Becoming familiar with the WordPress dashboard
WordPress is a robust web development platform, and it is an ideal tool for anyone who would like to create a website. If you have recently decided to build your own WordPress site, then you will need to spend a little bit of time familiarizing yourself with the admin dashboard. That dashboard is going to give you full control over your site and allow you to update information, load media, or change the overall design. Here is a quick look at some of the basic tools that can be found in the WordPress admin dashboard.
Logging Into the Dashboard
The very first step in this process is logging into the admin panel through your preferred browser. To access the dashboard, you will enter the web address of your site followed by /wp-admin. Once the page has loaded, you must sign in with your username and password. That same method can be used to access any WordPress sites that you make in the future.
After you have logged in, you will be greeted by an admin panel that is filled with various tools and links. While that back-end of your site might seem overwhelming at first, most of the features are extremely intuitive.
Dashboard Cards Overview
The admin panel has a variety of cards that give you basic statistics on the site and let you carry out some of the most common actions. That includes adding media to your web page, adding new static pages, writing blogs, and customizing the site’s theme. The very first panel will be the Welcome to WordPress! link, and all of that information should be read before you proceed.
Just below the first panel should be a small card that gives you a quick overview of the site. It should tell you how many pages you have created, how many blogs have been posted, the number of comments that you have received, which version of WordPress you are using, and your current theme.
The next panel that you are going to see is the Activity card, and that is where you will be conducting a lot of your day-to-day administrative work. The Activity card gives you full control over all of the comments on your site. You can use the card to filter out spam, approve pending comments, and delete older or inappropriate comments.
Quick Draft Panel
In order to create pages and publish blog posts, you will need to use the Quick Draft panel. That particular card is going to be one of the most useful tools on your dashboard, and you might want to spend a little bit of time working with it before you delve into more complicated features. The Quick Draft panel allows you to write a title and then type out what you would like the page to say. Once you are done with the page or blog post, it can be published directly through that card.
WordPress Events and News Card
If you would like to learn more about WordPress or get involved in the community, then you should take a look at the WordPress Events and News card. That panel is updated regularly, and it will include information such as changes that are being made to the platform and meetups that are occurring throughout the world. Those who aren’t interested in that type of information can minimize that card or move it to the bottom of the page.
Updates
The last area of the dashboard that you will need to locate is the Updates button. That button can be found on the menu to the left, and it gives you the ability to quickly update your site. If you don’t have the latest version of WordPress, then there should be a small notification icon next to the button. As a general rule, you should update your site whenever new updates are available.
Moving Forward
The WordPress admin dashboard is very easy to master, and it should only take a few moments to familiarize yourself with all of the basic tools and features. From there, you will be able to create new pages, customize your theme, and optimize your site for search engines.