Now you have your theme installed, it’s time to start adding content to your website. This is where the term “content management system” really comes to life and you’ll begin to understand why using WordPress as a CMS really has its benefits.
Below I’m going to run through all of the obvious tools and features that will help you get your WordPress website up and running.
How To Publish Pages
If you want an “About Me” page or a page that outlines your services, for example, follow the instructions below:
- In the WordPress dashboard go to “Pages“ -> “Add New“
- You’ll be presented with a screen that has a WYSIWYG editor, similar to Microsoft Word or Google Docs. Simply add your text and any images that you want in your layout. When you upload images, you can align them to the left, right, center and add margins and captions easily using the media uploader tool.
- Once you’re happy, click publish and view your page on the front end.
How To Add A Menu
It’s easy to create a navigation menu in WordPress. Your theme will usually have a number of predefined menu locations already built in. In most cases this will be the “Primary Menu” and “Footer Menu”.
- In the WordPress dashboard go to “Appearance“ -> “Menus“
- If a Menu is not selected already, click “Create A Menu” and check the location where you want the menu to appear. i.e. “Primary Menu”
- On the left, there will be a list of pages you have created, click the checkbox next to your chosen page and click “Add To Menu”
- Once you’re done, don’t forget to click “Save”
How To Publish Blog Posts
Depending on the niche of your website, you may decide you want a blog where you can publish posts, news and articles about your company/business. Blog posts can be grouped into a number of categories and tags for easy browsing.
- To create categories go to “Posts“ -> “Categories“
- To create tags go to “Posts“ -> “Tags“
Now you have your categories and tags set up, you’re ready to publish your first post.
It’s very similar to publishing content on a page:
- In the WordPress dashboard go to “Posts“ -> “Add New“
- You’ll be presented with a screen that has a WYSIWYG editor, similar to Microsoft Word or Google Docs. Simply add your text and any images that you want in your layout. When you upload images, you can align them to the left, right, center and add margins and captions easily using the media uploader tool.
- Most themes will support a featured image for blog posts. This is what displays on the category pages or index pages of your blog. Choose a good quality image and upload it to your post.
- Select your categories and tags that you created earlier. Don’t go too mad on this, just select relevant categories and tags that are appropriate for your subject.
- Once you’re happy, click publish and view your post on the front end of your website.
Customising Your Website
I’m going to explain some other popular features that can be customised easily from the WordPress dashboard. These will help you to configure your layout and manage other important areas of your site.
Edit The Sidebar
The majority of WordPress themes have a sidebar, either on the left or the right of the page. You may find that you want to remove the sidebar altogether or just remove and rearrange some items that are inside it.
- In the WordPress dashboard go to “Appearance“ -> “Widgets“
- Select the appropriate sidebar you want to edit.
- You can expand the current items within your sidebar and click “Delete” to remove them, or you can drag and drop new items from the left hand side of the page.
You can choose from a broad variety of widgets such as Categories, Search bars, text blocks, Custom HTML, Images and many more.
Edit The Footer
The footer widgets are usually edited from the same place as the sidebar.
- In the WordPress dashboard go to “Appearance“ -> “Widgets“
- Footers are usually split between 3 or 4 widgets. You may see Footer 1, Footer 2 etc. Select the appropriate section and edit the footer widgets as you see fit.
Set Up A Static Front Page
By default, WordPress presents your home page in the form of a blog archive. Afterall, WordPress was initially built as a blogging platform before it came such a popular CMS. You can fix this by setting your home page as “static”
A static page is a content based page that doesn’t change, as opposed to a dynamic blog archive page that updates as and when you add new blog posts.
Setting up a static front page is simple:
- In the WordPress dashboard go to “Settings“ -> “Reading“
- Select a static page that you have published, usually “Home”. Select this page under “Front Page” and if you want a blog on another page of your website, select “Blog” for the “Posts Page”.
- Click “Save Changes”
Disable Comments on Posts or Pages
Some websites, usually websites for businesses or companies, don’t want to allow their users to comment on their pages or posts. Thankfully this can be switched off easily.
To turn off comments on WordPress pages:
- Whilst editing or publishing a new page, click “Screen Options” in the top right hand corner.
- Check the “Discussion” box. Scroll down the page to find the “Discussion” meta box
- Untick “Allow Comments” then publish the page.
If you want to disable comments sitewide:
- In the WordPress dashboard go to “Settings -> Discussion” and untick “Allow people to post comments on new articles”
Setting the Site Title and Tagline
It’s important that you set the site title and tagline for your WordPress website.
The Site Title is the name of your website. The Site Title for this site is “How To Build A Website”. It’s important to set this correctly as it will show up in various areas on your website and depending on how your website is setup it can play a part in how search engines determine your rankings.
The tagline is not always as important, but some themes display this on the frontend under your logo, and more often than not your Site Title + Tagline is shown in your meta title on your home page (although I’m going to show you how to customise that in the next step of the tutorial). Just hover over the top of the browser tab to see the meta title for this page.
To change the Site title and tagline:
- In the WordPress dashboard go to “Settings” -> “General” and fill out the “Site Title” and “Tagline”.
- Click “Save Changes”
Installing Plugins For More Functionality
Remember earlier I mentioned about the WordPress plugin repository? Well, there are over 25000 free plugins listed that can add extra functionality or features to your website.
This is one of the main reasons I recommend WordPress. With many other CMS you would need to hire a developer every time you need some kind of extra functionality on your website. Not with WordPress. The community have developed all sorts of plugins that will allow you to add any functionality imaginable to your website. Whether it be a contact form, a photo gallery, ecommerce or SEO – you’re covered.
How do I install a Plugin?
- In the WordPress dashboard go to “Plugins” -> “Add New”
- Search the repository by keyword for the functionality you are looking for.
- Once you find a plugin that does the job, just click “Install”
