expected from a premium theme like Builder, SEO options are built right in to the theme.

[flowplayer src=builder5.mp4 splash=builder5.png width=640 height=360 autoplay=false popup='

Purchase iThemes Builder Theme

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And of course, as you would expect from the people at iThemes, they have outstanding training available covering everything from WordPress basics right on up to advanced theme configuration and styling, backing up your WordPress sites, and much much more. Check out the events schedule to see what they have in store for you. It’s great training, and it’s free.

Have Questions About Builder Theme?…..

What kind of training is provided when I buy Builder?

What about other themes and child themes that are not Builder child themes? Will they be compatible to use with Builder?

Can people with very little experience work with Builder, or is it really just for developers?

Why do I have to renew in a year?

Appearance >>> Menus

The Appearance >>> Menus SubPanel became available beginning with WordPress Version 3.0. In order for you to use a Custom Navigation Menu in place of your theme’s default menu, you must have support for this feature registered in the theme’s functions.php file.

Menu Panel

Using The Screen Options Tab

The Screen Options tab, located near top right corner of page, allows you to choose which modules you want displayed, and which ones you want to not be displayed, in the underlying SubPanel. When you click on the Screen Options tab, it shows a list of the possible modules and options for that page, with a check-box next to each one. Simply check the box for each module or option you want to see displayed, and uncheck the box for any you choose not to display. When finished, click the Screen Options tab again to close the Screen Options.

How To Expand, Collapse, and Rearrange Modules

The modules, Posts for instance, can be expanded, or collapsed, by clicking on the module title bar.

How To Create a Menu

It’s very simple to create a new custom menu. All it takes is to click on the + tab, enter in a name for your menu, and click the Create Menu button.

It is necessary to point out that if the theme you are currently using does not support menus, the following message will be displayed:

“The current theme does not natively support menus, but you can use the “Custom Menu” widget to add any menus you create here to the theme’s sidebar.”

The message will display to let you know that widgets can be used to put custom menus in your themes sidebar.

My personal favorite theme to use on my websites that can take full advantage of the custom menu feature is the Builder Theme by iThemes. This theme is a highly advanced theme that allows you to create unlimited page and post layouts, and you can put menus anywhere you want, and as many as you want.

You can create as many menus as you wish, whatever suits your purposes. In the event that your theme includes support for more than one custom menu, you can use the drop down box to choose which custom menu to associate with each. As pointed out above you are also able to use custom menus in conjunction with the Custom Menus widget.

After creating a custom menu, these options are available:

Delete Menu

—Click this link if you wish to delete the menu. Be aware that deleting also deletes the menu items.

Automatically add new top-level pages

—Check this box so that anytime you create a new top-level Page, that Page will automatically be added to the menu

Save Menu

—Click this button to save your menu and any changes you have made.

How To Add Menu Items

Once a menu is created, it is possible to add detail items to the menu. You can add items like custom links, pages, and categories using the available options in the left column. You can add any custom post types or custom taxonomies that you may have created. In case you don’t see your custom post types or taxonomies, don’t forget to check the Screen Options tab to make sure they are checked to be “Show on Screen”.

After adding your items to a menu, you can then drag and drop them to put them in the order you want. Once you have the menu items arranged correctly, you can click each item to reveal additional configuration options. Another neat feature, you can also drag a menu item a little to the right to make it a submenu. This feature allows you to create menus with hierarchy. As you drag an item to the right you’ll see when the position of the drop target (the dotted lines box) shifts over to portray the nested placement. IMPORTANT, once you have finished creating and configuring your custom menu, be sure and click the Save Menu button.

So, with the Custom Menu feature in WordPress, you can specify a different navigation label for a menu item as well as other attributes. You can create multiple menus, as many as needed to suit your purpose. If your theme allows the use of more than one menu, you can choose which custom menu to associate with each. You can also display your custom menus using the Custom Menus widget.

The screenshot below shows an example of two Sub-Menu Items displayed in a hierarchy under the Home Menu Item.

Sub-menus

Choosing A Theme Location For A Menu

Theme locations allows you to select the desired placement of your menu. The WordPress default TwentyTen theme only supports one menu location, so you will see the message ‘Your theme supports 1 menu. Select which menu you would like to use‘. (If you have added the code to allow more navigation menus in your theme, you will see those in the pull-down location options)

Location

—From the pull down box, make your selection for the menu that will be presented in the location, for example, Primary Location

Save

—Click to save the location that you selected.

Adding A Custom Link

Custom links allows you to create links to any desired URL and give them any desired display name.

URL

—Enter the URL for your custom link.

