Template on wp create a custom theme. Why do you need WordPress themes? Theme Template Files

If you want your WordPress site to become promising, then first you should think about creating a unique theme for it. This process is quite labor-intensive, because it is directly related to various encodings and scripts. Let's look at it from scratch.

Almost every WordPress theme is installed in the wp-content/themes directory and consists of 3 categories of files:

style sheet files;

additional functionality files;

template files.

The style sheet files are style.css. They are responsible for the color, size, font and other parameters of site elements. Each site has only 1 style.css file. If you open this file, then at the very top you can see information about the title, author and brief description Topics. While creating own theme You can enter information about yourself in style.css.

The next category is files of additional functionality. These include functions.php, the principle of which makes it look like a plugin. Thanks to this file you can do visual adjustment themes directly in the admin panel. Usually the list of settings is not very wide (site name, color of navigation and side panels of the site, and so on). If the theme is multifunctional, then the list of settings will be much wider.

Now let's move on to the template files. Their main function is to generate pages that are requested by site visitors. Template files have the extension ".php". Most simple themes may only contain one template file called index.php. In this case, all pages of the site will be identical. This design is most often used to create Internet resources with databases, when design does not play a key role.

If you have never created a design, then first you should try to create simple topic. For her normal operation You will need at least 2 of the following files: style.css and index.php.

Additional functionality files in in this case you don't have to use it, as you understand. Among template files, index.php is one of the most flexible. It can independently generate headers, various blocks, bottom part (footer), content and other elements of the site.

It is worth noting that those parameters that are not generated by the index.php file will be generated standard files. For example, if your theme consists of only 2 of the above files, but the user needs to generate a form for adding comments, then the standard comments.php will perform this function. Therefore, if you want your theme to be more unique, then you should do additional files template. Let's look at the main ones.

To add comments, as you may have guessed, the comments.php template is used.

If you want to make a popup window with comments, then for such purposes you will need comments-popup.php.

To generate the home page, home.php is used.

The single.php file is responsible for displaying site articles. If you do not have such a file, then index.php will perform its function.

The page.php file generates individual pages site.

To display information about the author, you will need author.php.

Category.php is responsible for categories.

Displaying archives, date and search is carried out by files archive.php, date.php and search.php respectively.

So that your site displays unique page error number 404, you will need to add your 404.php.

The top and bottom parts of the site are generated by the header.php and footer.php files, respectively.

Creating a unique theme manually from scratch

First you need to install a suitable template. It can be found both on the official website wordpress.org and on any other. It is recommended to use the official website, because any third party may contain malicious files and broken links.

After you make your choice, you can start downloading the archive. Once the process is complete, you will need to unzip it and upload the files to specific folders website (the archive usually contains short instructions). Downloading can be done using FileZilla programs or directly from the hosting, if it supports such an option. Now all you have to do is go to the “Themes” section, select the one you downloaded, and click on the “Activate” button.

You can also select it directly in the WordPress admin panel. However, you do not need to download it. You will only need to click on the “Install” button and then “Activate”. It is suggested to preview before installation.

Now that the theme is activated, you can move on to uniqueizing it. The first thing you should think about is the top part of the site (header). This is the first thing that will catch the eye of your visitors, so you should do it responsibly. Typically the header consists of the site name, logo and brief information about content. The hat can be created in any graphic editor. Even in standard Paint. More advanced designers use Adobe Photoshop.

The site name should be small and easy to remember. In Adobe Photoshop you can choose many different styles for it. When creating a logo you may need various figures. They can be downloaded from the official Adobe Photoshop website.

After you make a header drawing in a graphics editor, you will need to upload it to your website. Once the download is complete, a URL will appear to the right of the picture, which you will need to copy. Then you will need to go to the “Editor” section and select the file that is responsible for generating the header (header.php). In it you will need to find the URL of the current image and replace it with the one you received when uploading the header image. After this you will need to update the file. Now you can proceed to checking the display of the header.

