Hey, I know that WordPress Dashboard owns this magical way to confuse newbie bloggers. You’re not alone in this!

Five years ago, when I started a blog myself, I had no one to show up for me and teach me the basics of blogging. This dashboard I’m using daily now gave me lots of chills back then.

Now I know, and you will learn this too, it wasn’t a Dashboard giving me chills, but the fact that I was a new user, on a new field. And it was normal to feel that way.

– Related: How to stat a blog in 2022 (building a business from scratch) –

I felt that way a little bit when Facebook entirely changed his look a couple of years ago. And I feel this way a little bit when I buy a new phone.

So no worries, I will explain every little detail of WordPress Dashboard to you. Follow carefully and give yourself time to get familiarised with using it. Because that’s all it takes. 😉

Alright, so you’ve started a blog and chosen a theme, and you’re ready for the next step! Oh, no, you’re still not ready to go?!

No worries at all, just follow through with my guide here and you’ll be up and running in a little time! Anyways, back to the WordPress Dashboard.

As soon as you log in, you’ll land on a page shown in the image below.

If you are having trouble finding the link where to log in, type |wp-admin| at the end of your blog’s URL which will open a window where you’ll be able to do so.

This is a ‘welcome’ page where you can finish tasks quickly, and it’s a good way to start with WordPress. Here’s what I’ll suggest you do here.

• 1 You can ‘customize’ your site according to what your theme offers. By clicking that, it opens a page where you will: add a logo (image or choose from offered fonts) and a tagline (short description of your blog that goes under the logo) and choose the colours.
• 2 There’s also an option to ‘add an about page’, which I highly encourage you to write now. You should put a link to your ‘contact page’ here too.
• 3 And one last thing here, ‘set up your homepage’ (choose whether you’d like to have a static page or a page that has every new post popping up).

Anyhow, if you don’t feel like you’re ready to finish each of the tasks I mentioned above now, that’s alright. If you want to get yourself familiarised with the platform itself, then go ahead and do so. You can build your site whenever you’re ready. 😉

Clicking on ‘Howdy, nameofyourblog’, you can change your profile on WordPress and log out. ‘Screen Options’ is a setup for your Dashboard: you check out whatever you what to appear there. The house icon is where you access your dashboard or customize your site.

You’ll notice that my navigation menu (that left black corner under the house icon and my site’s name, Mommysup) has some differences from yours. Those are additional plugins and some of my theme’s features that I’ve decided to use.

You’ll find out, eventually, which plugins to install to make the journey easier and your website look professional and beautiful.

Now, onto those essential things, such as Posts, Pages and Media, where you’ll spend most of your time. Let’s explain those a little bit!

Before I wrote the post you’re reading, I scrolled over to Posts/Add New. The option All Posts there is where you can quickly edit each of your posts (ex. enable comments, change the publish date, change the categories).

To show you the difference between Categories and Pages (which we’ll discuss further in the text), look at the left top Menu beside my logo. Those are my categories: life & style, parenting and blogging.

You can also create child categories (ex. life & style as a parent category might have fashion, travel, self-care, fitness, food as its children categories), which will show as a drop-down under each of your categories.

Under the Tags section, you can access all of your tags, edit them, delete them or add new tags.

You’ll notice that Media has two sections: library and add new. Your library might be empty now if you’re a beginner, or it might have all of your posts and page’s images/videos/audios/documents/spreadsheets/archives.

Most likely, you’d access this area from time to time to delete or edit items that you don’t need for your blog’s speed and SEO. However, I don’t think you’ll click the Add New a lot since you’ll probably finish those tasks as you’re writing the post wherever it’s suitable to add a media. 

Pages section also has those two options, to either Add Pages or see All Pages. Unlike posts, these are the timeless information of your blog. Each blog should have an About page, a Contact page and a Privacy Policy & Disclosure page.

To make your blog legal, you must state the information your blog collects from your readers, how you make money from their actions (such as affiliate links, ads or sponsored content) and that these all are your opinions in your Privacy Policy & Disclosure page.

Some bloggers like to first approve comments before they show up, and get visible, to protect their business from any spammers. This is where you’ll do that.

Oh boy, this one’s complicated! But it’s that area where you finally get to create your beautiful website. Even though it sounds complicated at first, believe me, you’ll get it right eventually. Onto the guide now, shall we?!

Themes section is where you access any of the free themes or premium themes (then install and activate them) or upload the zip file (if you bought a theme somewhere else). I’ve listed some of my favourite premium themes for beginners in this guide.

Clicking Customize will open a window where you’ll create the full look of your blog. The logo, the tagline, the main image, the colours, and the fonts. All the little details the theme you’re using has to offer. This is actually the fun part!

Widgets are extras you add to your sidebar, such as about me, text, calendar, social icons, testimonials etc. How many sidebars you’ll have also depends on the theme you’re using.

My blog’s theme can display menus in 3 different places on the blog. I have two menus beside my logo, right and left and one menu at the very bottom of the blog, above the Instagram feed.

You can add a header image (your logo), and you can also change the background image. You probably won’t use the Theme Editor section, but this is where’s located the XML format of your theme.

Most of the marketplaces that sell themes do this work for you and can assist you with everything (some of them would even install the theme instead of you). Don’t hesitate to ask anything before making a purchase.

Plugins make your site prettier (ex. my Instagram feed at the bottom of my site) and easier to use (Yoast SEO plugins which helps me see how each of my posts and pages rank in SEO). Again, this is what you’ll figure out as you go.

You can add users if you want to give someone (ex. your business partner or virtual assistant) permission to work on your site. You most likely won’t spend much time in the Tools section as a beginner, but this is where, for instance, I ‘exported the theme’ I’m using now.

Under Settings, you’ll write the site title and tagline, URL address, email address, timezone and some more things. I’d suggest you change some things in the Settings/Reading section.

First, set up a homepage look and the latest posts/static page posts (your homepage displays). Then, how many posts should your pages show (blog pages show at most)? How would you prefer your posts show on pages, in a summary or a full text (for each article in the feed, show)? Lastly, you should set up the ‘related posts’ look.

That’s it! This full tour of the ultimate WordPress Dashboard guide for beginners is now over, and you can sit down and RELAX. I mean, not exactly relax…

You can now start making your masterpiece. 😉