{"id":136,"date":"2020-02-12T10:36:44","date_gmt":"2020-02-12T10:36:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lcn.com\/support\/knowledge-base\/introduction-to-wordpress\/"},"modified":"2020-02-12T10:36:44","modified_gmt":"2020-02-12T10:36:44","slug":"introduction-to-wordpress","status":"publish","type":"ht_kb","link":"https:\/\/www.lcn.com\/support\/articles\/introduction-to-wordpress\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting Started with WordPress hosting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction to WordPress<\/h2>\n

Thank you for choosing LCN WordPress hosting as the home for your new website!<\/p>\n

To get started you\u2019ll need to check your LCN account email address \u2013 this is where we\u2019ll send your setup email.<\/p>\n

On this email you\u2019ll find your WordPress username, a temporary password, and a link to the login page.<\/p>\n

Just follow that link and login.<\/p>\n

As per the setup emails instructions, you\u2019ll need to immediately change your password to something safe and secure, to reduce the likelihood of your website being hacked.<\/p>\n

Find the \u201cUsers\u201d section on the left hand column of your dashboard. There should be only one user in there called \u201cadmin\u201d \u2013 that\u2019s you!<\/p>\n

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Click on \u201cadmin\u201d and you\u2019ll be able to generate a password on the next page. You can either choose to use this generated password (recommended), or just overwrite the password with one of your choice.<\/p>\n

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Confirm by scrolling to the bottom of the page and hitting the blue \u201cUpdate Profile\u201d button.<\/p>\n

When you first gaze upon the WordPress dashboard you might wonder what you\u2019re supposed to focus on first, as there are plenty of different options and settings pages to get to grips with.<\/p>\n

However, for the most part you won\u2019t need to know these areas inside out to get started.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s go over the key ones you need to know\u2026<\/p>\n

Dashboard<\/h3>\n

The dashboard is the very first screen you\u2019ll see when login into your admin area of your WordPress site.<\/p>\n

Here you can get an at-a-glance overview of your site. Information here will include news about available updates, allow you to see your draft posts, and check out any recent comments your readers have left.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

You can also customise what appears on your dashboard by hitting the \u201cScreen options\u201d button towards the top right. From here you can select or deselect different information boxes.<\/p>\n

Posts<\/h3>\n

Here\u2019s the place to go when you want to add, edit or delete your blog posts. Within the \u201cPosts\u201d section you can also create and manage your categories and tags.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Posts, categories and tags are explained further in our guide on Posts and pages<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Media<\/h3>\n

Within this section you\u2019ll find any media (pictures, videos, recordings) you\u2019ve uploaded to your WordPress site \u2013 these uploads would typically take place as your create a post or page, like when you add an image or embed a video.<\/p>\n

You can upload new media, delete existing media, or edit it.<\/p>\n

Pages<\/h3>\n

Unlike \u201cposts\u201d, pages are static pages on your website. So instead of being date stamped, with an author and comments section like a blog post, pages tend to be used for static content such as \u201cabout us\u201d, \u201cproduct\u201d, \u201cservices\u201d, or \u201ccontact us\u201d pages.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

From the \u201cPages\u201d section you can add, delete, or edit pages.<\/p>\n

Comments<\/h3>\n

At its heart, WordPress is a blogging platform. As blogs rely on user interactions, the \u2018Comments\u2019 section is how you manage and moderate the comments people leave on your blog pages.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

You can also reply to comments directly from this section, as well as mark any abusive or inappropriate comments as spam. If your blog becomes busy you can expect to visit this section frequently.<\/p>\n

Appearance<\/h3>\n

This is where the design magic happens. \u201cAppearance\u201d includes access to your themes, and the different management \/ customisable areas.<\/p>\n

A WordPress theme in simple terms is a new \u201cskin\u201d for your WordPress site \u2013 a different design. There are thousands of different themes available online and switching between them is kind of like changing clothes.<\/p>\n

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Within the \u201cAppearance\u201d section you can also customise your chosen theme, arrange the widgets for your theme, and add menus.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll go into more details on themes and editing them on the Themes guide<\/a> section of this guide.<\/p>\n

Plugins<\/h3>\n

Plugins really are one of the best features of WordPress. They allow you to extend the functionality beyond what WordPress already offers. Best of all, you usually don\u2019t have to get involved in any code.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Examples of what plugins can do include\u2026<\/p>\n