How Do You Use WordPress?

WordPress is a content management system (CMS) originally designed for bloggers. Today, it is used as the CMS of choice for a number of websites including VarietyBBC America and Sony Music.  At Point Taken, we create client websites in WordPress, giving our small business and nonprofit clients a more affordable way to have a professional and captivating presence on the internet. However, many of our clients are unsure how to use this CMS system, so we’re answering the question, “How Do You Use WordPress?”

Talk the Terminology

In order to use WordPress, you need to understand a bit about the way the system works. When you log into your website, you’ll be taken to a dashboard. This is where you can see the majority of the inner workings of your website. Your dashboard includes your posts (the content that makes up your blog) and pages (the content that is more permanent and typically makes up the menus and submenus on your website). You can break your posts into categories, which are different subjects used to organize your posts. Media encompasses all the pictures and PDFs you have inserted into your site, and comments are the all the great things (or not so great things) people say about your blog posts or pages. Plugins are pieces of code that allow your site to function and transform WordPress websites from simple blogs to e-commerce sites, photo galleries, membership sites and more. The website design options using plugins are almost limitless, with developers creating new plugins regularly to make WordPress websites even more powerful.

Learn to Login

Logging into WordPress is pretty simple, and you can typically login simply by adding “/wp-admin” or “/wp-login” to the end of your website’s URL (web address). Use the username given by your administrator and remember to make your password unique. Hackers can figure out easy passwords and add content to your site that doesn’t match your brand. It is much easier to keep a secure password than clean a hacked site.

Design with Designers

While it might be tempting to go it alone, WordPress is a robust system. If you want to create a professional website, you’ll need to employ someone with knowledge of HTML (HyperText Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). You’ll also want to work with someone who understands search engine optimization (SEO) so your website ranks high in Google, Yahoo and Bing. You need a designer who understands branding so your website matches your logo, voice and marketing materials and content marketing so you provide readers with quality information that encourages them to purchase or donate. While website design may seem like a big expense for a small business or nonprofit, the price of using a professional is much less than the cost of hiring someone to fix a poorly designed website.

Need more help using WordPress? Need a website designed in WordPress? Contact Point Taken today.

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