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1. Introduction
The purpose of this guide is to provide a comprehensive guide that will help unleash the full potential of WordPress that exists within you. This guide is perfect for those who are eager to learn and those who are more comfortable with systematic learning instead of picking up pieces of information from random blog walking. The taught methods here will be most efficient and effective for all levels of users, from beginners to experts. This guide will also be very useful as a reference for any methods that are forgotten.
Anyone who has ever worked with WordPress would feel the need to master it because indeed, mastering WordPress is very beneficial. Why so? Because by mastering WordPress, you will be able to create a more beneficial web. More advanced features can be implemented; a more unique and professional web can be designed. Mastering WordPress will also make work become more effective and efficient.
WordPress is software used by millions of web designers. From the usage for a simple personal page to the promotion of services and products from big companies and organizations, WordPress has made a great impact on the internet today. It is because WordPress is perfect for users. Users are able to change the visual and content parts of the web without mastering knowledge of programming. Users are able to access their web and manage it everywhere, whenever they want. Last but not least, it is free and there is lots of it.
1.1. What is WordPress?
WordPress is a free and open source blogging tool and a content management system (CMS) based on PHP and MySQL which runs on a web hosting service. It was first released on May 27, 2003, and its main goal was to create a better typographical experience for users writing on a personal blog. Gradually, it has been revolutionizing the way people create content and thought. It has taken the internet by storm and is currently powering about 50% of all the CMS systems in the world. That is equivalent to about 10-20% of all websites on the entire internet. These numbers are staggering and really go to show how influential WordPress is. Its user interface is modern and easy to navigate. At the backend, WordPress has some extremely feature-rich tools that can be utilized to improve speed as well as improve search engine results. With a wide variety of plugins, customizing it is an understatement. Users can easily improve their site to their desired standard easily without spending a ton of money for coders. This is what arguably makes WordPress the best content management system around to date. More than just its ease of access, WordPress has built a thriving community of support for users. With forums and websites offering free and paid knowledge, users of all ranges can seek help if required. As well as that, WordPress is a project that constantly updates and improves. Newer versions always bring something new to the table, as well as bug fixes and security improvements. This is what appeals to people, the fact that WordPress progresses and wants to get even better than it already is. Last but not least, the versatility of WordPress is unmatched. Whether users create a small or big website for a company or a personal blog, it caters to all needs. The system itself can be installed in under 5 minutes and within a few clicks, have a website up and running. With a variety of themes and templates, site designs can be changed to achieve desired looks. Gone are the days of spending a ton of money on expensive web designers.
1.2. Why should you become a WordPress Pro?
Being a WordPress pro gives you a sense of satisfaction and ease in many of your life activities as you can handle a world-famous CMS very efficiently. Here I am going to discuss reasons why one should become a WordPress pro. It will ultimately help you to be creative and earn an outstanding amount of money. If you get a project of website designing and development, you must not be wishing to purchase it from a company. It’s an obvious conclusion. Why not do it yourself and save money and simultaneously explore the creative ideas within you. WordPress is such a great tool that you can utilize it in your PHP projects. Writing custom code, you can interact with WordPress table in your PHP projects and can store/retrieve data from this CMS. This will considerably reduce your development time. Blogging is the best way to earn and learn. WordPress provides you the easiest way to learn money and at this stage, you will exactly realize the meaning of becoming a WordPress pro. With the usage of different plugins, you can automate practically everything related to SEO, from on-site optimization to off-site optimization, while not sacrificing good quality potentially bringing in more traffic to your site. WordPress has many more features that can make you realize the benefits of being a pro. These features can simplify your life and help you earn more. This was the answer to why you should become a WordPress pro that can ultimately help you in your future.
1.3. Overview of the guide
An overview of the guide serves as a preview of the steps the guide will go through to get you to your goal. This guide will start with giving a good foundation of what categories are, how to use them, and the benefit they will have on your site. It will then walk you through step-by-step the process of customizing a WordPress theme to be used with your WordPress installation. The guide will also cover from the ground up, how to create your own custom WordPress theme, utilizing template tags and includes so that you can separate the design and the PHP/HTML files. Next you will learn how to add and customize WP powered features, using an external installation of WordPress. And finally you will learn how to use multiple CSS files to control the layout of a WordPress site. By the end of this guide you should have a better understanding of WordPress and how to use it to fit your needs.