If your header has different parameters than the standard one, then you can adjust them in header.php. The width is controlled by the width attribute, and the height is controlled by the height attribute. Settings can be made in pixels and percentages. So, if you just want to stretch the cap, then set it to 100%.

If desired, you can add it to the header active links to the WordPress site pages. This can be done using various services. There are quite a lot of them on the Internet. Most of them work on the same principle. You circle the desired area of the header, which will be allocated for the link, and the service will give you required code. You will then need to add this code to your header.php file. Be careful when adding it. Every point matters. If you add the code in the wrong place, active links will not appear in the header.

After replacing the standard cap, you can start replacing standard background WordPress site, widgets, navigation, footer and other components of the WordPress site. They can also be drawn in any graphics editor and uploaded to the website in the form of a drawing.

You should take into account that it should not be bright. Most webmasters prefer to use White background. It does not hurt the eyes and does not distract from the main content.

To create a quality navigation from scratch, you'll need a little knowledge of tags like

The first is responsible for creating site blocks, the second is for adding links to the WordPress site. Using the third one, columns can be created. The latter is needed to configure the cells. The first step is to decide on the location where the navigation will be located. Usually it is located right under the header. Navigation layout is a fairly quick process. Below is a small example of how you can layout a small navigation block.
- page title
As you already understood, the conventional name of the navigation block is navigacia. The block consists of one cell “page title”. Note that each tag is closed with a "/" character. If the tags are not closed, then malfunctions of the site may occur.
Shouldn't be big. The most popular are calendar, tag cloud, meta, archives, search, rss, video and last news. To add them, you will need to go to the “Appearance” tab and click on the “Widgets” field. Then you will see a list available options. Widgets can also be installed using plugins. They can be downloaded both from the official website and directly through the WordPress admin panel. To add a video that is on YouTube, you just need to paste the link to it in the desired place on the site. Otherwise, the video will need to be uploaded to the site. If you are interested in programming, you can add your own widget to the site. To do this, you will need to click on the “Text” option and enter the required code there.
In the settings of each widget you will be given the opportunity to change the standard headers. You can also choose where the widget will be displayed (right or left side panel) and so on. There shouldn't be any problems removing the widget. To do this, you just need to click the “Delete” button in the settings.
Create a unique theme using special programs and services from scratch
1. The most popular program is Artisteer. To work with it you do not need special programming knowledge. The creation process takes place in visual mode. What you draw will be represented using code that matches international standard"XHTML 1.0 Transitional". Thanks to this, the theme of your future website will be supported by all browsers.
To work with, you will be offered a wide selection of different effects, styles and much more. This program supports Russian, English, German and other languages. It is worth noting that this program has some disadvantages. The most significant is that the program costs about $50. There are also free version, but it contains very few options. To increase the uniqueness of the template, you will have to delve further into the encoding.
Let's move directly to the instructions for working with this Artisteer program. As soon as you open the program, the first option that will appear is called “Ideas.” She will offer you various combinations standard elements. If you want your design to be unique then
you won't need this option. In order to master the program, you just need to click on options and view the parameters. This easy program, so there shouldn't be any problems with this.

Pay attention to the option " Page header" She is responsible for displaying the site header. You have the opportunity to use a standard header or upload your own. You already know how to make a unique hat.
To adjust the site width, you will need to use the "Sheet" option. The width is specified in pixels. This program will initially offer you a width of 900 pixels. Also, using this option you can configure various effects (shadow, rounded edges and so on).
The "Background" option is responsible for setting the background, as you may have guessed. You can choose from standard options or upload your own.
If you want to customize the layout of site elements, then you should use the “Layout” option.
An equally important option is “Articles”. It is where the layout of the website article design takes place. This includes the location of the picture, text, comments, various blocks, and so on.
To select the color, size or font of the text, you will need the "Colors and Fonts" option.
After completing the steps, you can save your creation. To do this, click on the palette, which is located in the upper left corner. A window will appear in front of you. There you need to click “Save As”. After this, all you have to do is select the file name and its location. Please note that the file must have the extension ".artx". At further work With the saving program, you only need to click “Save” once.
Once your theme is completely finalized, you can proceed to export it. To do this, you will need to click on the “Export” tab and select “WordPress Theme”.

