If you’re new to WordPress, the back end of your site can be overwhelming at first. With so many links and options, it can be difficult to know where to start. However, WordPress is a beginner-friendly platform that is easy to use once you become familiar with its features and settings. In this article, we’ll guide you through the key features of the WordPress back end and explain how to use them.
Step 1: Get to Know the Dashboard
The WordPress Dashboard is the first screen you’ll see when you log in to your site’s back end. It’s a hub area that provides useful shortcuts and basic information about your site. The Welcome to WordPress box at the top of the dashboard displays links to important sections of the back end that will enable you to customize your site’s appearance, create posts and pages, and more. All of these features are also accessible from the main menu on the left-hand side of the screen.
The dashboard also displays recent activity and comments in the Activity widget, and shows how many posts, pages, and comments are currently on your site in At a Glance. You can start a new blog post in the Quick Draft box or read up on the latest developments in WordPress News. You can move these widgets around by clicking on them and dragging them to a new spot. You can also remove unwanted widgets by clicking on Screen Options in the top right corner of your dashboard. The Help tab is also located in this area, and it’s the first thing you should check out if you ever find yourself confused by a setting or feature while working on your site.
Step 2: Customize Your Site’s Settings
When you click on Settings in the main menu, you’ll see six sub-sections where you can change important settings for your site. In the General Settings sub-section, you can change your site’s title and tagline, as well as other basic information like your admin email address. In the Reading tab, you can set how many blog posts show up on each page and determine what your site’s homepage will be. By default, it’s a list of your latest posts, but you can change it to show a static page instead. In the Discussion sub-section, you can enable or disable WordPress pingbacks and trackbacks, turn comments on or off, and access other comments-related options.
Take your time to explore the Settings tab at your own pace. Some of the options here are advanced settings that you may never need to touch. However, if you want to change something about how your site functions in the future, this is the first place to check. You can also find more information about specific settings in the WordPress codex.
Step 3: Check Out the Appearance and Plugins Tabs
Themes and plugins are tools that can alter the way your site looks and functions. Themes affect the appearance and layout of your site, while plugins add features and alter what your site can do. If you click on the Appearance tab in the main menu, you’ll see that the first sub-section is Themes. This is where you can download and activate themes for your site. A few defaults will already be installed, and you can hover over one and choose Activate to try it out or select Customize to edit your current theme.
The Appearance tab is also where you can customize your site’s header and menus, and add widgets. WordPress menus make it easier for your readers to navigate to the most important pages on your website. WordPress widgets add extra content to your sidebar and/or footer.
Now head over to the Plugins tab. Here you can install new plugins by choosing Add New or manage your existing plugins. The Akismet anti-spam plugin comes pre-installed with WordPress and is an excellent tool to combat spam on your site.
Step 4: Start Creating Content!
You can create two main types of content in WordPress: posts and pages. Posts are blog entries that are archived and categorized, while pages are static sections of your site such as a Home page or About page. The Posts tab is where you can create blog posts, sort, edit, and delete older posts, and create categories and tags to organize your content. The Pages tab is where you can create static pages, sort, edit, and delete existing pages.
For now, we recommend clicking on the sample post and page in these sections and looking around to get a feel for how these types of content work. We’ll discuss creating posts and pages in more detail in an upcoming post.
There’s a lot to do and see in the WordPress back end, but WordPress makes it easy to get accustomed to the platform by clearly organizing key features and settings and including helpful links in the dashboard. If you have any questions about how to use the WordPress back end, feel free to ask in the comments section below!
