Hey Leo can you do a WordPress Admin Tutorial and show us where things are?
Absolutely, I’d love to!!
Ah, that infamous WordPress admin panel. This is the hub from which you control everything related to your website. But for almost every beginner just getting their online business up and running this panel can cause some frustration.
And most of that comes from just not knowing where things are. So today I’m going to go through the admin panel and show you where things are as well as the function of each.
Now I took a screenshot of my test website’s admin panel. Now every admin panel has all the same default access points.
The only difference from other admin panels is when you start adding your plugins they can then show up in the admin panel itself or within one of the subsections of the panel.
The plugin that’s showing within the admin panel on my test site is Thrive Lightboxes. I won’t be going through that simply because it’s not part of the default WordPress admin panel. Everything else we’re going to go through.
Now before we jump in after going through this post if you have any questions about the admin panel feel free to ask your question in the comment section below. Or if you like you can email me directly. Either way, I’ll get back to you right away.
WordPress Admin Turorial
For the purpose of this tutorial I’m going to refer to the admin panel as the “menu” simply because to me, that’s what it is.
Dashboard
So, at the top of the menu, you have Home and Updates.
Home
It’s just what it says – it brings you to the overview of your dashboard. Here you will find panels referencing different aspects of your website.
And each one of these panels can be expanded as well as moved around so you can have your dashboard showing the way you want.
You’ll also see a tab called Screen Options at the top right of your Home screen.
If you click the arrow in that screen options tab this will open up a panel that allows you to select what will display on your home screen.
Updates
Anytime there are updates to WordPress, your plugins, and themes you will see a notification for those updates.
The screenshot below is from one of my other sites and you can see that I’ve been notified that I need to update my site to the latest version of WordPress. If there were other updates they would be shown here as well.
Posts
Under the tab Posts, you’ll find tabs for All Posts, Add New, Catagories, and Tags.
All Posts
Under the All Posts tab when clicked you will see all of your published posts as well as all of your draft posts.
This is where you would head to when making any changes to your published and draft post. Simply click the title link and your post will open up in the WordPress editor.
Since I don’t really have any posts on my test site, here’s a screenshot from this blog.
Another editing feature is found when you hover your cursor over the title of your post a little popup menu will appear.
If you just need to do some quick edits that don’t require access to the post editor simply click Quick Edit. And this editing panel will appear.
Here you can change things like the title, publish date, category, tags, and even the post’s status.
Add New
When you have your next great post for your website. This is where you create your latest masterpiece. When you click this link it will take you straight to the post editor.
Categories
Categories are an efficient way for you to group related posts together. Categories also make it much easier for people to find your content.
Through the widget function, which I’m going to cover when we get to Appearance. You can display your categories in the header, footer, left or right sidebar, etc.
Categories can be organized in a hierarchy and you can also create subcategories to a parent category.
For example, let’s say you have a parent category called “Money”. You can create subcategories which are also known as “child” categories to your parent category Money.
So, for example, you could have child categories such as Bonds, Investing, Stocks, etc.
You can also add categories when you’re within the post editor. In the righthand sidebar, you have access to many of the admin panel features. Such as Categories.
Simply click the dropdown arrow and the panel will open up and you can add your post tags there without having to go through the admin panel.
Tags
Like categories, tags help visitors quickly find a specific subject without having to scan through all your posts.
While categories group your posts broadly, tags describe specific details of your post.
So, let’s say you filed a post under your “Money” category. You could then assign tags like investments, risky, and junk bonds.
Now unlike categories tags are not hierarchical. And they are also an option they’re not required.
Add just as you can with categories you can add your Tags within the post editor without having to use the admin panel link.
Media
Under media, you have 2 tabs, Library and Add New.
Library
The library is where you can see and manage all of your existing media files such as images, audio, video, documents, and spreadsheets.
Add New
You can drag and drop or select a file from your computer to upload new media to your site.
Pages
Under the Pages tab, you have All Pages and Add New.
All Pages
Just like all posts here you can see all of your draft and published pages. This is also where you would head to when you want to edit a published or draft page. This is also where you would go if you want to delete a page.