2. If you are fluent in Adobe Photoshop, then you should install the Divine Elemente add-on. Thanks to it, you can easily convert a “.psd” file into a format that will be supported by all browsers.
3. If you don’t have money for Artisteer, you can use free service Lubith. It is available in online mode on the official website lubith.com. The service contains a lot useful options and is particularly fast. In just a couple of minutes you will fully master all its options.
4. An analogue of the previous service is WordPress Theme Generator. It is also easy to use and contains a wide range of different options. This service is absolutely free. The only drawback is that this service only supports English.
5. XTemplate Generator is a Russified theme generator for the site. Its options are in the left window, and in the right you can see visual result your works. This generator is also free.
6. WPTheme Generator is much more powerful than the previous ones, because it contains several times more options. The only caveat is that this service is paid. The price is $30. It is also worth noting that the layout in it is carried out entirely on English language.

7. CSSEZ is no less popular than the previous one. Before you start, you will need to complete a short registration. IN this service you can layout up to 4 columns for site materials. You can upload your own background.
8. Dotemplate provide you around 11 various templates WordPress, which can be changed. The only drawback is the inability to upload your own graphic file. Therefore, you will have to download the header yourself via file manager site.
9. Weebly differs from others by having the option to add videos directly from YouTube or Google anywhere on the site. A website that has a video is successful because visual information is faster and easier to perceive.
10. In the Eris’ Template Generator service, you can add up to 3 columns to display site materials, add various tags, a calendar and other widgets.

Creating your own theme for WordPress - great way Give your blog or other WordPress website an original look. But even the most pleasant topic will not be so pleasant if minor changes you need to go under the hood and edit the HTML or PHP code of the theme. Especially when it's a paying client using your theme. Luckily in WordPress, the process of creating a settings page for your theme in WordPress is not difficult at all, and after reading this tutorial you will be able to create one in no time!
Step 1 Deciding what settings are needed
It all starts with necessity: to create a clear and useful page settings, you need to figure out what can be changed and leave the rest. Every new parameter, added to the admin menu, complicates the user interface and makes the theme more difficult to use. That's why it's best to be careful and manually select settings that will change frequently, and not consider small settings that can be easily changed with a single file inside the theme.

Another question to keep in mind is: “Who will change these settings?” If the user is familiar with PHP and WordPress, you can expect that he will have no problems with the attachment Google Analytics into the code, but you shouldn't require it from graphic designer, not to mention a writer who shouldn't even know anything about HTML and CSS.

General ideas to define objects in theme settings:
- Code Google tracking Analytics on the site
- Number of sidebars and their positioning (left, right, maybe even up and down)
- Page width
- Your footer content
- Options for theme-specific features, such as custom teaser formats.
Once you've compiled a list of theme features that you want to control on the settings page, you're almost ready to move on to implementation. Before you go ahead and create a settings page, you can save time by making sure there isn't already a WordPress feature for the customization you're about to implement. Widgets, custom menus, custom backgrounds and header images are all useful tools to customize your theme with much less work than it takes to create own settings. However, these are topics for another tutorial.
Settings created in this tutorial
In that textbook I came up with the theme's main page, which consists of a grid with varying amounts selected posts, which can be selected, edited and rearranged by the administrator using the user settings page.

Home page elements in the editor will be presented as a list of elements to which new ones can be added with using JavaScript and jQuery.

I like to view the admin page in the WordPress admin panel when developing HTML code, so I usually start by linking the settings page to WordPress and then move on to constructing the page content. Therefore on next step We'll create a stub for the settings page and connect it to WordPress.
Step 2 Connecting the Settings Page to WordPress
Creating a settings page begins by creating a function that configures the menu and connects it to the admin_menu action. This tells WordPress to call your function when the menu needs to be created so everything is done in right time. Add this code to your theme's functions.php file:
Function setup_theme_admin_menus() ( // We will write the function contents very soon. ) // This tells WordPress to call the function named "setup_theme_admin_menus" // when it"s time to create the menu pages. add_action("admin_menu", " setup_theme_admin_menus");
Now we'll add the code to create the settings pages inside the function we just created.

