As a beginner, managing a WordPress site sounds like a tough job, isn’t it? But it’s not as complicated as it seems once you break things down. Being a WordPress admin means learning the proper steps and tools, from customizing your site to keeping everything secure. So, where should we start?
This guide is here to help you navigate the essentials so you can manage your website like a pro. Let’s explore it further!
What is a WordPress Admin?
We heard you want to be a WordPress admin, but how well do you understand the nitty-gritty details about this job? Well, we’ll be exploring the basics of WordPress admin together. A WordPress admin is the person in charge of running a WordPress website. They handle everything from adding new content to keeping the site safe and working smoothly.
As an admin, you control the look of the site, manage who can access it, and make sure all the important features run properly. Sounds like a though job? While in fact it is, you don’t have to worry. We’ve compiled eight essential tips to help you get started as a WordPress admin. Explore the list below.
1. Getting Familiar with WordPress Basics
When you first log in to WordPress, you’ll see the dashboard. Since this interface greets you whenever you open your WordPress, you must be familiar with the sections available there. The WordPress Dashboard is the control center where you can manage your entire website. You’ll spend most of your time here, so getting comfortable with the layout is key. Here is a guide.
Posts: This is where you write and manage your blog posts. You can add new content, edit old posts, and schedule them to be published later.
Pages: Pages are home to your permanent content, such as your homepage, contact page, or “About Us” section.
Media: When you upload visual assets for a blog post, such as photos, illustrations, graphs, animated videos, they’ll be stored in the media library.
Plugins and Appearance: These sections help you control how your website looks and what extra features it has. We’ll get into these more in the next sections.
You should spend time clicking around and trying things to understand all the functions. Once you’re familiar with the basics, running a WordPress site becomes much easier.
2. Installing and Managing Plugins
Plugins are additional tools you add to your WordPress site to give it extra features. Some plugins help with security, others make your site faster, and some are for things like SEO (which helps your site get found on Google).
Simply put, you can think of plugins as apps on your smartphone. You can download apps to help you play music, watch movies, or check the weather. Plugins in WordPress closely work like that.
To install a plugin, simply follow these steps:
- First, go to the Plugins section in your dashboard.
- Select Add New and find the plugin you need (for example, type “SEO” or “security”).
- When you find one you like, click Install, then Activate.
- You’ll usually have a settings page where you can adjust how your plugin works.
When you become a WordPress admin, managing plugins is important, as well as updating them regularly. One thing you should remember – don’t install too many plugins, they can slow down your website. Stick to the essentials.
3. Mastering Themes and Customization
One of the most exciting things to do with WordPress is to customize how it looks to audiences. WordPress offers tons of free and paid themes that can change the aesthetics of your website. In your dashboard, go to the Appearance section. Then, click Themes and Add New. Browse through the options available. When you find one you like, click Install and then Activate.
Not stopping there, you can still customize your theme. You can change colors, fonts, and layout in the Customize section. If you know a bit of coding (CSS or HTML), you can tweak things even more for a unique look. However, WordPress customization tools will give beginners enough control without technical skills.
4. Managing Users and Permissions
If you’re running a website by yourself, this section might not be something you use right away. But if you work in a team with multiple authors or editors, you must manage users and their permissions. WordPress lets you add different users to your site and assign them roles depending on what they need to do. The highest level is the administrator, who holds full control over the site. Remember these roles:
Administrator: Admins can make changes, add users, delete content, and basically do anything.
Editor: Editors can only publish and manage posts, including posts by other people.
Author: Authors can only write and publish their posts. They can’t mess with anyone else’s content.
Contributor: Contributors can write posts but can’t publish them. Before it goes live, their work has to be approved by an admin or editor.
Subscriber: At the lowest level, they can only view content and manage their profiles.
You can always add new users in each role above. To do it, go to the Users section in the dashboard and click Add New. Fill in their information and select their role.
It’s important to assign the right role to each user. Give people enough access to do their jobs without giving them control over your site. This keeps your site safe and makes sure nothing gets changed by accident.
5. Understanding Backups and Security
Websites are often targets for hackers and malware. These can cause technical glitches and, more severely, can lead to data loss. That’s where backups come in. A backup is a copy of your entire website, including files, content, settings, and everything. You can restore the site using the backup and avoid losing all your hard work.
You should create backups of your site regularly. Plugins like UpdraftPlus or BackWPup can make this easy. They automatically save copies of your site to your computer or cloud services. Meanwhile, plugins like Wordfence or Sucuri can help protect your site from attacks. They scan your website for suspicious activity and block malicious login attempts.
6. Keeping WordPress Updated
WordPress releases updates to fix bugs and improve security consistently. These updates may also offer new features. As an admin, one of your most important tasks is keeping everything up to date. You will get notifications in your dashboard when an update is available for the WordPress core. Before you update anything, it’s recommended to back up your site in case something goes wrong during the process.
Updates keep your site safe from new vulnerabilities and improve its performance. Be careful with major updates. They may cause compatibility issues with certain plugins. Always check everything works properly after the update.
7. Mastering SEO Basics
SEO helps your website or pages appear in search engines. Learn the basics of SEO practices, such as keywords and on-page optimizations. Consider installing SEO plugins like Yoast SEO and All in One SEO. These plugins will give you suggestions, like adding more keywords, making your titles shorter, or improving your meta descriptions.
On the other hand, on-page SEO refers to the SEO you can control on your pages. You must know how to properly use relevant titles, headings (H1, H2, H3), internal links other pages on your site), and external links (high-quality sources).
8. Monitoring Content Performance
Once everything is set, try creating and publishing content on your WordPress. Use performance monitoring tools to monitor and analyze your content’s performance. Google Analytics is a free tool vastly used by other WordPress admins. It allows you to see visitors, how long they stay, which pages they visit the most, and their demographics.
You can also use paid monitoring tools like Ahrefs and Semrush. These are useful for monitoring content performance and providing recommendations for content optimization.
Last Thought
Becoming a WordPress admin might seem like a daunting task at first. However, with time and consistency, the above guide can help you navigate each section without being overwhelmed.
Always master the basics and take your time experimenting with different tools. Remember that being a WordPress admin is a learning journey. The more you explore it, the less overwhelming the job will be.