How to Check Your WordPress Website
It is a well-known fact that WordPress is the most popular content management system (CMS) around. The ease of use and flexibility of the software makes it desirable to millions of users. Whether you are a professional website owner, blogger, or an individual content creator, WordPress can be a useful tool in your work. This topic will teach you how to check the technical and design aspects of your WordPress website.
Technical Aspects
The first thing you will need to do is download and install the WordPress editor onto your computer. You can do this through your WordPress dashboard. Once you have installed the software, you can use it to create content and edit existing blog posts and web pages. To check your website’s technical aspects, you will need to login to your WordPress dashboard. From here, you can click on the **Build** button to launch the WordPress dashboard builder.
The WordPress dashboard builder opens up a page where you can design your website visually. You will be able to choose a theme that you like from a large library of free themes or purchase a premium theme that will cost you $29 per month plus fees.
You also have the option of using a custom URL (Uniform Resource Locator), also known as a slug, for your website.
When you are happy with your design, click on the **Publish** button to activate the website.
To learn more about the WordPress dashboard builder, visit this website.
Design Aspects
After you have created your website using the WordPress dashboard builder, it’s time to deal with the design aspects. From the WordPress dashboard, click on the **Design** tab to open up the WordPress dashboard design interface. Here, you can make various changes to the layout and design of your site. You can use the wide range of pre-made templates or you can design a template from scratch.
If you are a beginner, it is recommended to use a theme that is built in an agile manner. This means that it is built on the Genesis framework, which is one of the most popular WordPress frameworks. Using an agile theme will make it easier for you to make changes to the design as you develop your website.
You can use various plugins to make your site more appealing to potential customers or users. One example of a WordPress plugin that can be used to enhance your website’s appearance is Yoast’s SEO plugin. The SEO plugin allows you to set up custom SEO metrics and to track the performance of your content using free tools such as Google Analytics.
As a beginner, it is recommended to use plugins only when they are strictly necessary. Overusing plugins can seriously hurt your site’s performance. Sometimes, a minimalist approach is the best solution. Only use plugins when there is no other option. From the WordPress dashboard, you can click on the **Settings** tab to access the plugin settings.
The Settings page for the SEO plugin opens up where you can see various details about the plugin’s operation.
Checking The Basics
After you have created your WordPress website, you will need to check its basic functionality. To do this, click on the **Reading** tab next to open up the WordPress dashboard’s reading interface. Here, you can see all of the content that has been uploaded to your site recently.
You can click on the **Comments** button to open up the WordPress dashboard’s comment interface. You are free to leave comments on blog posts and articles. Your comments will appear on the blog posts’ and articles’ comment sections, depending on how the blog administrator has set up commenting.
To learn more about checking the basics of your WordPress website, visit this helpful guide. To access WordPress’s help section, click on the question mark in the top-right corner of the Dashboard.
Checking The Settings
Now that you have an idea of how to create a WordPress website, it’s time to deal with the settings. These settings control your website’s functionality. To learn how to check the settings of your WordPress website, follow these steps:
From the WordPress dashboard, click on the **Settings** tab to open up the WordPress dashboard’s settings interface. Here, you will learn about all of the options that are available. You can also visit this link to access WordPress’s help section from within the settings interface.
You can find all of the different settings for WordPress by clicking on the question mark in the top-right corner of the Dashboard.
The different types of settings that you can find in WordPress’s settings interface are divided into two parts: General Settings and Advanced Settings.
General Settings
These settings determine the overall behavior of your WordPress website. You should not need to change these settings unless you have a very specific reason to do so. The following are the various categories of General Settings:
- Design
- Domain Name
- Domain Privacy
- Username
- Password
- Social Media
- Comments
- Copyright
- Metadata
- Avatar
- Registration
- SEO
- Performance
- Security
To access WordPress’s help section from within the General Settings area of the dashboard, click on the question mark in the top-right corner of the screen.
Advanced Settings
The Advanced Settings area of the WordPress dashboard allows you to change more detail-oriented settings that affect the functionality of your site. If you have a very specific reason for needing to change one of these settings, then you should know how to do so. The following are the various categories of Advanced Settings:
- Hacks
- Media
- General
- Appearance
- Personal Data
- Comments
- Imagery
- 404 Page
- Structure
- Link Shortcuts
- Sharing
- Privacy
- Security
- Tracking
- WPMU (WordPress Multi-User)
- AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML)
To learn more about the various settings that you can found in the Advanced Settings area of the WordPress dashboard, click on the question mark in the top-right corner of the screen.
Conclusion
Now that you have access to WordPress’s settings interface, it’s time to login to your Dashboard and start playing around with the various settings. Make sure to use this interface to learn more about how WordPress works and the various options that are available to you.