When creating a settings page, you can either add the page as a submenu to one of the existing settings groups, or create own menu top level.

Adding a submenu is done using the add_submenu_page function:
- $parent_slug - unique page identifier top menu, to which this submenu is added as a child.
- $page_title - title of the page to be added
- $menu_title is the title displayed in the menu (often a shorter version of $page_title
- $capability - minimum requirements for the user to access this menu.
- $menu_slug - unique identifier created menu
- $function is the name of the function that is called to process (and render) this menu page
If you decide to add a menu page as a submenu to one of your WordPress groups, you can use the following values as the $parent_slug parameter:
- Toolbar: index.php
- Messages: edit.php
- Media: upload.php
- Links: link-manager.php
- Pages: edit.php?post_type=page
- Comments: edit-comments.php
- Appearance: themes.php
- Plugins: plugins.php
- Users: users.php
- Tools: tools.php
- Settings: options-general.php
The Appearance group looks like a good candidate to host our settings page. Let's try it out and create our first settings page. Here updated version our menu customization function:
Function setup_theme_admin_menus() ( add_submenu_page("themes.php", "Front Page Elements", "Front Page", "manage_options", "front-page-elements", "theme_front_page_settings"); )
To do this, we still need to create the theme_front_page_settings function. Here it is in its simplest form:
Function theme_front_page_settings() ( echo "Hello, world!"; )
And this is what it looks like in action:

We also need to verify that the user has the rights necessary to edit the settings page. To do this, add the following code at the beginning of the settings page function:
// Check that the user is allowed to update options if (!current_user_can("manage_options")) ( wp_die("You do not have sufficient permissions to access this page."); )
Now, if a user who is not allowed to manage settings gets to the settings page, they will see nothing other than the message “You do not have sufficient rights to access this page.”

If your theme requires multiple pages of settings, it can be confusing for the user to have to search for them scattered throughout the menu structure. In this case, creating your own settings group makes it easier for the theme user to find all the menu pages for the theme.

To add your own group settings, you need to create a top-level menu page and associate submenu pages with it. Here a new version our menu customization feature. The add_menu_page function, used to create a top-level menu, is similar to add_submenu_page except that it does not accept a $parent_slug parameter.
Function setup_theme_admin_menus() ( add_menu_page("Theme settings", "Example theme", "manage_options", "tut_theme_settings", "theme_settings_page"); add_submenu_page("tut_theme_settings", "Front Page Elements", "Front Page", "manage_options" , "front-page-elements", "theme_front_page_settings" ) // We also need to add the handler function for the top level menu function theme_settings_page() ( echo "Settings page"; )
If you check the code and refresh your WordPress admin panel, you will see that your a new group The menu will appear at the bottom of the menu list:

But something is not quite right yet. Clicking on a top menu item will not take you to the menu " Home page”, and to the “Example Theme” menu page. It doesn't fit with how others function WordPress menu so let's do one more thing: by changing the $menu_slug attribute in the add_submenu_page call to the same value as the top-level menu, we can link the two menus so that selecting the top menu selects the main page menu:
Function setup_theme_admin_menus() ( add_menu_page("Theme settings", "Example theme", "manage_options", "tut_theme_settings", "theme_settings_page"); add_submenu_page("tut_theme_settings", "Front Page Elements", "Front Page", "manage_options" , "tut_theme_settings", "theme_front_page_settings" ) function theme_settings_page() ( )

Looks better now. If you want to improve appearance your menu group, there are two optional fields in the add_menu_page function that you will find useful. Just add values after the function name in the method call:
- $icon_url specifies the icon URL for the top-level menu.
- $position specifies the position of your menu group in the menu list. The higher the value, the lower the position in the menu.
Step 3 Creation HTML forms for settings pages
Now that we have created the settings page and it is displayed correctly in side menu, it's time to start adding content. So let's go back to the list of settings we had in mind and create a page to edit them.

