How many menu items should a website have?

Key takeaways

Most small business websites work best with five to seven top-level menu items, named in the words buyers use. Longer menus take longer to scan and make the important pages harder to spot. Cut by grouping services, moving secondary pages to the footer and removing labels such as 'Resources' that tell visitors nothing.

• Aim for 5–7 top-level menu items as a rule of thumb.
• Name items in buyers' words: 'Boiler repair', not 'Solutions'.
• Move careers, policies and news to the footer.
• Keep the contact action as a separate, visible button.

Why do long menus lose visitors?

Every menu item is a choice the visitor has to read and judge. Hick's Law, described by Nielsen Norman Group, says the time to decide rises with the number of options. A menu with eleven items, half of them vague, slows visitors down and makes it more likely they pick the wrong page or give up.

• The most common business website design mistakes
• Too many choices on your website? Cut them to convert

How many menu items should a website have?

Five to seven top-level items suits most small business websites. It is a working rule of thumb, not a law: a clinic with three services may need four items, a firm with distinct buyer groups may need eight. The test is whether a visitor can scan the whole menu at a glance and spot their page.

What usually makes menus too long?

Menus grow one page at a time. Each new service, a blog, a careers page and a news section gets its own item until the menu wraps onto two lines.

• Every service listed separately at the top level.
• Company pages (About, Team, History, Values) as separate items.
• Blog, News, Insights and Resources all present.
• Careers, policies and FAQs in the main menu.
• Contact repeated as a menu item and a button.

• Information architecture for small business websites

How do you cut a long menu?

Start from what buyers come for. Group services under one item with a dropdown, merge company pages under About, move careers, policies and news to the footer, and keep contact as a distinct button. Then rename vague labels with words customers actually use.

• List every current menu item.
• Mark which pages buyers use to decide.
• Group services under a single dropdown.
• Move non-buying pages to the footer.
• Rename vague labels in customers' words.
• Test with a few customers: can they find two services in two taps?

• Website footer design: what to include and leave out
• Card sorting: let customers organise your website

Do dropdowns solve the problem?

Dropdowns help when they group related pages under a clear parent, such as Services. They hurt when they hide important pages behind vague parents, open on hover in ways that are hard to control, or nest three levels deep. Keep to one level of dropdown, and make parent labels specific.

• Mega menus: when a small business website needs one

What about menus on mobile?

On phones, the menu usually sits behind a hamburger icon, so a long list becomes a long scroll. The same cut applies: fewer, clearer items. Keep the phone or WhatsApp action outside the hidden menu so it is always visible.

• Hamburger menu vs bottom navigation on mobile websites

When is a longer menu justified?

Larger catalogues, retailers and businesses serving clearly separate audiences may need more. In those cases a well-organised mega menu can show many links clearly. The aim is not a number; it is a menu visitors can scan and understand quickly.

What does this look like in practice?

A pattern we see: a menu has grown to eleven items over several years, with the most profitable service tucked under 'Solutions'. Cutting to six items and naming that service directly makes it visible on every page.

• See client work
• Website Design & Development for UK businesses
• Website navigation best practices

Menu checklist

• Keep top-level items to about five to seven.
• Use buyers' words for labels.
• Group services under one dropdown.
• Move careers, news and policies to the footer.
• Keep contact as a visible button.
• Test with real customers.

Next step

Count your top-level menu items and mark any label a customer would not use.