Getting Started With WordPress
The first thing to do is to login. There are two ways to do this. You can use the “login” link on the front of your website, or if it isn’t visible you can type the login URL into the address bar.
For example: http://www.yourdomainname.com/wp-login.php
Your WordPress Admin Panel Dashboard
Watch my video to take a simple tour.
WordPress is very easy to use, it’s really just a matter of familiarizing yourself with the dashboard and the quick links down the left hand side and/or the links in the top navigation bar.
The dashboard is where you go to change all the options behind the scenes, including your website design or theme, blog settings and your pages and posts.
This is a view of what you’ll see when you login to WordPress for the first time – it could look a little different, especially as WordPress has regular updates…but you’ll still have the same features…maybe more.
The menu on the left, highlighted in a red square, is the “Quick links” menu bar I refer to in the video. This menu allows you to reach all of the WordPress admin functions.
Let’s go through each section one by one. Note that this list will vary depending on your theme and on which plugins you’ve installed. We’ll go through the default options.
Posts Menu
First you’ll see the Posts menu:
- All Posts: This will take you to the screen that shows all of your blog posts.
- Add New: This takes you to the new post screen.
- Categories: This lets you add, delete and edit your blog post categories. Posting different posts in different categories helps organize your blog and make it easier to navigate.
- Tags: This lets you manage your post tags. Tags are labels for each post, like keywords, that helps your audience navigate through your site if there is a tag that points to more information they are interested in.
Media Menu
The “Media” menu lets you manage uploaded files. You can upload images, videos, PDFs, MP3s etc. You can use this feature instead of an FTP client such as Filezilla.
- Library: This lets you view all the media you’ve uploaded in the past. You can rename and delete files if you need to.
- Add New: This brings you to the screen where you can upload new files. Note that, if you want to add files to a post, you can also upload them directly from the post screen. You can also drag and drop files into the uploader.
Pages Menu
Remember that a page is different to a post. A “post” falls into your blog section and is an easy way to give updates to your website audience. Think of it as your news section and recent article additions.
Your posts also are categorized and tagged, whereas your pages are not.
A page is an actual new page of your website that should be considered more “static” and with higher authority in your site.
There are more settings, but I will cover them in later tutorials.
Cassie says
Great post! Very detailed.It’s very informative and very useful. Thank you for sharing this post.
Susan O'Dea says
Thanks Cassie, I’m glad you found the tutorial helpful.