2. Getting Started with WordPress
Now, in the files that you have uploaded to your server, you will find a file called wp-config-sample.php. Open this file in a text editor and fill in your database details at the relevant locations. Once you have done this, save the file as wp-config.php. Now open a web browser and head to the location where you uploaded the files, e.g. yourblog.com or yourblog.com/wp/. If everything has gone well, you will be asked to fill in the name of your blog and your admin details. Upon completion, you will have a working version of WordPress on your server ready to customize as you please.
This is done by visiting wordpress.org and downloading the latest version of WordPress. You then unzip the files that you have, and using FTP, upload the files to your web server. Before you continue, you need to create a MySQL database on your server to store your blog data. In most circumstances, your hosting provider will have provided you with a control panel through your web browser. Using PHPMyAdmin or similar, you want to create a database, then note the database name, username, and password for later.
The steps required here would illustrate how to install WordPress manually, which many people find a more complex process than it actually is. If followed to the letter, you should find this way equally as simple as the one-click method. The distinction, however, is that with one-click install, your WordPress file will be placed on your server ready to go immediately. With manual installation, you are using FTP software to upload the files and so creating your website ready to put your WordPress data on.
To start using WordPress, you first need to install and set up the system. It may sound complicated, and you may be put off by technical jargon, but installing WordPress is a very simple process and can be done even if you have no previous experience with such tasks. There are two ways to install WordPress, one much easier than the other.
2.1. Installing WordPress
Drag and drop the files from your hard drive to the folder on the server, typically located in the left and right panes of the FTP client. If you are using a client like FileZilla, the transfer should start automatically. The transfer time can vary based on the amount of files being moved and your internet connection speed. It may take a few minutes, but once the files have been transferred, WordPress has been successfully installed to your account!
When you are using an FTP client, you are moving files from your hard drive to your web server. This typically involves moving (or “uploading”) files from a local folder to a ‘remote’ folder on a web server. After connecting to your web server via the FTP client, you will be able to start transferring files. By default, WordPress files are placed in the root directory of your website. This is typically called public_html, but the exact way it is labeled can vary depending on your server. Check with your hosting company if you are not sure what the root directory of your website is called.
The other option is to download the software from WordPress.org and then upload it to your hosting account with an FTP client. If you are using an FTP client to install WordPress, take a look at the tips below to help you through the process. Note that not all FTP clients will look exactly the same, depending on the features and interface, but most have similar characteristics and the same basic features.
Once the decision has been made to work with WordPress on your website, you will need to download and install the WordPress software to your hosting account. There are two options for accomplishing this. You can log into the control panel of your hosting account, navigate to the area that offers the ability to install third-party scripts, and select WordPress from there. The hosting company will download the software to your account, though you may still need to do some configuration on your own.
2.2. Setting up a WordPress site
The next step will be to upload the files to your web host. There are a few ways to do this, but the best way to do this is to use FTP. Filezilla is a good free FTP client to use. Once you have a program to transfer files, you will need to get your login information from your web host. When you have the information, you will need to input it into the FTP program. After a successful connection has been made, you will see the remote files of your web host on the right-hand side of your screen. On the left side, navigate to where you extracted the files of the latest version of WordPress. You will then need to move all of the files from the left side to the desired location on the right side. This will transfer all of the WordPress files to your website.
After you have a web host, the next thing you will need to do is download the latest version of WordPress. The download will be a zip file. After you have the download, you will need to extract/unzip the files from the zip file to a folder on your hard drive.
Setting up a WordPress site involves many steps. This chapter will walk you through them from start to finish. The first thing you will need to do is choose a web host. Keep in mind that not all web hosts are equal. In terms of WordPress, you will want to choose one that is PHP5/MySQL5 ready. It’s also recommended that you choose a host which has cPanel, a feature that will allow you to easily manage your website.
2.3. Navigating the WordPress dashboard
The following is a listing of the main features of the WordPress Dashboard: – Home: This will take you to the “Home” of your WordPress administration. – Upgrades: This is for any new releases or upgrades that have come out that you have not yet installed. – Writing: This will take you to where you can write and manage posts. – Posts: You can manage your posts here. – Tags: You manage tags from this area. – Categories: You manage categories from this area. – Comments: You manage your comments from this area. – Appearance: This is where you can change the look and feel of your site. – Themes: You can change themes and manage themes here. – Widgets: Manage your sidebar widgets from this area. – Menus: Manage your page menus here. – Theme Options: If your theme has an options panel, it will appear here. – Editor: You are able to make changes to the files in your theme here. – Plugins: Manage your plugins from here. – Users: Manage your users here. – Tools: Tools for plugins. – Settings: General settings for WordPress from here. – Press This: Post to your blog from anywhere on the web. Get the “Press This” bookmarklet from the Tools page.