Label

—Enter the label (display name) describing the custom link URL.

Add to Menu

—Click this button to add your custom link to the menu.

The link is now added to the menu, it will be displayed to the right with the label, the word ‘Custom’, and a configuration arrow allowing you to change the URL or Label and to remove the custom link from the menu if desired.

Adding Links To Posts

Use this option to add links to specific posts. Three tabs, ‘Most Recent’, ‘View All’, and ‘Search’, allow you to choose what posts are displayed for selection as a menu item.

Checkbox

—Check the box next to the item that you want to add to the menu.

Select All

—Checking this box will cause the checkbox to be checked on all items. Clicking this again will cause all items to be unchecked.

Add to Menu

—Click this button to add your selected items to the menu on the right.

Adding Links To Pages

Here is where you add links to specific pages. Three tabs, ‘Most Recent’, ‘View All’, and ‘Search’, are shown.They allow you to choose what pages are displayed for selection as a menu item. When the ‘View All’ tab is displayed, a Home link choice, while not necessarily an actual page, also becomes available to add to the menu. The ‘Checkbox’, ‘Select All’, and ‘Add to Menu’ options, described in the Posts section above, are also displayed in this module.

Adding Links To Categories

Your categories can also be added to the menu. Three tabs, ‘Most Recent’, ‘View All’, and ‘Search’ allow you to determine what categories are displayed for selection as a menu item. The list does not display in any particular hierarchy. The ‘Checkbox’, ‘Select All’, and ‘Add to Menu’ options are also displayed in this module.

Adding Links To Post Tags

You can also add Post Tags to menus. Again, three tabs, ‘Most Recent’, ‘View All’, and ‘Search’ determine what categories are displayed for you to select as a menu item. The ‘Checkbox’, ‘Select All’, and ‘Add to Menu’ options are also displayed in this module.

Adding Links To Custom Post Types and Taxonomies

Custom post types and taxonomies will also be available to add as menu items. In the event that you don’t see your custom post types or taxonomies, be sure and check the ‘Screen Options’ tab to make sure those modules are set to display. As expected, the options available under each of the custom post type and taxonomy modules correspond to those used for Posts, Pages, Categories, and Post Tags.

How To Rearrange, Configure, and Delete Menu Items

After you add your items to a menu, those menu items can be rearranged in whatever order you wish. Place your mouse cursor over the menu item title and then when the mouse cursor changes to 4-arrows, hold the left-mouse button down and drag the module to where you want to place it. Then release the mouse button and continue rearranging the items to achieve the desired order. Also, remember that by dragging a menu item slightly to the right of the menu item above it you can create a hierarchy (parent/child) relationship in the menu.

Every Menu Item will have a configuration arrow on the right side of the Menu Item title. Clicking there opens the configuration box for that item. If you click the arrow a second time it will close the configuration box. Again, if you don’t see Link Target, CSS Classes, Link Relationship (XFN), and Description, then check the Screen Options tab to make sure those boxes are checked to make the options available.

The configuration choices are:

Navigation Label

—The label you want to show for this particular menu item

Title Attribute

—The attribute you want to use when displaying the label

Link Target

—Here you can select “Same window or tab” or “New window or tab” from the pulldown.

CSS Classes

—Optional CSS Classes for this menu item

Link Relationship

—Allows for the generation of XFN attributes automatically. Allows you to show how you are related to the authors/owners of site to which you are linking.

Description

—Enter a description for this link. The description will be displayed in the menu assuming that the current theme supports it.

Original

—A link to the original source of the menu item. For example, a link to view the post or page).

Remove

—Remove this menu item from the menu.

Cancel

—Cancel the configuration of the menu item.

How To Add Menu Support to Themes

The default WordPress TwentyTen theme supports navigation menus. If your theme does not support the custom menu feature, you can do it yourself by adding the appropriate code to your theme’s function.php file. For further information on implementing custom menus for a theme, see The WordPress Codex

If you want to avoid the hassle of trying to add code to your current theme to get it to fully support custom menus, then once again I recommend you take a look at the Builder Theme by iThemes. Builder allows you to create unlimited page and post layouts, and you can put menus anywhere you want, and as many as you want. No coding needed, ready to use your custom menus to full advantage.

That concludes this tutorial on using the Custom Menu feature in WordPress.

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This Video Shows How To Create And Use
Custom Menus For Your WordPress Website

The Appearance Menus SubPanel is available beginning with Version 3.0. This is where you create Custom Menus to use in your WordPress website. To use a Custom Navigation Menu in place of your theme’s default menu, support for this feature must be registered in the theme’s functions.php file.
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