How to Manage Your WordPress Website

If you’re reading this, I assume you’re either a WordPress enthusiast or someone who’s at least curious about the platform. In either case, you’re probably also aware that keeping up with all the various changes to the software can be quite the task. Not to worry, my friend. You have specialists. People who enjoy tweaking settings and searching for bugs. These are the people you want on your team. They’re the best of the breed when it comes to maintaining a WordPress website.

WordPress is a pretty popular content management system amongst bloggers and online entrepreneurs. In the last year alone, over 500 million downloads have been tallied. Obviously, given its popularity, a lot of people are trying to take advantage of its flexible content structure and its robust administration panel. However, it’s not for the faint of heart. If you’re looking for an easy way to get started or if you’re simply trying to figure out the best way to manage your existing WordPress site, this article is for you. Here are some of the things you need to know.

What Is WordPress?

WordPress is a free and open-source content management system (CMS). Think of it as the publishing platform of the 21st century. It was originally designed for blogging, but its versatile interface and the fact that it can be used for more than just text-based content make it a robust option for anyone looking for a publishing platform.

Why should you use WordPress? It has a massive following because it’s extremely user-friendly and boasts a vibrant community. Additionally, WordPress is an extremely flexible platform, and it’s very easy to integrate with other software such as Shopify and Typeform. If you’re looking to grow your audience, consider taking advantage of its massive popularity by establishing yourself as a thought leader in your industry.

The Pros And Cons Of Using WordPress

WordPress has a lot of perks, but, of course, there are some downsides as well. First and foremost, whenever there’s a change made to the software, your website will need to be updated with the latest version. In rare instances, this could be a painstaking process that requires a lot of patience. Another con is that despite its popularity, WordPress is still a fairly young platform. Even if you choose a robust and well-established theme, you’ll still be facing this issue once you start to see content.

On the plus side, WordPress offers amazing functionality and is extremely flexible. If you’re looking for a publishing platform that offers versatility, then look no further. The community behind WordPress is also extremely helpful, and if you ever have any questions, you can always search for an answer or ask one of the many helpful contributors. Finally, WordPress is free, so it’s an ideal option for anyone who’s still deciding what content management system to use.

Basic Website Setup

To get started with WordPress, you’ll need to register for an account. Once you’ve done that, you can head over to the dashboard and click on the button that looks like a wrench. This will take you to your dashboard, which will look something like this:

As you can see, the dashboard is a robust administration panel that allows you to modify many aspects of your site. From the looks of things, you’ll want to play around with the Settings, Plugins, and Theme areas of the dashboard. The first two are pretty self-explanatory; Settings allows you to modify things like the look and feel of your site, and Plugins are the pieces of software that make your site tick. Finally, the Theme area lets you choose a unique visual style for your site. In this area, you’ll also see a few popular themes that you can choose from, as well as a few extras you can download and install to give your site a unique spin. To add a bit more functionality, you can always install additional plugins to give your site a boost. Some common ones you’ll see are to increase your site’s SEO, allow video and audio clips, and generate more leads.

Installing WordPress

Installing WordPress is pretty straightforward. Assuming you’ve followed the steps mentioned above, you’ll simply need to visit the WordPress website and click on the button that looks like a download. The installer will then guide you through the process of downloading and installing the latest version of WordPress to your computer. Once WordPress is installed, you can then head back to your Dashboard and begin playing around with the software.

Updating WordPress

Updating WordPress is also pretty straightforward. Just like installing the software, updating WordPress is a matter of going to the website and clicking on the button that looks like a wrench. However, instead of taking you to the Dashboard, the wrench will take you to an area where you can choose from a variety of themes for your site. Once you’ve picked a theme, you can then begin the process of updating your site with the latest version of WordPress. Just remember that if you’ve chosen a theme with child or parent themes, you’ll need to update those as well to take advantage of all the new features.

Managing User Accounts

If you’ve ever tried to run a blog or a website where you have a substantial amount of content, you’ll know that keeping track of who’s writing what and when can be a tricky task. WordPress makes this process remarkably easy. Just head over to your Users area of the Dashboard, and you’ll see a list of all the users who’ve signed up for your site. From here, you can add, remove, or modify the access privileges of any of the users.

If you decide that a particular user hasn’t fulfilled the obligations of a member of your team, you can always revoke their access. This is a basic but extremely important step in maintaining a functional and trustworthy WordPress site. If you’re wondering why this step is so important, it’s because users who sign up for your site typically do so under false pretenses. If they don’t fulfill the obligations of a member of your team, how can you be sure they’re actually using the site for the good of your business?

Saving And Publishing Your Work

WordPress is all about speed and functionality. This means you can’t save your work in traditional file formats such as.doc or.pdf. Instead, you’ll need to find a way to publish your work in the form of blog posts. When you’re ready to publish a new blog post, simply click on the “New Post” button at the top of your Dashboard. From here, you can edit the content of your post and choose from a variety of formatting options. When you’re satisfied with the content and the way it looks, simply click on the “Publish” button.

This will take you back to your post, where you can either preview it or publish it. If you decide to go with the latter, WordPress will then notify you that your post has been published and will bring you back to the main dashboard. From here, you can check out your blog post and get inspired by what you wrote to develop extra blog posts that will eventually turn into content marketing.

Hopefully, this article gave you a clear idea of how to manage your WordPress website. As you can see, there are a lot of perks to using this popular content management system, but, of course, there are also some drawbacks. The good thing is, all of these issues can be overcome with a little bit of research and some basic know-how. If you ever encounter any problems, the community behind WordPress is always willing to help out. Once you’ve registered an account with them, you’ll find that the helpfulness of the WordPress devs is almost unmatched. So, while you may want to avoid using this CMS if you’re looking for an all-in-one solution, it has a lot to offer if used properly.