The dashboard is the WordPress access point after logging in. The dashboard allows you to navigate throughout the WordPress administration. You can get to the next major sections by utilizing the links that run along the top of the panel, such as Profile, and on the far right, Log out. These same links are also available on the right-hand side of the page.
3. Mastering WordPress Features
SEO can be confusing and complex. But, with tools like the Google Sitemap or All in One SEO pack, things have gotten easier. Unsurprisingly, both of those plugins help you with Search Engine Optimization. Submit your site to search engines and directories, and make sure that you add meta information about the posts and the site. Don’t become over obsessed with SEO though. Sometimes people try to tailor their information so much to appeal to search engines that they forget who they are trying to appeal to.
Write and publish your blog post. WordPress makes it easy to have a blog or website. Whether you’re a writer, a photographer, a designer, or any other type of artist – WordPress is a great way to say what you want to say to the world. Take some time to write and publish something, and see how it looks. Learn about creating and managing content, and see what you can do with a little bit of time invested.
Plugins extend and expand the functionality of WordPress. Once you’ve mastered the basics of WordPress, you may want to know how to do things like: Add an event calendar, a Facebook Like button, or a Twitter feed to your site. You can find a plugin for almost any kind of task or enhancement. If you are a developer, the WordPress Plugin Database is the first stop you’ll want to make to begin your plugin work. If you are looking to add the functionality with minimal setup, consider using a plugin from the WordPress.org Extend.
Customize your blog or website design. It’s easy to switch to a new theme and try another design. Access the Theme Editor to edit the HTML and CSS. Take a look at the Theme Development for more information. Your theme doesn’t need to be this elaborate to help you look professional. There are many themes available that have a simple design and layout. You may only want to do some light customizing. If you’re not a designer, you can use a service like the WordPress.com Customization service to get the job done.
3.1. Customizing themes and templates
Another method is creating a child theme of the theme that you want to customize. A child theme is a theme that inherits the functionality of another theme, called the parent theme. Child themes allow you to modify or add to the functionality of that parent theme. A child theme is the safest and easiest way to modify an existing theme, whether you want to make a few small changes or extensive changes. Instead of modifying the theme files directly, you can create a child theme, copy the template files into your child theme directory, and make your changes there.
One of the methods is using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). This is the simplest way to change your text color, font, etc., without changing your theme. By adding a few lines of code, you can have a different look for your theme. You can find the CSS file of your theme by right-clicking your page and clicking “View”. Then find the path of the CSS file and start editing it. Always add your new code at the bottom of the CSS file so it’s easier for you to revert to the original if you are not satisfied with the result.
Themes are the most frequent cause of problems in a WordPress installation after upgrading the software because the theme designer could “hard code” some things into the theme designs. Customizing a WordPress theme can be very complex, but all your trouble will be paid off if you can customize it to what you want. Customizing a theme takes time, and there are a few methods that you can use to customize your theme. No matter what method you choose, it’s always a good idea to keep a spare copy of the original code before you start editing and have a way for commenting out code so you can easily revert to the original if you mess something up.
3.2. Managing plugins and extensions
Another important part of managing plugins is to download them from reputable sources. By its nature, any plugin on the market can pose a security risk to WordPress and therefore WordPress users as a whole. There have been numerous reports of dangerous plugins being widespread downloads at many government websites. Regardless of the degree of technical knowledge involved, everyone is vulnerable to installing a plugin that may affect their website’s security, whether it’s a personal blog or a business website. Previously active and popular plugins can be removed if potential issues are identified, so ensuring the source of a plugin can often be more important than its actual functionality. Unfortunately, an absence of regulation means it’s down to users themselves to be cautious when downloading plugins, and often testing in a development environment is the safest way to evaluate whether a plugin is fit for purpose. This may seem tedious; however, the flexibility that plugins afford WordPress is a key reason why it’s the most popular CMS in existence today, and the benefits of finding the right plugin can quickly outweigh the costs.
