Ways to improve Confluence Navigation if you have multiple spaces

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Atlassian is giving its navigation a facelift in 2025. For those who use Confluence heavily, like myself, the expected navigation update includes decluttering the top navigation and enabling users to switch between spaces from the sidebar without having to navigate through drop-downs. If I were on an instance with just a few spaces, I think the update is promising. 

Here’s my challenge. As a Product Marketer, my instance has a “Products” space with multiple products and a “Product Marketing” space. It would be intuitive to have “Product Marketing” nested inside “Products”.  Or if you work in consulting, grouping project spaces under a central “Consulting Projects” space to provide a much clearer structure. Unfortunately, Confluence doesn’t yet support this type of logical organization for spaces. This means that I would have to rely on Confluence search and cross my fingers that my colleagues have used the right labels to be able to get to my desired pages across these spaces quicker. 

While the new update from Atlassian could improve the way we access our recently-used spaces, the lack of a true hierarchical navigation system in Confluence spaces would remain a big drawback for companies with 5-15 spaces—or hundreds.

Let’s look at some ways of creating or improving navigation paths in Confluence:

1. Establish a governance model for Confluence pages and spaces creation (nip it in the bud)

Without a governance model, Confluence spaces and pages can quickly become cluttered and confusing, leading to duplication and outdated content. Ensure that content gets created in an organized and manageable fashion, making it easier to navigate. Limit the creation of new spaces by requiring approval from a designated content manager. The content manager would make sure that there isn’t already a space serving a similar purpose when a new one is proposed, thereby avoiding unnecessary space proliferation.

2. Create custom Confluence menus to nest spaces and lay paths to important content

If you are burdened by a growing number of spaces, you can browse the Atlassian Marketplace for an app. Navigation Menus for Confluence lets you create custom, website-style menus making it effortless to locate associated spaces and pages. It minimzes the hassle of searching through lengthy page trees by providing quick, one-click access to content through a custom menu.

Navigation Menus lets you create multiple menus with a depth of up to 3 levels. Simply copy and paste the desired URL of your confluence pages, blogs or external webpages into the menu items under settings. Each menu can then be assigned to different user groups or space categories. In case your confluence space is public, a navigation menu can remain enabled for even anonymous users.

3. Conduct regular audits

Establishing clear ownership and roles for each space can make a significant impact. Assign someone to maintain each space, with a set schedule for reviewing and auditing content. Regular check-ins help keep information relevant by identifying outdated, duplicate, or irrelevant pages. Confluence Data Center has built-in analytics tools to tell you which Confluence pages and spaces haven’t been accessed or worked on in a while. For Confluence Cloud users, the marketplace offers apps to help you stay on top of usage stats.

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Why you need custom navigation in Confluence: Watch now.

Try creating a custom menu for free with the Navigation Menus app and assess the impact on your team’s productivity for 30 days. Got questions? I'm all ears!

@Fellow community members, share your own tips for making navigation easier in the comments below – I'd love to hear what works for you!

[Akshatha R]

Thanks for sharing these tips Angela