This week’s post will be the third installment in our WordPress tutorial blogs. Last week we discussed how to add or edit pages on your WordPress website (you know, the “Home” page, the “About” page, the “Contact” page, etc.).

This week, we’ll be discussing the “Posts” feature on your WordPress website. While Pages are essentially the static pages of your website, posts are more time-sensitive, and are displayed in reverse chronological order. The post feature allows you to curate a blog on your website, and also allows you to make timely announcements on your website, such as news, events, promotions, or other updates you’d like to share.

To access the Posts feature, first login to the back end of your WordPress website. Once you’ve accessed your WordPress dashboard, you should notice the Posts tab on the left (if you aren’t yet familiar with the dashboard, click here for our intro to WordPress).

If you hover your mouse over the “Posts” tab, you should have a drop-down menu of options appear: All Posts, Add New, Categories, and Tags.

Clicking on the “All Posts” tab will direct you to a list of every post on your website.

Clicking “Add New” will direct you to the Add New Post interface, which looks basically the same as the interface you use to add pages (which we discussed in last week’s post – click here to read that post).

With this interface you can add and edit each post on your website, using the WordPress kitchen sink and other editing tools to format each post. You’ll notice the publishing options on the right of the screen, which allows you to save a post as a draft and to preview the post before publishing. Clicking the big blue “Publish” button will publish your post, which then makes it a viewable post entry on your website.

WordPress also allows you to organize posts using Categories and Tags. The Categories and Tags features enable visitors who read a post to search your website for other posts about similar topics. You can add and assign Categories and Tags using the appropriate menus, which you should find on the right side of the Add New Post screen, right underneath the Publish button.

Categories allow for broad grouping of topics among your posts, and tags allow for more detailed organizing of topics. Each post must be assigned to at least one specific category (even if it’s the default “uncategorized”), though the use of tags is entirely optional.

For instance, say you wanted to write a post about a favorite stir-fry recipe. You could organize the post using broad categories like “food” or “cooking,” and more specific tags like “broccoli” or “onions” or “soy sauce.” Then, if a reader clicks on the “cooking” category, he or she will be directed to every post on your website that is also grouped in the “cooking” category.

You’ll also notice the “Featured Image” option, below the Categories and Tags menu. The Featured Image allows you to select an image that will represent the post when it’s displayed within a list of all posts on your website.

Also, WordPress allows for readers to comment on your posts. You can manage each comment by clicking on the “Comments” tab on the WordPress Dashboard, which allows you to approve or unapprove a comment, mark a comment as spam, or move a comment to your trash, as appropriate.

Marking a comment as spam allows WordPress to recognize such comments as spam, which can help to prevent future spammers from posting unwanted comments on your website.

This is just a quick overview of how to add and edit the Posts feature of your WordPress website. Of course, if you ever have any other questions, or would like to discuss WordPress more in-depth, contact us today!

To contact O2 Creative, call 970-726-8021 or email [email protected].

Click here for last week’s post – WordPress Pages