As Parish, Town and Community Councils build their websites, it’s important to keep navigation simple and easy for visitors to use. One of the most effective ways to manage your site’s structure is by grouping related items under clear headings within your website’s menu. This helps prevent long, unwieldy menus and ensures residents can quickly find what they’re looking for.
Why It Matters
Your website menu acts like a signpost — guiding people to key information such as council documents, local services, community spaces, and contact details. If too many items are added to the top-level menu without any grouping, it can quickly become cluttered and confusing, especially on mobile devices where space is limited.
Visitors should be able to scan your menu and immediately understand where to find what they need. Grouping similar pages and documents under a logical heading makes this possible.
How to Group Menu Items Effectively
When organising your website menu, look for items that naturally belong together and place them under a single heading. Here are some simple ideas commonly used by Parish, Town and Community Councils:
- Your Council: Councillors, Contact Details, Meetings Calendar, Roles & Responsibilities
- Documents: Agendas, Minutes, Policies, Financial Reports, Audits
- Community: Village Hall, Community Groups, Events, Local News
- Planning: Applications, Responses, Neighbourhood Plan, Consultation Notices
- Services: Bin Collection, Highways, Public Transport, Defibrillator Locations
By placing these pages into grouped headings, you improve clarity and reduce the chance of overwhelming visitors with a long list of unrelated items.
Using WordPress Menus to Do This
In the website admin area, you can easily manage your menus by going to Appearance > Menus in the dashboard. To group pages:
- Create a custom menu item by adding a Custom Link with a
#as the URL and your desired heading as the link text (e.g. “Documents”). - Add your related pages or document categories beneath this custom link, indenting them slightly so they appear as sub-items (this is called creating a dropdown).
- Save the menu.
This technique works well for both desktop and mobile layouts and keeps the menu tidy while still giving easy access to important pages. We have a video called “Working with menus” on our video tutorial page.
Good Practice Tips
- Keep top-level headings broad and simple — visitors should instantly know what belongs within each group.
- Try to avoid having more than 5–7 top-level headings.
- Use plain, descriptive labels like “Documents” or “Planning” rather than jargon or abbreviations.
- Regularly review your menu to check it still reflects the site’s content and community priorities.
Final Thoughts
Grouping related pages and documents under logical headings isn’t just good web design — it makes your Parish, Town or Community website more accessible, practical, and user-friendly. A well-organised menu saves residents time and shows that your council values clear communication.
By taking a little time to review and structure your menu thoughtfully, you’ll create a better experience for your local community — both online and off. You can view our menu tutorials here.