WordPress makes use of plugins. As with themes, the WordPress features a database of thousands of plugins, each of which gives customized features enabling customers to tailor their sites to their particular needs. As a result of WordPress is an open-source CMS, anybody can write a plugin for use within WordPress. The WordPress community maintains an extensive eye on plugins, and it’s uncommon that a plugin will become incompatible with all future versions of WordPress. However, this sometimes does occur, and sometimes without warning. Consumers of WordPress should keep this in mind when using a variety of plugins, particularly if they’re updated less frequently than others. Regularly updating and deleting unused plugins can reduce potential issues, and plugins can generally be deactivated and reactivated as and when required.
3.3. Creating and managing content
When a visitor clicks on one of these category links or tags, WordPress will find all the posts with that category or tag and display them on the archive page. This is an extremely powerful feature of WordPress because every category and tag has its own RSS feed. This means even a very small blog can have many different pages displaying very specific content. This is a great opportunity to gain traffic from the search engines. If you want to create a blog with WordPress, which will be a series of posts or articles, it is best to create a category or two for the blog and set that as the default category. Now when you write posts, they will appear on the blog page. This is very handy to know because posts in WordPress are displayed on different parts of your site. They can be filed into categories or tagged with keywords. Categories are like chapters of a book. Bloggers can file their posts into different categories to make the content easier to navigate. Posts can also be filed into more than one category.
This is the heart of your website. You need to get this bit right. Without content, you just won’t get traffic. Let us show you how to create and manage content with WordPress.
3.4. Optimizing SEO for your WordPress site
Visually, page optimization is the key factor of SEO within WordPress. Many considerations of page rank and search visibility can be improved by implementing a few simple changes to a WordPress site, or by utilizing a variety of various plugins. Utilization of SEO plugins is perhaps the most critical way of improving a site’s SEO. There are many different plugins available from various sites, some are free and some are paid for. The most popular plugin is, without a doubt, WordPress SEO by Yoast which currently has nearly five million downloads. This plugin offers a wide variety of features to improve your site’s SEO, some of the key features include: the ability to customize page titles and meta-descriptions for each individual page, the ability to create XML sitemaps, breadcrumbs and permalink clean up. This plugin is being updated on a regular basis and more features are being implemented, currently it offers the most complete solution to on-site SEO for WordPress. An alternative to this plugin is All In One SEO Pack which is also a very popular choice. All In One SEO Pack is similar to Yoast’s plugin but sometimes offers a simpler or more advanced user interface, depending on the user’s requirements. Both plugins are proven to increase the SEO of WordPress sites if used correctly.
4. Advanced WordPress Techniques
To create a child theme for your selected theme, you can use the WordPress plugin “One Click Child Theme”. Simply install and activate this plugin, then go to Appearance -> Themes. You will see that a child of your current theme has been created. This will use the same theme files as the theme you have activated now, so anything you change to the child theme will not affect your currently active theme. This way, you can change your theme in the future and still have the same custom layout and design.
CSS and HTML customization is a powerful aspect of WordPress. There are various methods to customize a theme, including creating a child theme or editing the style sheet in the theme editor. For beginners, editing the style sheet directly is not recommended. Often, this requires a good understanding of CSS and HTML structure of the theme. If you are not experienced with web development, it can take a significant amount of time to change the look of your theme. If you plan on heavily customizing your theme, you should definitely consider creating a child theme. This is something I do for every theme I use. It’s simple to do and will save you many potential headaches in the future.
4.1. Customizing CSS and HTML
Now you can create your file structure to emulate the parent theme and create or style a new file to replace an existing file. For example, if you want to edit the sidebar, you would create a sidebar.php file in your child theme file and paste in the code from the parent theme and edit it to your liking. This will then take precedence over the parent theme and apply to your website.
/* Theme Name: Twenty Ten Child Description: Twenty Ten Child Theme Author: Your name here Template: twentyten */ @import url(“../twentyten/style.css”);
The beauty of using CSS is that you have complete control of the design and style of your website. When creating a WordPress blog, the structure and layout of your blog will be determined by the theme that you are using. Some themes allow certain customizations or have a built-in CSS editor. However, the easier way to completely customize and style your website is to create a “Child theme”. A child theme is a theme that adopts the style and functions of another theme called the parent theme. This allows you to edit or add to the functionality and style of the parent theme without losing any changes if the parent theme updates. The child theme uses most of the files of the parent theme and sets itself as a unique theme using a stylesheet at its most basic level. To do this, you will need to create a new folder in “wp-content/themes” and create a stylesheet style.css with the following commented information at the top.
CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets and is a language that is used to control the style and design of your websites. The file is saved as .css and works in tandem with a markup language such as HTML to create the structure and style for a website.
4.2. Implementing e-commerce functionality
Implementing e-commerce functionality into your WordPress website can be a very complicated process if you attempt to do it yourself and do not really know what you are doing. However, you can easily implement the use of various e-commerce plugins which will make the process a lot easier, and you will still have great results. The best plugin around is the free to use WP e-Commerce plugin. This plugin is great for turning your WordPress site into a fully functioning online store. It is very customizable, and can easily handle small to medium sized online stores. If you do have a larger business, there is a Gold Cart upgrade which can add a lot more functionality to the already powerful e-commerce plugin. Another plugin for selling products online is the WordPress Simple PayPal Shopping Cart. This is a very easy to use and lightweight plugin that allows you to sell products or services online in one click from your WordPress blog. This is great for someone who does not want to get into a full blown e-commerce store, and would rather have a simple shopping cart that is directly integrated with PayPal. It also has very many features and is even translated into multiple languages. The Shopp plugin is a high quality and feature rich e-commerce plugin for WordPress. It is best known for its seamless integration that works directly within your WordPress site. This hassle-free, no out-of-the-loop shopping experience is excellent both for you and your customer. Although this is not a free plugin and nothing with Shopp is free, there are many positive points about this product. With the wide range of features and capabilities, it is possible to create almost any type of store with Shopp. This makes it the perfect solution for designers, developers and bloggers who not only want to have control over their own online store, but maintain it on their own website.
4.3. Troubleshooting common issues
The dreaded “Error establishing database connection” message is something that we have all likely seen at some point in our WordPress lives. Usually, it tends to happen more often with smaller shared hosting providers. The cause is where the web server is unable to establish a connection to the MySQL database. This could be due to an issue with the host, server overload, or the most common reason is that the details in your wp-config.php file are incorrect. In any case, the first thing that you should do is contact your hosting provider. If in the meantime you need a quick fix, you can always use a plugin like WP-DBManager to backup and optimize your database. This can fix the problem in some cases.
There are lots of plugins and themes to choose from, but not all are compatible with your version of WordPress. In some cases, using a plugin or theme that is not compatible with your version of WordPress can result in database errors or even crashing your site. If you are lucky, you will be able to access your admin panel to deactivate the plugin. If not, you may have to use your FTP client to navigate to the wp-content folder of your WordPress installation and then the plugins folder. This will be located at [Link] Find the folder for the plugin you wish to deactivate and simply change the name of the folder.
In this chapter, we will look at some of the more common problems that can be encountered with a WordPress installation and how to fix them. Email notifications are a useful feature in WordPress. Unfortunately, many people report that they are not receiving comment notifications or email notifications for new posts. The most common reason for this is that their server has not been set up to use the wp_mail() function.
4.4. Expanding your WordPress knowledge
The WordPress CMS is an extremely powerful and versatile tool. It is updated frequently and new resources and tutorials are published daily. It is one of the easiest CMSs to find information on. However, if you can’t find the answer you are looking for in WordPress documentation or forums, you should try out a general PHP tutorial site. WordPress is built using PHP and your understanding of PHP will allow you to do truly powerful things with your WordPress blog. If you are running a Multi-Author WordPress Blog, writing up a quick article on a particular task you had to learn how to do and replying to questions in the WordPress forums are great ways to solidify a deeper understanding of WordPress. By being an active member of the WordPress community, you will hopefully interact with someone who knows more than you and can pass on some of their knowledge. If you are developing WordPress sites for clients, the best method of expanding your WordPress knowledge is trial and error. On your personal blog, you’ve probably gotten the thing looking exactly how you want, but if you’re working on the client’s site, you will likely be presented with a particular feature that wasn’t in your own install. Usually only when you attempt to do something that can’t be achieved with your current knowledge, will you be motivated to learn how to do it. This may be anything from a particular style of PHP form, to the case of AJAX or simple Javascript. In the fast-paced world of web development, if you don’t use it, you lose it. This method ensures that your knowledge remains fresh and relevant.
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What Sets the Best WordPress Professionals Apart? Answers Revealed. (webcasa.com)
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