WordPress is a free, open-source content management system (CMS) that can be used for setting up a blog, website, shop, and more. In fact, it’s one of the most popular CMS’s on the web.

This guide goes over the general terminology and features and functions of the backend of WordPress. 

Dashboard #

The initial area you see when you log in. It’s the center for your site management. From the Dashboard you can navigate to content, settings, themes, plugins, and more.

Editors #

The Editor is the area where you add content to your pages and posts. The new Block editor works with blocks similar to a page-builder. This editor comes with many features and various functions.

See our Block Editor Guide for links to further guides on how to use the Block Editor

Posts & Pages #

Although posts and pages have nearly the same editing interface and can often look very similar, there are some key differences between the two. Pages are hierarchical, whereas posts are categorical and tagged. Pages are also static, meaning they don’t change often and stay present to users. Posts are dynamic meaning they “fall off” the page. Posts are also in chronological order while pages’ dates are not as important. 

See our Posts & Pages guide for more details and step by step instructions.

Media #

The Media Library houses the media you upload to your site. WordPress supports a variety of media types such as images, audio, video, and documents. You can see the entire list of file types that WordPress supports here. We do suggest that you host your video files elsewhere for optimal playability.

See our Best Practices for Handling Media guide.

Menus #

Menus are the navigation on your site. The area where users can navigate to different pages, the search bar, a blog, etc. Menus can appear in different areas on a WordPress site. The placement can depend on what theme you choose. More often than not, the menu will appear somewhere towards the top of the screen as a horizontal bar. However, on a mobile device, a menu may appear as a hamburger icon in one of the top corners. A key takeaway about menus is that they need to be set again when you change your theme.   

See our Categories, Tags, and Menus guide that includes step-by-step instructions on how to add a menu in a classic the

Themes #

The theme is the appearance of your site. The colors, header, fonts, sidebar options, are all a part of the theme. Some themes can be customized more than others so don’t be afraid to try out a few! When choosing a theme, keep in mind that your site may not initially look the thumbnail in the theme repository, but it can with some customization adjustments.

An important note about the default theme in WordPress. When you install WordPress on Domain of One’s Own it will install and activate the latest theme made available by WordPress. The newest themes being released by WordPress are block themes and they are a radically different customization experience than classic themes. For beginners we highly recommend changing the default theme and picking a classic theme instead. See our guide Classic vs Block Themes to learn more about the difference.

See our Themes & Customizing Your Site guide for more information and step-by-step instructions.

See our Themes and Plugins – Recommendations guide for classic and block theme recommendations.

Plugins #

Plugins add extra functionality to your site. They come in a vast variety of forms such as sliders, PDF embedders, security enhancers, and more. Once activated, plugin settings can appear several places. Check to see if the plugin settings have been added to the Dashboard menu or under Settings on the Dashboard. More often than not they will be in those two places!

See our Themes and Plugins – Recommendations guide for plugins to try out.

Widgets #

Widgets are items that can appear in different places across your site such as in the sidebars and footer. An example of a widget is Recent Posts. Using a Recent Posts widget could display a list of your most recent posts in your site’s sidebar. Your options for widget areas are dictated by your theme, so if you want a widget in the footer, but your theme does not give you the option, consider moving the widget or choosing a new theme.

Created by Shannon Hauser 01/19/26