Wordpress. Step by step for beginners, part 6

Create your Wordpress website credibility by setting up a good base. This base will be your static pages, that is, those pages that describe what your website is about. It’s your introduction to your visitors. Your static pages will let your visitors know who you are, and what you do.

After logging in to your Wordpress dashboard go down the list of link buttons on the left of the dashboard. In position 5 is the link to pages. When you hover your cursor over the button, a little down pointing triangle shows. Click on it.

You now have two options. You can edit a page, or you can write a new page. In the beginning is ‘About’, so use the edit option.

 The window you will now see shows you the pages that already exist, with the text in that page. Wordpress put it there to help you. 

If you’re happy with the title, leave it, you need to change the text though. Replace it with your own text. Most Wordpress fundis will tell you to preview your page when it’s done. I don’t bother; I publish and check it online. If it needs any tweaking, I edit the post. Generally I work with two tabs on my browser. One tab is my Wordpress dashboard, and the other is the live site. It is just easier, for me anyway, to edit in one tab, save, then open the other tab and refresh the page.

When you’re happy with your page, scroll down to discussion, and make sure there is no tick in the ‘Allow comments ‘box. You want comments on posts, not pages. You do want to allow trackbacks and pingbacks.

On the right is a box called ‘Attributes’. As this is a main page and not part of, or an extension of another page, the ‘Attributes’ are not altered.

Should you decide to add a page about your dog, create it, and then set your main About page as the parent page. Your dog’s page will now appear as a dropdown option of your About page.

I have yet to find a Wordpress blogger who uses the ‘Custom fields’ facility. I don’t, and generally disregard it.

Adding a new page to your Wordpress website is just as easy. From your Dashboard, select ‘Pages’, and then select ‘Add new’. Fill in the spaces you need to, using the guidelines above, publish, check, tweak, publish, and you’re done.

The pictures below show you what your screen will look like at various stages in the process. It’s not really intimidating.

The full, growing list of Wordpress, step by step for beginners, tutorials is here