Hub Navigation
Common Use Cases
- Enterprise intranet navigation: provide consistent, organization-wide navigation across multiple sites
- Department and functional hubs: connect HR, IT, Finance, Operations, and other departmental sites under a single navigation structure
- Project and program portfolios: organize multiple project sites under a hub for easier access and discovery
- Regional or business unit portals: standardize navigation across geographic or business-focused site collections
Benefits
- Consistent user experience: users see the same navigation structure across all hub-associated sites
- Centralized management: update navigation once at the hub level and have it reflected everywhere
- Improved findability: helps users understand where they are and easily discover related sites and resources
- Scalable design: new sites can be associated with a hub without reworking navigation
Details
- Feature Category: Sites & Navigation
How It Works
- Lives on the hub, inherited everywhere: hub navigation is maintained on the hub site and inherited automatically by every associated site, rendering at the top of each site above its own local navigation
- Edit once: the menu is maintained at the hub level by hub owners, and changes flow to all associated sites
- Links point anywhere: associated sites, sites outside the hub, or external URLs
- Three levels deep: top-level links plus two levels of sublinks
- Local menus remain: hub navigation and each site’s own navigation work side by side
- Hub name and logo: the name set on the hub appears in the navigation bar across the whole family
Limits and Nuances
- Association plus manual linking: only sites associated with the hub inherit the menu, and associating a site does not add it; a hub owner must add each link
- Hub-level editing only: owners of associated sites cannot change hub navigation from their own sites
- One menu per hub: navigation does not propagate or carry over from one hub to another, even when hubs are associated
- Propagation delay: navigation changes can take up to two hours to appear on associated sites, so allow time before troubleshooting a missing link
- Three levels and two styles: top level plus two sublevels (third-level mega menu links show as a vertical list), in mega menu or cascading style; team-site hubs default to cascading, and the mega menu is unavailable where the publishing feature is enabled
- Audience targeting: up to 10 Microsoft 365 or security groups per link, and enabling it applies to all menus on the site including the footer, but it only hides links – the destination’s permissions still control access
- Keep it under 100 links: 500 navigation nodes is the technical limit, but performance and usability degrade well before that
- Local navigation coexists: use the hub menu for the site family and the local menu for the site’s own content
Common Questions About Hub Navigation
How do I edit hub navigation in SharePoint?
Go to the hub site itself and select Edit at the right end of the hub navigation bar. From the editing pane you can add links and labels, reorder them, nest them up to three levels deep, and turn on audience targeting. Only hub owners can do this – the menu cannot be edited from an associated site, which is exactly what keeps it consistent.
Why is my new site not showing in the hub navigation?
Two common reasons. First, associating a site with a hub does not automatically add it to the menu – a hub owner must add the link manually. Second, navigation changes can take up to two hours to propagate to associated sites, so a link that was just added may simply not have arrived yet. Check the hub site itself to confirm the link exists.
What is the difference between hub navigation and site navigation?
Hub navigation is the shared menu defined on the hub and displayed across every associated site; site navigation is each site’s own local menu. They coexist – the hub menu sits above, the local menu stays with the site. A good rule: hub navigation answers where else can I go in this family, while local navigation answers what is on this site.
Can I hide hub navigation links from certain users?
Yes, with audience targeting. Turn it on at the bottom of the navigation editing pane, then assign up to 10 Microsoft 365 groups or security groups to each link – the link then renders only for members of those groups. Keep in mind this is a display filter, not security: site permissions still decide who can actually open the destination.
Should I use a mega menu or cascading menu for hub navigation?
Cascading menus suit short, shallow menus; the mega menu shines when you have many sections, because it lays the whole structure out at a glance. Greg Zelfond typically recommends the mega menu for intranet hubs with more than a handful of top-level links. Note that hubs created from team sites default to cascading, and third-level mega menu links display as a plain vertical list.
Do hub navigation links have to point to associated sites?
No. Links can point to anything – associated sites, sites outside the hub, document libraries, or external URLs. That flexibility is handy for connecting related hubs or surfacing a tool that lives elsewhere. Just remember that linking a site does not associate it: a linked-but-unassociated site will not inherit the navigation, roll up news, or appear in the hub’s search scope.