Add New
When you want to create a new page such as an About or Contact page here’s where you would do that. And just like a post when you click Add New the editor will automatically open up.
Comments
It’s through comments that give you the ability to engage with your visitors by allowing them to give feedback and ask questions.
Now if you have activated comments on your website (most people do) a comment box will appear at the bottom of your post or page.
You are in complete control of these comments and if you’re like most website owners a comment must be approved before it can be seen in the comments section below your posts and pages. (I’m going to show you where you can make that setting when we get to the Setting area)
And it’s in the Comments area is where you’re going to find and manage all the comments left on your website.
You can also see how many comments have been approved, the ones waiting for approval, deleted comments, and the number of spam comments.
Appearance
Under Appearance you have Themes, Customize, Widgets, Menus, and Theme File Editor.
And yes there is one that says Generate Press and one that says Elements and that’s because Generate Press is the theme I am using for my site and Elements is an addition to that theme.
Your appearance menu will look a little different if you’re using a different theme. But the Appearance tab will have the default taps of Themes, Customize, Widgets, Menus, and Theme File Editor.
Themes
This is where you upload and activate your WordPress themes. You can also delete a theme if you’re no longer going to use it.
You can upload as many themes as you like. There is also a function allowing you to search for uploaded themes.
Customize
When you click the Customize tab under Appearance this will bring you to an area where you can “customize” your website.
Widgets
The widgets area is where you add global elements to your website. These vary by theme and are typically added to areas such as your Sidebar, Header, or Footer.
Menus
The Menus area is where you create and manage your menus including your menu location on your website.
Now when it comes to menus the number of menus you can have and the locations that are available are different with every WordPress theme.
Theme File Editor
The theme file editor is the actual code of your WordPress theme. Unless you are experienced in coding this is an area you NEVER want to go to.
Making any changes in the code without knowing what you’re doing will cause all kinds of havoc on your website.
If you want to make any changes to the CSS (cascading style sheet) of your website you can do that through the built-in editor. Which is found in the Customize area under the subheading of Additional CSS.
Plugins
Installed Plugins
Here is where you will find every active and inactive plugin you have on your WordPress site.
Add New
Here is where you can browse the WordPress plugin library. You can find these under Featured, Popular, Recommended, and Favorites. You can also use the search function by typing in the keyword or the name of the plugin to find it.
Once found you can then Install and Activate the plugin. And if you have a plugin that you’ve downloaded from somewhere else. You can upload that plugin from your computer to your website.
Plugin File Editor
In this area, you can adjust the code of the individual plugins you have on your site.
Now if you don’t know what you’re doing you can seriously damage your website. Things can go so badly that you’re presented with a warning before you can access things.
Users
All Users
Here is a list of all the users that have access to your website. You can see their User Name, Name, Email, Role, and activity on your website.
And you also have the ability to edit a user. Simply place your cursor over the user name and a menu will appear with an Edit link.
Add New
Here is where you would add a new user to your website. Along with their information, you will assign them their role as a user.
Each role allows different permission access to a user.
You have:
Administrator
This role gives the user full access to your website. Typically this role is for you only.
Editor
This role has full control of the content sections of your site. They can edit, publish, and delete any post on your site. Including ones written by others. They can also moderate, edit, and delete comments.
An editor cannot change the setting on your site or add new users, plugins, or themes.
Author
With this role, Authors can write, edit, publish, and delete their own posts. They have no other access to your site.
Contributor
In this role, a contributor can add new posts and edit their own posts, but they cannot publish any posts. They can also choose from existing categories and create their own tags.
Subscriber
All a subscriber can do is update their user profiles, and change their passwords. This is the perfect role if you have a membership website.
Profile
This is where you can make changes to your personal profile such as Contact Info, Biographical Info, Profile Picture, and other account management features.
Tools
Import
If you have posts or comments in another system, you can import those into your website. You simply choose the system listed to import from.
And if it’s not listed you search the plugin directory to see if an importer is available.