In this tutorial, we need a field to define how many elements should be listed on one line, and a list to define the actual elements. To start off easier, let's create a text field for the number of items on one line. Edit the settings page function:
Function theme_front_page_settings() ( ?> Front page elements
Number of elements on a row:
Featured post: Front page elements Number of elements on a row:

Featured posts Add featured post
Featured post: Settings saved

Below is a list of standard template files used by WordPress. You don’t have to use them or add your own sections:
- Header – the style of your site’s header.
- Comments – template for creating comments.
- Home – theme for the main page.
- Page — defines the theme if you create separate pages on the site
- Category – template for breaking down categories
- Date – defines the date-time display style.
- Archive – a template for an archive section with old materials.
- Search – a file that specifies parameters for searching on the site.
- 404 is a template for a page that reports a 404 Not Found error.
- Footer – defines the style of your site's footer.
When you subsequently refine each element, you will need a visual video tutorial. Here are a few selections that may help you:

Header in header.php:

Adding content:

Styling comments:

Footer on the site:

How to make changes safely
When you need to make changes to website pages, there is a risk of writing something incorrectly and not being able to “roll back” it. It may also happen that stylesheet entries disappear when the main theme is updated.

To prevent this from happening, you can create a child WordPress theme (subtheme) - this is a duplicate of the style.css file that does not affect the main file (changes in one do not cancel updates in the other).

Creating a subsidiary WordPress themes it won't be difficult. You need to make a new folder in the main directory C:\WebServers\home\localhost\www\NAME_SET_DUR_INSTALL\wp-content\themes. In the new folder we create our own style.css file with the following content:

Theme Name: TOPIC NAME

Template: FOLDER NAME IN CHILD THEME

Theme URI: FILL IN

Description: FILL IN

Author URI: FILL IN

/* import the styles of the parent theme */

@import url("../NAME/style.css");

/* Your own additional styles */

Foo( color:red; )

Now you can go to “Appearance›Themes” in the admin panel and activate the child template. In the future, you can work in the new file. In addition, a short video presentation on the topic of child templates:

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The functioning of child themes (“daughters”) is based on their relationship with their parent themes (“parents”). It is important to consider that free and paid themes are initially parents, therefore, the daughter copies their parameters and properties, and also receives a standard set of its functions. In the future, taking into account the needs of a particular Internet resource, the set of these options can be expanded.

If we touch on the terminology, then we are talking about a special topic that takes on the meaning of another, which acts as a parent. Why are they created? To modify existing WordPress themes and thus increase their number.
What is the difference between "daughter"
A WordPress child theme allows you to make the necessary changes and adjustments. Next we'll look at how to create it, but before that we'll look at its key differences:
Changes made to the parent modification do not affect the child modification. It follows from this that after development they are independent of each other.
The derivative functions only if the parent is installed, and its activation occurs later.
The subsidiaries are tied only to their base and are not interconnected with either one or the other.

A WordPress child theme is a great idea with a wide range of benefits. Personally, we would recommend it as standard with premium products. Let's list just some of the advantages:

They automatically save the adjustments made. Thanks to this, you can make adjustments directly to the code, without the risk that the settings will be lost or lost during the update.
Working with them is excellent preparation for moving on to writing the main code for the parent variants.
Improved workflow. With just one thematic framework at your disposal, you can create websites of varying complexity and functionality.

Since this is a continuation of the parent one, the set of features and functions is identical here. Main components:

Directory (folder/location of file components).
“style.css”, where the main and additional properties are specified.
“functions.php”, where the definition of functions is written.

There are no restrictions on adding templates, but the listed components are required to be present in any one.

“Daughters” are localized in their own folder and boast separate “functions.php” and “style.css”. You can always write auxiliary files, but this pair is responsible for proper functioning - without crashes or problems.

