Main menu

The main menu splits your website into hierarchical sections that a user can navigate through by clicking links.

On Drupal sites the main menu at the top of each page shows the first-level pages, with second-level pages appearing in drop-down menus.

All pages in the main menu are automatically included in both the XML sitemap and human-friendly sitemap, which improves their ranking in search.

What to include

The main menu should include all:

basic and structured pages. This will generate a nested URL path, breadcrumb and side menu for each page.
panel pages except for marketing landing pages. Campaign pages are generally only found via direct traffic.

Don't include content types like:

These are automatically included on news and events listing pages and shouldn't be part of the site's navigation.

To add basic and structured pages to the menu:

Log in to Drupal and click the 'Edit' button on the page you want to add to the menu.
Scroll down to the 'Menu settings' tab at the bottom of the screen.
Tick the 'Provide a menu link' box. By default, the 'Menu link title' field will be the same as the page title.
Use the 'Parent item' drop down menu to nest the page within the site's hierarchy. If you leave the page under '<Main menu>', it will appear as a top-level item.
Click 'Save'.

To add a panel page to your site's menu:

From the black Drupal menu, go to 'Structure' > 'Menus' > 'Main menu'.
Click 'Add link'.
Enter the name of the panel page under 'Menu link title'. This name will appear in the menu.
Enter the URL for the panel page under 'Path'. For on-site panel pages, use a relative path.
Use the 'Parent link' drop down menu to nest the page within the site's hierarchy. If you leave the page under '<Main menu>', it will appear as a top-level item.
Click 'Save'.

To add an off-site link to your site's menu:

From the black Drupal menu, go to 'Structure' > 'Menus' > 'Main menu'.
Click 'Add link'.
Enter the name of the site under 'Menu link title'. This name will appear in the menu.
Enter the site's URL under 'Path'. For external links, add the full URL.
Use the 'Parent link' drop down menu to nest the link within the site's hierarchy. If you leave the link under '<Main menu>', it will appear as a top-level item.
Click 'Save'.