Customise the navigation on your SharePoint site

Applies to: SharePoint Online, Office for business, Office 365 Admin, Office 365 Small Business Admin, SharePoint Server 2019, SharePoint Server 2016, SharePoint Foundation 2013, SharePoint Server 2013 Enterprise, SharePoint Foundation 2010, SharePoint Server 2010.

If you’re the site owner or have edit permissions on a SharePoint site, you can customize the navigation for your site to give users quick access to sites and pages. You can add, edit, or remove links on the left-hand menu on a team site (also known as the Quick Launch menu), the top menu or footer menu on a communication site or hub site, or the hub site navigation bar that appears on all sites associated with a hub site. To change the navigation style, see Change the look of your SharePoint site.

Notes: 

• If your site has been customized by the owner, the left-hand menu or top menu may not be available.
• In SharePoint, you can only customize the left-hand menu on a team site at this time unless you are in classic mode.
• You need owner or edit permissions to make changes to the navigation of a site.

Select your version of SharePoint below for the steps to customize the navigation on your SharePoint site.Online20192013, 20162010

Note: Some functionality is introduced gradually to organizations that have set up the targeted release options in Office 365. This means that you may not yet see this feature or it may look different than what is described in the help articles.

Online

Add a link to the left-hand menu on a team site

1. Select Edit at the bottom of the left-hand menu.

Note: If you don’t see Edit, you might not have permissions to customize the site navigation. You must have at least Manage Lists permissions. Contact the site owner either to get permissions to make the changes yourself or to have the changes made for you.

2. Hover over your desired location in the menu for inserting a link and pick +.

3. On the Add a link dialogue box, confirm one of the following link options:

• URL to embed a link to any item, internal or external to your company. Just enter the address and a display name for the link.

• Conversations to add a link to the Microsoft 365 group conversations associated with the team site. Just enter a display name for the link. The address is automatically added and cannot be edited.

• Calendar to add a link to the Microsoft 365 group calendar associated with the team site. Just enter a display name for the link. The address is automatically added and cannot be edited.

• Notebook to add a link to the OneNote notebook associated with the team site. Just enter a display name for the link. The address is automatically added and cannot be edited.

• Planner to add a link to the Microsoft Planner instance associated with the team site. Just enter a display name for the link. The address is automatically added and cannot be edited. Then, click OK.

• You can also add a page to the menu from the Site Pages list. Click Pages from the left-hand menu, select the page you want to add, and then click … either next to the page in the list or in the top navigation bar.

Choose Add to navigation.

• After you’re done customising the navigation, pick Save or, to discard changes, select Cancel.

Note: Recent items are handled automatically by SharePoint. You can’t add links to the Recent menu.

Add a link or label to the top menu on a communication site

1. Press Edit to the right of the top menu.

Note: If you don’t see Edit, you might not have permissions to customize the site navigation. You must have at least Manage Lists permissions. Contact the site owner either to get permissions to make the changes yourself or to have the changes made for you.

2. Hover over your target location in the menu in which you prefer to create a link and choose + .

3. On the Add a link dialogue box, select one of the following link options:

URL to add a link to any item, internal or external to your company. Just enter the address and a display name for the link.

• Header to add a label that is not hyperlinked.

4. On the Add a link dialogue box, in the Address box, enter the URL for the link you want to add if adding a link. To add a link to a page in the left-hand menu, follow these steps:

a. Find the page you want to add a link to.

b. Copy the URL from the address bar.

c. Paste the URL into the Address box

5. In the Display name box, enter the display text for the link or label. This is the text that will show up on the menu. Then, click OK.

6. Once finished customising the navigation, tap Save or, to discard changes, choose Cancel.

7. You can edit the navigation layout to either cascade or mega menu by going to Change the look and selecting Navigation, from either option. 

Add a link to the hub site navigation bar

Note: It may take up to two hours for changes to the hub site navigation bar to appear on associated sites.

1. Select Edit to the right of the hub site navigation bar.

Note: If you don’t see Edit, you might not have permissions to customize the hub site navigation bar. You must have at least Manage Lists permissions. Contact the hub site owner either to get permissions to make the changes yourself or to have the changes made for you.

