wordpress basics

Understanding the basics of WordPress operation and management. This series will walk you through the WordPress administration screens.

WordPress Basics

This series will walk you through the basics of WordPress administration screen by screen so you can begin being comfortable managing your new website.

1) WordPress Admin Layout & Home Screen

An overview of the general layout of the WordPress admin and the home screen.

2) WordPress Updates

How to keep WordPress core, themes and plugins up to date with one click.

3) Pages & Posts

An explanation and overview of the differences between pages and posts.

4) Creating & Managing Posts

How to create, edit and manage your posts using the WordPress editor.

5) Media & Comments

How to upload and manage media uploaded to your site and comments from users. 

6) Creating & Managing Pages

How to create, edit and manage your pages using the WordPress editor.

7) WordPress Themes

Installing and managing WordPress themes and theme options.

8) WordPress Widgets

Managing WordPress widgets and sidebars to display additional information.

9) WordPress Menus

Creating, editing and managing WordPress menus across your site.

10) WordPress Plugins

How to install, activate and manage WordPress plugins for functionality.

11) WordPress Users

How to create, manage and view user accounts registered on your site.

12) WordPress Settings

Configuring the various options that come with your WordPress site.

13) Initial Site Setup

The initial steps to setting up any WordPress website you begin working on.

Initial Site Setup for WordPress

Now that you’ve taken a tour of the dashboard and gotten used to the different administration pages, it’s time to begin configuring and setting up your own website.

In this tutorial you can begin following along on your own site. We’ll cover creating our pages, posts and post categories, creating our page menus, configuring our settings, setting up our URL structure with permalinks, and more.

New Site Checklist

  • Run all available updates.
  • Delete two plugins installed by default (Hello Dolly and Akismet)
  • Delete all base themes we’re not going to use except for the latest twentyseventeen.
  • Delete Sample Page.
  • Create your pages in the system, titles only, no content, with structure in tact (Parent/Child), etc. For a blog-only site you won’t need to create a page for home or blog, as your default website will load up your latest posts. If you’re creating any other type of site, create a page for Home, and if applicable, create a blog page.
  • Under General – Reading – Set your home page and blog page as needed.
  • Optionally input your posts with their scheduled publish dates.
  • Setup your post categories.
  • Create your page menus.
  • Manage widgets for your blog page sidebar if needed. Delete meta widget unless needed.
  • Choose your Permalinks structure. Recommended is category/postname.
  • Make sure search engines discouraged under settings -> Reading is checked.

Special Note for Pantheon Users

If you are using Pantheon as your host, you should also at this time install the following plugins, as some tutorials we cover will require them.

  • Pantheon Advanced Page Cache – Better Cache management from within your WordPress website. Works only with Pantheon hosting.
  • WordPress Native PHP Sessions – Helps with plugins such as WPML which require native sessions. When working with Pantheon – if you get a blank white screen, it most likely requires this plugin. Install this by default to avoid issues.

Your next step is to go back to our tutorial lists and review the tutorials for the specific functionality as well as the design and theme you’d like to use for your site.

 

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