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.
Hey, this helped me get my parent page setup. But now I can’t create a child page for it without publishing the new page first. The parent page isn’t showing up in the “page attributes” menu in the page editor.
Is there any way to do this without publishing the page before it’s on the parent page? Thanks in advance.
You would need to publish the parent page for it to be an option but, as long as you have a menu set then the page will not be added to the menu and the only way users would know about the page would be if they had the direct URL for your published page.
This works great when, on my site, I go to the menu item right from the website. (that is, clicking on my Custom Link menu item does not go to a page) However, when I type in the URL it DOES go to that specific page which is not desirable. Is there a way to fix this? Thanks.
If you want a URL not to direct to a specific page then you would want to create a redirect following our guide below:
https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/beginners-guide-to-creating-redirects-in-wordpress/
This was really helpful! However, I am testing my site from a mobile device, and when I tap the menu item with the sub-menu, it doesn’t open the sub-menu options as it does on a PC/desktop, so none of those pages are accessible. Is there a way to fix this or any other recommendations?
You would want to check with your specific theme’s support as it sounds like there may be a styling issue with how mobile menus are designed.
This is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you.
You’re welcome
Hi
what is best practice when I use this technique on a menu-items, when having breadcrumbs on my site?
That would heavily depend on your setup for your menu items.
Thank you, very helpful
You’re welcome
Super helpful! Thanks very much
You’re welcome
Thanks. This was helpful. Now it works.
Glad our guide was helpful
Thanks. That was exactly i needed.
You’re welcome, glad our article was helpful
This was hugely helpful! I have done a workaround with Categories before, but wanted a quick fix. And yours fit the bill. Thanks so much!
Glad our guide could be helpful
Thank you, this was very helpful.
You’re welcome
But this is still a link!
Great! Thank you so much, saved my time
Hi,
Thank you for your post. I understand now that I don’t need to write a post for every category on my site, just for the menu.
Now, I have another problem with one published page on my site. The page shows on the navigation menu and I can see it when I surf to my website. However, I cannot find it when I try to link to it. It is not showing on the drop-down when I click the link button and it is not showing when I search it on the navigation-menu-edit page.
At the beginning, I wasn’t paying attention to this problem and added the link to this page manually, however, I found out that Google Search Console says that there are no links to this page, and I know there are tons of links to it (more than one year old).
My site has more than 1300 pages and I don’t have any similar problem with any other page.
Can you figure out what the problem is and how to solve this issue?
I thought I can delete this page and rewrite it, but I am using SiteOrigin PageBuilder and some of links are to the page number and not to the URL.
Thanks
It worked. Thank you
Thanks very much! Exactly what I needed – worked like a charm.
Cheers,
Jeff
Unfortunately this does not work for me. I get a hyperlink with ‘#’. Leaving the field empty also Any idea what could be the problem?
Hey Edgar – try doing it from Appearance->Customize (via WP Dashboard).
When the Customize page opens, select Menus from the left side panel.
Select the Menu you want to edit, scroll to the bottom of the Menu values, next to the underscored ‘Reorder’ option, click the + Add Items icon.
A new menu will appear, click on the Custom Links tab at the top. Try again from here.
In the URL box, replace ‘http://’ with ‘#’
In the Link Text box, type your desired value.
Hope you get this to work.
Cheers,
Jeff
You guys are so awesome!!!! This was exactly what I was looking for!!!! Thank you!!!!
Thank you so much! I was starting to tear my hair out. One of the challenges is knowing how to describe the thing you’re having a problem with, and I’m so glad I found your step by step guide.
Worked a treat!
For some reason, it won’t “add to menu”. I get an endless spinning timer that never resolves. Any clues as to why it won’t add to menu after I create the custom link and push the add button?
Thank you!
Thanks much for the fix to create menu headings. Now, how can I create links in pages TO the menu heading? For example, I create a POSTS heading with the latest few POST pages under it. Elsewhere in the site I want to refer people NOT to a specific POST but to the list of POSTS, that is, the menu heading.
Maybe there is a sidebar fix to embed the POSTS list on ONE page.
Now suppose I have non-post pages, such as CLASSES. I want to link to the CLASSES heading, not a specific CLASS. I don’t want to have to maintain an empty menu placeholder page just to show the individual links.
Thoughts?
Thanks for this, it worked a treat!
Awesome!
Many thanks to you – it worked fine.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!
My client required this, he ordered me to add some page like this:
Area (Tab) and under it add some cities like (London,Liverpool,Loards)
Its exactly worked for me, thank you so much again
Hey Mohsin,
You are welcome
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!