2. Hover over the location in the menu where you want to add a link and press + and then the down arrow.

3. On the Add a link dialogue box, in the Address box, enter the URL for the link you want to add. To add a link to a page, follow these steps:

a. Navigate to the page you want to add a link to.

b. Copy the URL from the address bar.

c. Paste the URL into the Address box

4. In the Display name box, enter the display text for the link. This is the text that will show up on the menu.Then, click OK.

Note: You can add up to 2 levels of sub links to the hub site navigation bar.

5. Once finished customising the navigation, click Save or, to discard changes, click Cancel.

6. You can adapt the navigation layout to either cascade or mega menu by going to Change the look and choosing Navigation, from either option.

Note: Navigation layout for hub navigation leverages the same setting as the site navigation. 

Add or edit links and labels in the footer on a communication site

The illustrated communication site shows a footer that’s been added. The footer has the name and logo added on the left side. The Edit link appears on the right side of the footer after you’ve turned the footer control on. When you add links and labels to your footer, they follow the Edit link and appear on the right side.

1. On your site, select Edit on the right side of the footer. The Edit link appears on your footer after you’ve turned the footer control on. You can add one level of up to eight links or labels.

Note: The site footer feature is only available on communication site site pages. They are not available for list pages, library pages, or other pages on your site.

2. Select + just above the buttons on the left navigation pane.

3. On the Add a link dialogue box, choose one of the following options:

• URL to add a link to any item, internal or external to your company. Just enter the address and a display name for the link.

• Header to add a label that is not hyperlinked.

4. On the Add a link dialogue box, in the Address box, enter the URL for the link you want to add or in the Display name box, enter a label name, and then click OK.

5. To edit an existing link or label, after clicking Edit on the right side of the footer, click the ellipses (…) next to the link that you want to edit.

6. On the menu, choose one of the following options:

a. Edit to change the link or label

b. Move up or Move down to change the order that the link or label appears on the footer

c. Remove to delete the link or label from the footer

7. Once done making your changes, click Save

Target navigational links to specific audiences 

Important: 

• Starting in April, audience targeting for navigational links will be introduced to organizations that have opted in to the Targeted release programme. This means that you may not yet see this feature or it may look different than what is described in the help articles. Eventually this feature will be available across all cloud environments.

• The site owner must enable audience targeting for site navigation.

• Only site owners can turn audience targeting on and off. Once turned on, any site editor can target menu links to specific audiences.

• An audience is defined by Microsoft 365 groups and security groups. If you need to, create a Microsoft 365 group for the members of your audience. Or, if you’re an admin, you can create a security group from the Microsoft 365 admin center. Azure AD dynamic groups are not currently supported.

1. Click Edit for the menu you want to add audience targeting properties to.

• For team sites, you will find the edit option at the bottom of the left hand menu

• For communication and hub sites, you will find the edit option to the right of the top menu

2.  Switch on the toggle titled Site navigation audience targeting at the bottom of the menu. When enabled, audience targeting will apply to all menus on the site including hub and footer menus.

3. Click the ellipses (…) next to the link that you want to edit, and select Edit.

4. Capture up to 10 Microsoft 365 groups or security groups to target in the entry box that appears.

Note: When audience targeting is applied to a parent link, audience targeting also gets applied to the sub links and will only be visible to the groups you specify. 

5. Press OK when you are done editing the link and an icon will confirm the links are being targeted. 

Note: While editing the navigation, all links and sub links become visible to the editor including those that are targeted. Once saved, the navigation will display the targeted nodes. 

6. Click Save when you are done, or select Cancel to discard changes.

Edit the display name or address for a menu link

1. Click Edit at the bottom of the left-hand menu on a team site or to the right of the top menu on a communication site, hub site, or hub site navigation bar.

Note: If you don’t see Edit, you might not have permissions to customize the site navigation. You must have at least Manage Lists permissions. Contact the site owner either to get permissions to make the changes yourself or to have the changes made for you.

