Recently one of our users asked us if there was a way to add titles in WordPress menu without adding a link. By default, WordPress menu requires each menu item linked to a page or custom link. However when creating a drop down menu, you may you want to add a title for sub-menus without linking it to a specific page. For example, you can have a categories dropdown where you want to have the text categories be the title of the menu. In this article, we will show you how to add titles in WordPress menu without linking to a page.
First thing you need to do is add a new menu item in your menu. You can do that by going to Appearance » Menus. You want to add a custom link so give it the label you want. In the URL field, enter the # sign. Once done, click on the Add to Menu button. Save your menu once this custom link is added to the menu.
Now click on the drop down arrow next to this custom link to edit this menu item. Go ahead and remove the pound sign from the URL field and save your menu. If you go to your live website, then you will see a menu item without link. You can add sub menus to this menu item and link them to any page or custom link you want.
We hope that this article helped you add titles in WordPress menu without linking to a page or any URL. If you have any feedback or questions, then please leave a comment below.
YES! Thank you! Totally works.
I’ve done as you’ve suggested, but the menu item redirects to an undefine page when clicked.
Thank you very much, it works!
AMAZING ! Thank you worked perfectly
Thank you! This was exactly the information I needed!
Just what I needed.
I was scratching my head wondering how I would be able to do this.
Then I came across this article, thank you very much.
This worked great, thanks!
One small thing missing in this article.
How to get rid of the hand (cursor: pointer), or is it only me, who have this problem ?
I’ve used this type of custom link in the top level of my primary menu, and it works great on the desktop. But on mobile devices, when I tap the custom link, it doesn’t open the sub menus below it, so none of those pages are available. Is there a way to fix that?
this was helpful thanks
thank you soo much :*
Thank you!
Just what I needed!
I added a title to my web site menu as you suggested using the # method but needed to remove it. I did so on Dashboard but it still shows on my site main menu and when opened it says “blank page” and that it is unsecure. How do it remove it.
If you are using a caching plugin then please delete cached files. Also visit Menus screen to make sure that you have deleted the menu item. Don’t forget to click on the save menu item after removing or adding an item to the menu. Hope this helps.
I have an existing menu that I need to remove page links from. How do I do that? I have 3 titles in the header that link to its own page. I do not want it to link to any page.
OMG this was a life saver and I’d wish I found this about 6 mos ago….I’ve been trying to figure this out for the longest time. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!
I used this method to solve my problem and it works great thanks.
However, the created menu header is not a page so when I go to map the sub pages, how do I structure them?
Hello,
I created a custom menu item in which I want to function as a label only, so I deleted the URL from that item, but it still shows a different color on mouse-over as if it was a link. How do I disable that hover effect from that item?
You can see it here: and the item is the ‘Written About Braunstein’s:’ in the menu below the logo.
Thanks
This is in response to Marek’s August 9th question about how to remove the hover effect from a non-linked menu title:
Marek,
You can use the browser development tool to identify that title’s menu-item-number and then use css to define the link, visited, hover, focus, active colors to all be the same and so remove the hover effect.
Example:
#menu-item-2036 a,
#menu-item-2036 a:link,
#menu-item-2036 a:visited,
#menu-item-2036 a:hover,
#menu-item-2036 a:focus,
#menu-item-2036 a:active {
color:#C1A45B;
}
Susan
great work mate
I didn’t understand this … are there any more images that maybe show the finished product?
Thanks, it is brilliant and works!!!!
Thank you, it works like a charm.
Using Appearance>Menus,create a Custom Links item with the URL as
javascript: void(0);
This is the a great way of solving that problem
This has bugged my for a while but never did anything about it. Googled and bingo, sorted. So simple thank you.
Worked Perfect! So easy to follow! Thank you!
can you make a custom link, added to the primary navigation, open in a new window?
Thanks – really helpful!
Hi, How do I modify the styling of custom links? I want to separate two sets of menu items with separate non-clickable headings.
Thanks
Cheers for that. We were really stuck. Knew it could be done, but didn’t know how…until now. Yer a star
Thank you!! This is exactly what I needed to do and it has worked a treat.
Rosie
So simple! Just what I needed. Thank you.
Thank you! Exactly what I needed!
Thanks … but I do not want the words “Menu Item” to be in the menu … Can I change the name “Menu Items” ?
exactly what I needed to know! thank you!!
I was using categories to do this but this is much better. There is one problem that you might be able to help me with.
If a viewer was to click on the custom link the custom menu link will remain high lighted until you click on a sub item or some where else on the page. It is a minor thing but if it could be rectified it would make this fix for the menu even better. Is it possible to make this custom link menu button non-clickable using CSS??
Cheers! Works like a charm.
Oddly this doesn’t work on the iPad. Before the submenu can appear, it asks if you want to save the image? Works perfectly well when the drop down button has a normal page link, i.e, the menu item is drawn from ‘Pages’.
This is great – it works. However, the title of my drop-down menu has changed colour – from white to blue. Can anyone explain how I can correct this in wordpress?
Thanks for this, but wouldn’t it result in invalid HTML as I see you end up with an anchor/link element which has no href attribute. It would also be semantically incorrect to use and anchor/link element if the item isn’t actually a link. Is there a better way?
This didn’t work in my case :/ Have “converted” a menu which was a ul list of links into a registered wp_nav_menu and now the categories which where listed as wp_list_categories do NOT appear under the custom link as they used to. Somehow wp_list_categories has to be added still into the wp_nav_menu , and it’s not at all that simple as this post suggests. :/
except this is not working
followed exactly what you’ve written, added two categories us subpages, but submenu is not showing.
there must be some wp_list_categories thingy messing up my wp_nav_menu …
I love wpbeginner! Thanks for this tweak, cheers
Just what I am looking for. But when I place some pages as sub items under the new blank menu item it looks great until I save the menu and then those pages autmatically revert to the main menu! In other words WP 3.7.1 is not allowing me to save any sub menus to the new item. Can someone help me?
I did this on my extensive training website. However, I ran out of custom links, meaning I reached WordPress’s custom link limit. Going past this limit, the navigation menu no longer saves. So how do bypass this custom link limit? Is there a plugin? If so, I can’t find it.
Any help would be much, much appreciated.
You’ve probably solved this by now but, for anyone else reading this:
http://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-fix-the-custom-menu-items-limit-in-wordpress/
Thanx dude it’s helpful for me
this is what i looking for to edit category dropdown menu in my website resellerhunter.com, thanks for helping.
I want to do something reverse. I want to add pages but not let them appear in menus. I have around 20 pages and do not want 20 sub links in my menu. help is appreciated.
Go to the menus and uncheck the “Automatically add new top-level pages” Now if you want any page to appear at menu you will have to add by yourself.
Thank you! I’ve always wondered how to do this.:)
That’s some nice tut, really, thanks so much.
Is there any way when we left the mouse on that menu item who hasent got any link, not to change the mouse cursor? Practicaly the browser not to understand as a link?
Thanks.
You could just target the element in CSS with:
cursor:crosshair;
Nice tut, i never know this is possible.