Today we are going to explore the anatomy of a WordPress blog post using the classic editor. If you are writing your very first blog post on WordPress and feeling a little lost you are in the right place! From top to bottom, we will cover all parts of writing a blog post on WordPress and add the bits and pieces of the post editor (the page where you create blog posts) so that you will be writing and publishing content in no time! I know WordPress may seem a bit overwhelming if you are just getting started but once it’s broke down piece by piece and you have had some time to explore and find your way around it gets much easier.
If you have not yet started your blog on WordPress you will want to start here.
Ok, lets get started! Below is a screenshot of the WordPress.org post editor:
1. DASHBOARD POST SECTION – This is where you will access all posts and items pertaining to posts such as categories and tags. You can access all past posts from this area as well as create new posts. To get started, create a new post by clicking “Add New”.
2. POST TITLE- This is where you will title your post. It is a good idea to use titles that are searchable and have key words pertaining to your post. I always suggest thinking about what one would type into Google if they were looking for what you were writing about in that blog post. For example if you are writing a blog post on a Valentines day gifts for teachers a good title would be “10 Cute Valentines Day Teacher’s Gift Ideas”. That is a searchable title as opposed to “My Sons Teacher Gift”. Just think about what people would search for and let that guide you. Cute titles are cute but serve little purpose for SEO, if this is a personal blog and traffic is no biggie them titles are a free for all.
3. TEXT EDITOR (POST SECTION) – This is where you will construct your post. It is much like any other text editor. Use the tool tab up top to align text, change font size, make text bold or italic, link text, etc…
a. MEDIA – this is how you add images to your blog post. Click inside your post where you would like to add an image and then click “media” when uploading an image before inserting into the post over on the right it will ask for image size and alignment be sure to choose what you would like for each of those options.
b. Visual/Text – above the text editor over on the right you will see two tabs “visual/text”. Write you post in the visual window. Use “text” if you need to enter any code.
4. LAYOUT- For the most part you will not use this section but it allows you to change the layout of the post as far as where the sidebar will go or you can switch to full width with no sidebar. Post area – right sidebar is the most common and it will be preset according to your theme but you can change it here if you would like. If not, no need to bother with this area.
5. REVISIONS- This area saves your previous versions of your post, thank goodness!!! So lets say you mess something up just go back to an earlier version of your post and click to restore.
6. FEATURED IMAGE – IMPORTANT – This area is very important especially if you theme’s homepage is dependent upon it. For most themes the post images that display on the homepage are set to show your “featured image”. This section is where you will upload the image you want displayed on the homepage for this post. This image will not by default appear in your post so if you would also like it in your post you will need to add it there as we discussed in topic 3a.
7. CATEGORIES – You can easily add a new category here or choose from categories you already have set up. Note: your post can belong to more than category. Tick all that apply.
If this is your first blog post and you have not yet set up categories I suggest taking some time to think of your main categories and adding them via area #1 in the image above where you see “posts” then sub section “categories”. It’s a good idea not to go wild with categories you want your site to be easy to navigate to I would say at the very most 20 but 5-12 is a good amount. You can also create sub-categories as well.
8. TAGS – Tags are optional, think of them as keywords – descriptive words so to speak. You can add as many as you would like but again they are not needed. They are a subset of smaller categories.
9. PREVIEW/PUBLISH – Now its time to preview and publish your blog. Not ready to publish? That’s okay you can save your post as a draft or even schedule it for a future date, all here in the publish section. This is also where you can set your post to private, public, or password protected.
First, I suggest clicking “preview” so you can see what your blog post will look like live. Now you have 3 options:
If all looks good you can publish your post by clicking “publish”.
If you have not quite finished click “Save Draft”
If you would like to schedule to publish tat a later (or previous) date click “Edit” next to “Publish Immediately”.
So, there you have it! You should now be all set you write and publish your post on WordPress. There may be a few sections within the post editor you see that I did not cover, if I didn’t mention it you likely will not need it as those areas are for advanced options that aren’t typically used for a basic everyday post.
If you are just getting started on WordPress be sure to check out our other WordPress tutorials.
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