How to Add Posts to Categories on Your Menu

Sometimes the simplest things are the trickiest, amiright? One of the questions I see over and over in new blogging groups relates to having trouble getting posts to show up on categories on the main navigation menu. So here’s a quick tutorial on how to get your posts to show up in the categories you have listed on your blog’s top menu or navigation bar.

Step 1: Create categories, not pages

You need to create new categories, not new pages named after your categories. There’s a difference between the static pages you create in WordPress for stuff like About Me and Contact, and the “live/always updating as you publish new content” archive pages WordPress creates for you for stuff like categories, tags, and search results.

Create a new category:

1. Open a blog post as if you’re going to Edit it.
2. Scroll down or look on the right-hand side for the section labeled “Categories”
3. Click “+Add New Category” and create a new category
4. Make sure the box is checked to add it to your post, and save the post

Note: If you’ve previously created actual ‘pages’ for your categories, delete them!

 

Step 2: Add your new category to the top menu

1. Go to Appearance — Menus
2. Select your existing menu to edit (Main Top Menu/Primary Menu) or if you don’t have one at all Create New
3. Drag and drop your new category(s) to your menu. Be sure you’re choosing them from the Categories section (and not Pages!)
4. Save the menu

 

And that should be it!

This is a very basic tutorial addressing one of the common issues with getting posts and categories connected on the top navigation menu. Did it help you? Let me know in the comments!

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