So you have a new installation of WordPress in your domain. What to do next?
In this post, we will help you customize your website a bit.
1) How to login to your Admin panel
First things first, log in to your admin panel. To log in, enter the URL http://yourdomainname/wp-admin/ or http://yourdomainname/wp-login.php. This will open up a login page. Enter your username and password and press login. Done? Now that you have logged in, you should be able to see the WordPress dashboard with menus on the left side of your screen (menus like Posts, Media, Pages etc.). Get a good look. This is your dashboard.
2) Changing Theme
Your site looks like everyone else’s. Boring. You gotta customize it. Change the default theme. Here are two options for you
a) If you don’t have a theme zip file
Click on the menu(on the left side of the screen) Appearance -> Themes. You will see the list of all the themes(in grid form) that are installed in your WordPress installation. Twenty Seventeen is the default theme(in WordPress version 4.9). To Add a NEW THEME simply click on ADD NEW THEME icon or Click on ADD NEW Button on top, then you will be redirected to the page where you will be presented with the free WordPress themes. This page has filters like popular, latest and favorites to help you make the right choice. Search for your theme. Found it?. Now, preview it. Click Install and the theme will be download to your WordPress installation. Click Activate once downloaded successfully. Congrats! You just changed your WordPress theme for the first time.
b) What do I do if I have already bought a theme zip file or downloaded it?
Go to Appearance-> Themes. Click on ADD NEW Button on top or ADD NEW THEME icon below where themes list shows up. After that Click on UPLOAD THEME Button on top. From the screen choose your zip file. Click on INSTALL NOW Button. This will install your theme. After successful installation click Activate
3) Change your basic display settings
Scroll down the screen to Setting(left side. Yeah)-> General. From this screen, you can change your site title, tagline, WordPress URL, site URL, date format and time format etc. Done? Cool. Let’s move forward.
4) Now, set your front page and blog page
The front page is the home page that anyone sees on visiting your website URL. The blog page is the page where your blog posts will be shown. Setting them up is easy. Click on Settings(the same one as before)-> Reading. Next, a page with few options(front page display, Blog pages show at most etc.) will show up. Now do what you like.
So in Frontpage Displays there are 2 options
a) Your latest posts -> This default option keeps showing your latest blog posts on your front page. If you do not like it, then choose
b) A static page -> select this option if you want to have front page and posts page . For front page, select the page from the dropdown list which you want to be your homepage. The Posts Page which will show the blog posts. Choose one. By default, your theme provides pages for both these.
5) Set your permalinks
What is most important is that your website should be visible. Search Engine optimization Permalinks are SEO friendly URL. WordPress do not set permalinks itself. To set permalinks to click on Settings-> Permalinks. You will be presented will different permalinks options(Plain, Day and name, Month and name etc.) Go on. Do set your permalinks as they are crucial.
6) Suppose you want to Add Menu
Navigate to Appearance-> Menus. Need to a new menu? Click on “create a new menu”. Name your menu. Select pages from the pages widget. Click on “Add to Menu” This will add a menu to the Menu Structure. One more thing to do to show menu is to check the theme location where the menu should show.
7) Want to post on your site?
Yes. Then Click Posts(the first option on the menu)-> Add New. A new page will be shown to you. Enter Title, Content in editor( Use editor features to structure your content like making headings bold, inserting paragraphs, Bullet lists, block quotes etc). On the right side, you will have some options like Publish, Format, Categories, Tags, Featured Images. You can edit or remove your blog post from Blog list.
8) Add a Page
Click on Pages-> Add New(2nd option). Add Title and content of your pages just like you did for the blog post. Click Publish. Done.
9) Add Plugins
Plugin (thousands available) extend the functionality of your website. Click on Plugins menu. This will list all the plugins installed. To add New Plugin simply click on Add New button on top. This will list the page with plugins in WordPress repository. If you have a zip file. Simply upload it or you can choose or search plugin from plugin repository and install it.
10) User Management
Add new users(a business partner, perhaps) to your site from admin panel with different roles. Click on Users. Add new to add new ones.Fill the required fields. Done. All users option lists all the users currently in site. Your profile option will give you options like Visual Editor, admin color scheme etc.