2. Select the ellipses (…) next to the link that you want to edit.

3. Choose Edit.

4. When you are done editing the link, click OK.

5. Once finished customising the navigation, click Save or, to discard changes, click Cancel.

Change the order of menu links

1. Select Edit at the bottom of the left-hand menu on a team site or to the right of the top menu on a communication site, hub site, or hub site navigation bar.

Note: If you don’t see Edit, you might not have permissions to customize the site navigation. You must have at least Manage Lists permissions. Contact the site owner either to get permissions to make the changes yourself or to have the changes made for you.

2. You can drag and drop menu items to rearrange them.

3. Pick the menu item that you want to move and drag it to the new location and release the mouse button.

4. Once finished customising the navigation, click Save or, to discard changes, click Cancel.

Create sub links on the menu

This creates an indented link under another link. You can add up to 2 levels of sub links to the left-hand menu of a team site, to the top menu of a communication site, or to the hub site navigation bar. When adding a sub link, create the link where you want it to appear and then make it a sub link of the one above it.

Left-hand menu

Top menu

1. Press Edit at the bottom of the left-hand menu on a team site or to the right of the top menu on a communication site, hub site, or hub site navigation bar.

Note: If you don’t see Edit, you might not have permissions to customize the site navigation. You must have at least Manage Lists permissions. Contact the site owner either to get permissions to make the changes yourself or to have the changes made for you.

2. Select the ellipses (…) next to the link that you want to make a sub link.

3. Pick Make sub link.

4. Once finished customising the navigation, select Save or, to discard changes, click Cancel.

Move a sub link up to a primary link on the menu

This moves an indented link out from under another link.

1. Select Edit at the bottom of the left-hand menu on a team site or to the right of the top menu on a communication site, hub site, or hub site navigation bar.

Note: If you don’t see Edit, you might not have permissions to customise the site navigation. You must have at least Manage Lists permissions. Contact the site owner either to get permissions to make the changes yourself or to have the changes made for you.

2. Choose the ellipses (…) next to the link that you want to remove.

3. Press Promote sub link.

4. After finishing customising the navigation, choose Save or, to discard changes, click Cancel.

Remove a link from the menu

Some links, such as Recycle Bin are system links and can’t be removed.

1. Select Edit at the bottom of the left-hand menu on a team site or to the right of the top menu on a communication site, hub site, or hub site navigation bar.

Note: If you don’t see Edit, you might not have permissions to customise the site navigation. You must have at least Manage Lists permissions. Contact the site owner either to get permissions to make the changes yourself or to have the changes made for you.

2. Choose the ellipses (…) next to the link that you want to remove.

3. Press Remove.

Note: You can’t remove the Recycle bin link at this time.

4. Once finished customising the navigation, pick Save or, to discard changes, click Cancel.

Turn the left-hand menu on or off for a SharePoint Online team site

If you have owner or admin permissions, you can turn the left-hand menu off for your team site.

1. Choose Settings  , and then click Site Settings. If you don’t see Site settings, press Site information and then pick View all site settings. On some pages, you might have to click Site Contents and then click Site Settings on the top right menu.

2. Under Look and Feel on the Site Settings page, pick Navigation Elements.

3. Check or clear the Enable Quick Launch setting to toggle it off or on, and then press OK.

Note: When you disable the Quick Launch panel, you may still see the Recycle bin and the Edit button.

Classic SharePoint experience site navigation

If you’ve enabled the publishing feature on your classic SharePoint experience site, the left-hand menu will show links to modern experience lists or libraries if you’ve added them to your classic experience site in addition to showing items from the term store. For more information, see Enable managed navigation for a site in SharePoint and Enable publishing features.

Related links

To add links to your page rather than the left hand menu or top menu, see Add a link to a page.

To create new pages that you can link to, see Add a page to a site.

To change colors, background, and how your site looks, see Change the look of your SharePoint site.

To change the name, description, logo, or other site settings, see Manage your SharePoint team site settings.

To create a site in SharePoint Online, see Create a team site in SharePoint Online or Create a communication site in SharePoint Online.