A menu item no longer has to be a page on your site. It can be a link to anywhere, sitting in your navigation alongside everything else.
What this is for
- A booking or scheduling system you already use for coaching or self-tape reads.
- A production's own site while you are in something, especially where tickets are sold.
- A casting platform profile that has to be the point of contact.
- A shop you run elsewhere, if you already sell somewhere established and do not want the store described in selling merchandise.
- A crowdfunding campaign, temporarily.
The case for being careful with it
Your menu is the shortest list on your site and every item competes with the others. An external link is an item that removes a visitor rather than moving them around. On a menu of seven, that is one in seven chances that somebody leaves before seeing your reel.
The rule that holds up: an external link belongs in the menu only when going there is the outcome you want. A booking page qualifies. A social profile does not, because the outcome you want from social is that people come to your site, not the reverse. Put those in the footer, which is where visitors look for them anyway.
Handling
External items open in a new tab by default, so your site stays behind. They are marked with a small indicator so nobody is surprised, and they are excluded from your sitemap, since a sitemap describes your site rather than other people's.
Temporary items are the best use of this
The strongest case is something with an end date. A show with a ticket link. A campaign with a deadline. Add it while it is live, at the top of the menu, and remove it when it closes.
Which is the bit people forget. A ticket link to a show that closed in March is a worse look than never having had one, because it dates your entire site. Set a reminder when you add it.
Related
Menu order, the pages screen and two-level menus for when the menu gets long.
Create your free actor website and build a menu that goes where you want.
Reading about actor websites, or building one?
It takes about 76 seconds and it starts free, with your credits, headshots and reels already in it.
Build mine free→