If these formats are used correctly, you can edit almost any initial parameters, including style, individual layout items, scripts, etc.

The theme device is similar to the editorial layers of photo editors. If a user visits your Internet resource, a “daughter” opens in front of him, and then the missing options and styles are loaded from the parent. Ultimately, most of the code is passed down from the parent, but it needs to be modified to match the child's settings before it can be used.

First, check if you have everything you need at your disposal. Namely, access to FTP or a file manager, open access to the WordPress control panel itself. So let's get started.

This is a fairly simple process. If you follow the instructions in detail, any user can master it.

First of all, we create a folder for our daughter in the standard directory. In order for the directory to have order and the contents to be systematized, it is better to name the folder according to the example “Name of parent + ending child”. For convenience, you can add the name of a particular project for which we are creating a theme. The main thing is that the directory name does not have spaces, otherwise this may lead to errors. A file manager or FTP client will help you create a new folder. Today, such an FTP client as FileZilla has proven itself well.

For example, let’s take “Twenty Seventeen,” which is familiar to many, as a basis. I prefer to work with the File Manager, so my path to the created folder looks like this:

We do the following:

Surely, you are convinced that creation is an easy process. You just need to strictly follow the instructions and work with the right approach.

To get started, modify, supplement, adapt the “daughter” to the requests and requirements of your site, you need to make the settings correctly. We'll deal with it in order.

First you need to customize the appearance.

To do this, we will make adjustments to “custom.css”, which is located in the directory. This can be done through an FTP client, a regular text editor, a file manager, or a special WordPress editor (you can find it by opening “Appearance”, then “Editor”). Here you will need at least minimal knowledge of the rules for using CSS, as well as the skill of checking site elements through a browser. For example, to change the background color in "style.css", we write the following CSS rule:

The following picture shows how the site design will change after the adjustments have been made. The background became light green:

This way you can edit any existing elements on the site.

2.Working with functions.

Using and working with “daughters” also provides the advantage of being able to maintain two independent “functions.php”. Let us remind you that these files are used to remove old and add new functions. If they are available, you don’t have to worry about the safety or problems in the operation of the document. Even if the base is updated, it will remain unchanged.

To add a new option, new PHP code is also written into the file. For example, the code below will remove the WordPress search option.

You can make the creation process easier by using a number of special plugins. The WordPress library features a wide selection of plugins, most of which are free to use. Using plugins greatly simplifies the development process. Let's look at the most popular plugins.

Child Themify.

This is the most simple and easy to use plugin with an intuitive interface. Many settings here can be made with the click of a button.

2. Child Theme Configurato.

Here you can also create a “daughter”, and this will only take a couple of clicks. The CSS editor here is quite powerful, which allows you to configure advanced functionality. The plugin automatically identifies key CSS rules and does not affect them when editing.

3. _child Theme Boilerplate.

Here are ready-made templates for forming “daughters”. The template is named simply - “_child” - and is designed specifically to simplify the work. The template offers an intuitive theme and only requires you to provide a link to the “parent”. This type of template allows you to create professional options - 2 ready-made files have already been created here, standard “functions.php” and “style.css”.

The first one has a special function called “aa_enqueue_styles()”. The option allows you to create a queue of style sheets, where the parent ones go first, and then the children. As a result, the style of the latter is always determined by the former.

Most developers link these tables together in CSS, but this does more harm than good. The browser takes a long time to load the site, because you need to load styles first from the “parent”, and then from the derivative. If you put style sheets separately, the browser’s task will be easier and loading speed will increase.

Here is the code with which you can add this option:

The second file has a basic header containing special information. This information allows WordPress to recognize it as a “child” stylesheet. Therefore, it is especially important to write the code for “style.css”:

It doesn’t matter your level of programming proficiency or experience with WordPress. Creating a WordPress child theme is easy, and there is no risk that the settings will be deleted after exiting. By writing a little code or making changes to what you've already written and doing simple things with the directory, you can change your site. The main thing is to follow the instructions, gradually moving from one point to another. Do not forget the following: if there are updates for the “parent”, the “daughter” does not change, this rule applies to changes made to content, settings, and so on.

