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In our last lesson we learnt how to install our WordPress via Cpanel (please note that there are various alternatives of control panels depending on the hosting provider). To refresh our memory, we covered two installation tools namely WordPress Manager by Softaculous and WP Toolkit and we learnt how each works. I would like to believe that we managed to successfully install WordPress on our domains and were able to save our login links and login details somewhere safe, we will be using these credentials as we create our simple websites.

In this part of our series we will be taking a tour of our newly installed WordPress dashboard so that we can be familiar with it and also learn how each element works. Without further ado, let’s get started with our tour. 

The first thing you need to do is to visit your login link (an example is shown below) and enter your login details and login into your wordpress.

After logging in you will see a dashboard like one shown in the screenshot.

This WordPress dashboard is the control center for your WordPress website where you can manage all aspects of your site, from adding content to configuring settings.

In our tour, we will be looking at the different elements and learning what each does and when to use them.

Dashboard:

 This is the main screen of the WordPress dashboard. It includes links to all of the other major sections of the dashboard.

Posts:

 This is where you can create and manage blog posts. Your blog is where you can share some educational articles or some news with your web visitors. This helps you to draw more visitors to your website and increases the chances of you getting clients. When you click on ‘Posts’ you will see a sample post that will be there, you can either edit it or delete it and create yours.

Pages: 

This is where you can create and manage static pages, such as your About page or Contact page. These pages are normally the pages you link to the header menu of your website. Pages do not need regular updates like posts.

Media: 

This is where you can upload and manage images, videos, and other media files. These media files are can be used in various parts of your website like your pages and your posts.

Comments: 

This is where you can view and manage comments on your blog posts. If you have comments enabled for your posts you can moderate them here, you will be able to approve or delete some comments. The comments you approve will be shown under the blog article.

Appearance:

 This is where you can customize the design of your website. Here you can choose and customize the theme for your website, edit your menus and also edit your widgets (other options such as widgets and menus will appear after we have installed our theme as you will find out in the next part)

Plugins:

 This is where you can install and manage plugins, which add new features to your website. Plugins are there to add some more functions to your website that may not be in-built into the website’s theme(framework). For example, if you need to have a gallery but your website does not have it by default you can install a gallery plugin.

Settings: 

This is where you can configure general settings for your website, such as your site title and tagline. If you had not set your website’s name and description during the installation process you can do it here. As you can see there are other settings other than general settings, we will explore some of them in the following parts of our series.

As we conclude part 3 of the series ‘How to make your own simple website’,  it is important that you familiarize yourself with your WordPress dashboard as this dashboard will be the key to making our simple websites. Understanding how everything works will make our adventure easier to undertake. In the next part of the series we will be installing our theme and plugins.

Do not forget to leave us comments about your experience in exploring your WordPress dashboard 🙂.

Series Navigation

<< Part one: Getting Started