So you have your new WordPress blog or website set up.  Everything looks awesome (because you used Little Blue Deer as your blog designer, right?!) Even if you have not had a custom blog design, this tutorial can still help you out.  As your business or blog grows, you will probably want to add additional pages to your blog design template.  It’s super easy to do, just follow these simple steps.  Remember, you can click on each image to enlarge it!

Step 1:

In your blog dashboard, go to Pages > Add New.  Hint:  You can also access all of your pages that have already been created by clicking on “All Pages”

Step 2:

Choose a title for your page, and enter it.  Remember, the page title is what will appear in the url (eg. http://littlebluedeerdesign.com/pagetitle).

Step 3:

Now you can enter your content, including text, photos or galleries.  If you are new to adding pages or posts, please check out our tutorial on adding blog posts here.  This takes you step-by-step on how to add content to your blog posts.  Post and page setup is the same thing in WordPress, so you can use this guide whether you are setting up a blog post or a static page.

Step 4:

Scroll down and select the full-width layout under Layout Settings.  If you are setting up a static page, you will most likely want it to be full-width, meaning that, if you also have a blog with a sidebar incorporated into your site, the sidebar will not appear if the full-width layout is selected.

Step 5:

Set the Featured Image for your page.  Featured Images are not always used on pages but it is good to set a Featured Image because if you post the link on Facebook or other social media, this is the image that will appear in the thumbnail next to the link.  Choose an image that most represents the page.  This is optional of course, but not a bad idea.

Step 6:

Once you have added text and images, set the width of the layout and added your Featured Image, you can publish your post.  Wordpress offers a Preview option to preview the page before you publish it.  When you are ready to publish, click the blue Publish button.

Step 7:

Now, once you have published your new page, it will not automatically appear in your navigation bar (the bar beneath the header at the top of the blog or website with your navigational links (eg. Home, Contact, About, etc.).  It’s easy to add your new page to the navigation menu.  In your blog dashboard, go to Appearance > Menus.

Step 8:

First, make sure that you are editing the Primary Navigation menu.  If you have a custom blog design and Little Blue Deer is your blog designer, the Primary Navigation menu will always be the menu at the top of your blog or website, beneath your header.  Wordpress does also offer the option for a Secondary Navigation menu that can appear in the footer of the blog or website or another area but for this tutorial we will stick to the Primary Navigation menu.  Just select the page you have just added under the “Most Recent” tab, and then click the gray Add to Menu button.

Step 9:

The page you have added will automatically appear at the very bottom of your page list.  You can simply click on the page and drag it into place.  It is HIGHLY suggested, particularly if your blog or website has a blog design template by Little Blue Deer, that you add any new pages as child items.  This way, the main structure of the menu is not disrupted.  I will demonstrate what a child item is vs. a parent item in the next step, but to set your new page as a child item, simply choose the main page you want your new page to appear beneath, and drag it slightly to the right.  The page will appear beneath the main item, indented slightly to the right.

Step 10:

You can see how this works by looking at this screenshot of my live website.  The new page that was added, Tutorials, appears in a dropdown menu beneath the main parent item, Services.  This way, you can add as many pages as you want without causing the main menu to get too long and disappear off the side of the page.

Step 11 (optional):

You will notice, in Step 10, above, that the page name, Tutorials, appears on the live menu.  However, I named my page WordPress Tutorials.  If you want to give your menu item a shorter name that appears only on the navigation menu, you can.  Just enter the name you want to appear on the LIVE website or blog in the Navigation Label box.  You can always view the original page name below.  You can leave the Title Attribute box blank.

Step 12 (optional):

You can also add a custom link to your menu (eg. a link to your Etsy shop, a social media site or another website) by clicking to expand the Custom Links box and pasting in the URL of the site, and then adding the name of the link as it will appear on the menu in the Link Text box.  Then click add to menu.

Step 13 (optional):
You can also add a category to your menu.  You can choose from Most Used, you can View All (categories will be listed alphabetically) or you can search by category name to add it.

Step 14:

You are done!  To save your menu, simply click on the blue Save Menu button.  You can go back and edit your menu at any time, including changing how the menu item name appears on your site and clicking and dragging to reorganize your menu.

This menu tutorial demonstrates one of the reasons, if you are serious about blogging, that it is a good idea to hire a blog designer for your custom blog design or custom website design.  One of the services that Little Blue Deer provides is to style every element of your site design or blog design template.  Navigation menus are a very good example of this.  If you do not have a custom blog design by a professional blog designer, your blog design template will not automatically resize the menu items so that they all appear in one neat line beneath your blog or website header.  When you work with a professional blog designer, he or she will organize your pages and posts at the outset of the custom blog design job so that the font matches your website or blog design template and the parent, or main, menu items are even spaced on the page.  Then, as you proceed with your blog or website, you can add as many child menu items as you want, as your blog design template will be set up so that each time you add a new page as a child item, it will drop neatly into place beneath your main menu items.  The sky is really the limit if your blog or website has been properly designed and installed.  Hiring a professional blog designer might be a bit of an initial expense but as you can see, down the line, as your blog or website grows, your professional blog design template will be set up to accommodate your blog or website’s growth and expansion!
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