More often than not people are important to WordPress. So from this list of importers, you will use the WordPress importer.
Export
With the export function, WordPress will create an XML file that you save onto your computer. You have the option to choose what you want to export.
Or you can choose to export All Content. Which would include all of your posts, pages, comments, custom fields, terms, navigation menus, and custom posts. This is the option most people choose.
Once downloaded onto your computer you can then use the import function in another WordPress website and import the content from the site you exported your content from.
Site Health
Site health helps you monitor how well your site is doing. It has 2 parts. Status and Info.
On the Status page, you will see a little colored circle telling you the status of your site. If you see red then you’ve got work to get your site healthy.
If there are no critical errors you’ll see a green circle. But there is still room for improvement. And the recommendations for those improvements will be listed.
On the Info page, you’ll find detailed information on the configuration of your website. Simply click the dropdown arrow to expand the panel to see the information.
This is a good resource If you’ve run into some trouble with your site. You can share this information with your web host or developer.
Export Personal Data
This tool was created to help the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
This tool is used to export the personal data of your users. Once a request has been made and the request has been approved a zip file will be created that contains the personal data that exists for that particular user within your WordPress site.
Erase Personal Data
Just like the export of personal data once a request to erase personal data has been confirmed. All of the data from that user will be permanently removed from the database. This cannot be undone once completed.
Now, this tool ONLY gathers data from WordPress and participating plugins and does not remove the data from backups or archive files.
Settings
General
This is the default setting administration screen and controls the basic functions of your website.
This includes; Site Title, Site Tagline, Site URL, Administration Email Address, New User Default Role, Language, Time Zones, Date, and Time Format.
Writing
This is where you set the writing when it comes to new posts on your website. These settings include:
- Formatting
- Default Post Category
- Default Post Format
- Default Link Category
- Default Editor For All Users
This is where you will also find the settings for Post Via Email and Update Services.
Reading
Here you can set how your homepage displays (latest posts or static page). If you have it set to show your blog roll, you can set how many posts show on your homepage.
You can set your syndication feed and your website’s search engine visibility.
Discussion
This is the section where you set the options for comments (discussions). There is quite a bit you can set here.
Such as your default post setting such as allowing pingbacks and trackbacks.
You can have settings such as wanting to hold a comment for moderation before it appears (yes you do).
You can set “Disallowed Comment Keys” which are words that would trigger a comment to be put in the trash file if it contains the keywords in your Disallowed Comment Keys section.
You can also choose the type of avatars to display for users who interact with the site.
Media
This is where you set the size of images that are added to your media library.
Permalinks
This is where you can set a custom structure for your permalinks. A permalink is the full URL you see and use for any given post or page on your website.
You have several common settings to choose from. The ideal setting is the Post Name setting. Having this setting will show your website’s domain name and the title of your post or page in the URL.
So if you look at the URL in the browser for this post you will see it has my domain name along with the title of this post.
This is also the best permalink setting to have as part of your website’s overall SEO.
Privacy
Here you will find the Privacy setting you as a website owner need to adhere to, be it either national or international privacy laws.
You will need to create a privacy policy page. You will find a link to a privacy policy guide to help you create your website’s privacy policy.
Once you have created your privacy page you can then add the link to your privacy policy page in the form field provided.
Wrapping Up
I know how frustrated I got when I could not find what I wanted in WordPress. I’m sure you can relate to that as well.
But like anything the more I used WordPress the more skilled I become with it. And I know it’s going to be the same for you.
If you enjoyed this post about WordPress you may be interested in these other posts:
- How Can I Create A Reusable Gutenberg Page Template In WordPress
- How To Remove “Just Another WordPress Site” Text
Thanks for dropping by. If you have a comment or question you can leave them below and I get back to you right away. And feel free to share this post with your audience.
I believe in you!
Leo
Hey it’s Leo. I’m the founder of Netwise Profits, and I’ve been making a full-time online income as an affiliate marketer since 2005. And as of 2012, I’ve been personally helping people turn their hobbies, passions, and interests into online incomes through affiliate marketing. And I can help you too.