How to Edit a Live WordPress Website
If you’re reading this, I assume you’ve got at least one WordPress website that you’re currently working on. If not, why are you reading this? It’s time to consider expanding your knowledge and skills so that you can take advantage of this amazing content management system.
Here’s a short tutorial that will help you get started with basic website editing tasks. It’s a great way to familiarize yourself with the platform and get some useful tips and tricks without spending too much time upfront.
The Need For Speed
You’ll quickly notice that WordPress is a lot faster and more responsive than any other blogging platform that you might have used in the past. This is largely thanks to its unique approach to website building which focuses on delivering fast, highly-optimized web content to end users. If you need a quick and easy way to get up and running, or even just want to make a few small changes to your website, you should definitely try out WordPress.
WordPress is great for non-technical users who want to build a simple yet functional website with the least amount of effort possible. If you’re looking for something more advanced, you should consider trying out a different platform.
A Powerful Tool
When it comes to editing a WordPress website, you’ll discover that there’s a lot more than meets the eye. It’s definitely not as easy as it seems at first glance. You’ll need to learn a few different approaches to tackle the different types of tasks that you’ll inevitably encounter. Luckily, WordPress is a very flexible content management system which makes editing a website a whole lot easier.
Complex Tasks
Even though WordPress is a very user-friendly CMS, it doesn’t mean that all tasks are as straightforward as they could be. You’ll find that a lot of the time, you’ll need to dive into the code and actually change something. Sometimes this could involve using your browser’s built-in developer tools, which WordPress makes available to its users via an expansive API.
If you’re not comfortable with HTML (HyperText Markup Language) or CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), you should learn the basics so that you can tackle more complex tasks. Unfortunately, not everyone will have the same level of expertise when it comes to HTML and CSS, which means that you might find yourself struggling with simple tasks that could have been completed easily using existing tools.
Make It Your Own!
One of the great things about WordPress is that it gives you the freedom to pretty much do whatever you want with a website you create. This means that you can put your own spin on the platform and use it in ways that will make you more productive. For example, instead of using the WordPress default theme, you could opt to use a different one entirely. Or, if you enjoy using a specific font for your site’s headings, you could make this your default for all of your text-based content.
Similarly, you could use plugins to enhance the functionality of your site or add extra features that make your content more engaging. There are literally thousands of WordPress plugins out there, so you’re bound to find something that will improve your experience as a content creator or manager. You might also want to read our top 10 WordPress plugins list for useful tips on using plugins to enhance your productivity.
The Importance Of Backups
The final key point to make about editing a WordPress website is the importance of regular backups. This is especially important if you’ve got a site with a lot of content on it. As much as possible, you don’t want to lose any of this content in the event of a hard drive crash or other type of system failure. Fortunately, WordPress comes with a built-in backup tool which you can access via the WordPress dashboard. This tool will help you create automatic daily backups of your entire website, as well as ones that are scheduled to take place more frequently. As much as possible, you don’t want to lose any content due to a poor or unorganized backup plan. This could lead to a significant amount of effort and time spent recovering all of your previous posts and other content.
Backups aren’t just important for keeping your content, they also play a critical role in ensuring that your site’s performance doesn’t degrade over time. Like any other piece of software or hardware, you’ll want to ensure that your WordPress website has the latest version of the OS (operating system) and that all necessary drivers are up-to-date. Regular backups will also allow you to restore your site in the event that it suffers from some type of performance issue.
A Few Useful Tips
While WordPress is a great tool for editing a website, it’s not exactly fault-free (especially when it comes to security). To that end, here are a few useful tips that will help you become a confident, skillful editor.
Learn HTML And CSS
Even though WordPress is a content management system, it isn’t exactly designed to look like a sleek, modern magazine. For this type of presentation, you’ll need to learn HTML and CSS (the building blocks of a website) to be able to manipulate the way content is displayed on your site. This could involve using a WordPress template that integrates with a third-party service or app to display your content in a certain way (like a carousel, for example).
Explore The WordPress API
One of the great things about WordPress is that it’s extremely versatile and allows for a great deal of customization. In other words, you can literally do anything with it. This means that you can integrate it with various third-party services or apps to create more complex websites with more features. To take advantage of all this versatility, you’ll want to be exploring the WordPress API which makes all of this possible.
Find A Task-oriented Workflow
When it comes to editing a WordPress website, you’ll quickly discover that there’s no straightforward method to doing anything. This is largely due to the fact that plugins and themes are usually developed with a “one-size-fits-all” approach and don’t always offer a lot of flexibility when it comes to specific tasks. For example, a majority of plugins and themes out there don’t offer a lot of flexibility when it comes to the actual layout and design of your site. This means that you’ll have to find a way to work around these limitations which might involve using some trial and error or searching online for help.
Learn Php
WordPress is a very well-known platform, so it’s likely that you’ll already be familiar with it. However, just because you know what it is, doesn’t mean that you know how to work with it effectively. For that, you’ll need to learn PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) which is the primary language used to build WordPress websites. Fortunately, PHP is a very easy language to pick up, and with each new version being backwards compatible, it’s actually a lot easier to learn than it was 10 years ago. Even still, it’s not exactly an intuitive or obvious choice for someone who is completely new to web development. If you’re looking for a lightweight, easy language to code in, PHP is a great choice.
Get Inspired
Just because you know what WordPress is and how to use it effectively, doesn’t mean that you’ll automatically be able to come up with creative ideas for your site. For this, you’ll need to get inspired by something which isn’t related to your daily routine (like an event, a person, or a place). Then, once you’ve got this initial idea, you can use various tools to either flesh it out further or see exactly how it would look once it’s been developed.
Conclusion
If you’re looking for a simple yet powerful way to edit your website, then WordPress is the perfect solution. Not only do they offer a user-friendly interface that allows non-techies to get the job done, but the content management system is also very flexible which makes it easy to enhance or change the way the platform functions.
To take advantage of all this versatility, you’ll want to learn HTML, CSS, PHP, and a little bit of SQL (a structured query language), along with the basics of WordPress. Once you’ve got this foundation, you can build and edit your WordPress website without any limitations.