How a Beginner can start using WordPress to manage his website?

WordPress has brought so much power to common people so that they can create their own websites in minutes. It becomes possible due to the concept of CMS (Content Management System) and Database (data storage area), to make a dynamic website. You can make any type of dynamic website with WordPress.

• 1. CMS – WordPress is actually a Content Management System (CMS) through which a website owner can add pages, posts (blogs), images, textual content, and also manage different settings.
• 2. Database – WordPress uses a database to store the website configuration, and also it’s contents (like pages, posts, images, etc). The knowledge of database is not necessary for website owners because WordPress does that automatically for the user.

WordPress For Beginners

A website owner does not need any technical knowledge when working with WordPress. If you are starting with WordPress for the first time then follow the steps in the order given below:-

• 1. Log in to the WordPress CMS –The URL of the WordPress CMS is always like – http://www.yourwebsite.com/wp-login.php. Here ‘yourwebsite’ is the domain name and ‘com’ is the domain extension. If your domain has other extension like .ca, .us, .in, .guru or any other extension then replace ‘com’ with it.
  

  Login to WordPress CMS

  After a successful login you will be redirected to the WordPress Dashboard page.

• 2. Click ‘Themes’ under ‘Appearance’ –On clicking ‘Themes’ under the ‘Appearance’ heading, you will reach the Themes area.
  

  Theme Settings

  Here you can change your theme by moving your mouse pointer over any theme and then clicking the ‘Activate’ button.

  There is also a Live Preview option which will let you to have a look and feel of the theme.

  

  Theme Settings Options

  Theme customization of the currently active theme can also be done from here. Common customization option includes changing the ‘Site Title’, ‘Tagline’, ‘Colors’ and ‘Background Image’.

  A WordPress theme gives the design to a website. It can be activated from the CMS and various types of settings can also be done on a theme. There are thousands of WordPress themes available to use, both free and paid ones.

  To add a new theme just click Add New button. Then you will see ‘Install Theme’ page, which shows 5 options – ‘Search’, ‘Upload’, ‘Featured’, ‘Newest’, ‘Recently Updated’.

  

  Install A Theme

  If you have downloaded a theme from the internet or got the theme developed by your web designer then you can use the upload option to upload the theme files (in .zip format) from your local pc to your WordPress website.

  You can also install a theme from the WordPress online store.

  A WordPress Website has menus for navigation, and for this you need to understand the workings of a menu. Check my other tutorial on WordPress Custom Menu that covers this part.

• 3. Add Pages and Posts –Pages and Posts section are two most important areas in WordPress. Move your mouse over ‘Pages’ heading in the WordPress Dashboard, a submenu will show up. Click on ‘Add New’ option to add a new page.
  

  Adding Pages In WordPress

  Similarly on placing mouse pointer over ‘Posts’, you can select ‘Add New’ from its sub menu.

  

  Adding Posts In WordPress

  When you are finished with a post/page then click the publish button to add post or page in your Website so that visitors can read it.

  Some important fields to when you are adding a post or a page are –

  a. Categories – they are only for post. You can add post categories and assign your post to one or more of them. If you do not assign a post to any category then it is automatically assigned to ‘Uncategorized’ Category.

  Uncategorized categories cannot be deleted unlike other post categories.

  b. Tags – they are the comma separated ‘Keywords’ of a post. You can grout multiple posts in comman tags.

  c. Slug – it is used in the URL formation of the posts/pages and for optimizing purpose by SEO experts.

  d. Parent – it allows setting the parent of a page.

  e. Template – template allows choosing the design of the page from all the templates the theme has.

• 4. Settings –Settings area forms an important part of the WordPress Website Configuration. In the ‘General’ area, always put your correct email address so that if you forgot the password of the WordPress CMS, you can always receive the password recovery link to this email.
  

  Setting Email Address In WordPress

  In Reading area. you can set the start page of your website from the ‘Front Page Displays’ option.

  If you select Your latest posts then the start page of the website will be showing the latest Posts of your website.

  A Static Page option. let you to set any page as the start page of your website. Note that, by the start page I mean the page which shows when only your website domain name (with its extension) is typed in the browser.

  Example if your website name is yogihosting then it means the page shown when www.yogihosting.com is typed in the browser.

  When typing www.yogihosting.com/hosting/, the first pages is not called, it’s the ‘hosting’ page called.

  

  Setting Starting Page In WordPress

  In the Permalinks area you should select the Post name option. I consider this as the best option to generate SEO friendly links in your website.

  

  Permalinks In WordPress

Now you are ready to star building your website in WordPress. I have also written a number of WordPress articles for Beginners like you, these articles links are given below.