Experiment, try different options and look for the best one for yourself.

After you have purchased a domain and ordered hosting, it’s time to configure WordPress. The blog cannot be used in its current form. You need to properly configure permalinks, select and install a theme (design), and connect all the necessary plugins.

All these settings are needed to ensure that the blog has a neat appearance both for future visitors and for search robots. Which will have a positive impact on further search engine promotion.

You also need to understand the console menu. The console is also called the “admin panel”. You may have noticed that there are quite a lot of additional settings in the admin panel.

To get to the blog admin area, you need to go to site.ru/wp-admin/. Replace site.ru with your domain name.

The main page contains basic information about the entire blog. From this page you can add an article, make basic theme settings, or see the latest comments made on an entry.

In updates you can see the current version of WordPress and whether it requires new updates. As soon as the developers release an update, you will see it in your admin panel.

Don't forget to update if you are asked to do so. This will protect you from hacking attempts by intruders.

In this menu you can see all the recordings made over time. You can also see how many comments each article has received and what category it belongs to.

Hover your mouse over the article and a submenu will appear with which you can edit, go to, or delete the article.

If you didn’t change anything after installing WordPress, then you will already have your first test post. Point it at it and delete it. If you delete an entry by mistake, you can always restore it from the Recycle Bin. If the entries are no longer needed, do not forget to empty the trash.

Before you start publishing articles on your blog, you need to make a few very important settings. Make them in paragraphs 8.1 and 11.3. After you have set up permalinks, or as they are also called (CNC), you can start publishing articles.

The title is written at the top. It should not be too long and not too short. Once you enter the title below, a permanent link will appear. It will look like this if you install a special plugin, which is found in paragraph 8.1.

Below you will find tools with which you can format text, add pictures and place active links. If you are familiar with the Word program, then there will be no problems with this.

If this is your first time encountering such an editor, then watch video tutorials on YouTube on how to add an article to a WordPress blog. Once your article has been added and formatted, select or create a category for it. One article per category, remember this!

Upload a thumbnail, this is a small picture for your article. Such pictures support most themes. Once everything is ready, click on “Publish”. Now go to your blog's home page and see what your post looks like.

When adding photos, try to always include the “Alt” attribute. If you use your photos, this will allow you to attract traffic from search engines from the “pictures” section.

2-3 words about what is shown in the picture itself are enough. If you don’t know what to write, it’s better not to write anything.

The photo can be aligned to the center or edge. If you have a large picture and you want it to open in full size when you click it, then select “link to media file”. If you need to redirect to another site, then use a custom url.

In the size setting you can set the size you want. Remember that the width of the blog itself is rarely more than 1000 pixels wide. I recommend setting it to full.

Make sure that all your photos have a name in Latin letters before uploading to your blog, for example, moy-dom.jpg.

This menu is intended for creating categories. For example, you have a blog on culinary recipes. The headings could be:

Salads
Snacks
Beverages

Write your category in the title. In the label, write the name of the same category, but only in Latin letters. You can also write it in Cyrillic, but I recommend doing it as in the example.

Rubrics may have subcategories. For example, “Salads” may include the following subheadings: “Chicken salads”, “Simple salads”, “Salad recipes for the winter”, etc. Subcategories can be created in the “Parent” menu.

Write 2-3 sentences describing your section. State the essence. Be sure to make it unique. This means that you must come up with this description yourself, and not copy it. Once all the fields are filled in, you can click on the “Add new category” button.

Tags are needed to make a large website more user-friendly. If you do not plan to create a large portal with many categories and subcategories, then it is better not to use tags.

In this section you will find all the photos that have ever been uploaded to the blog. You can also add a new photo to your library. We practically won’t need this menu, since you can add a photo to your article in section 3.1.

Do not confuse this section with posts! Such pages are needed mainly for information. For example, on my blog there are separate pages about the author and about the blog. You can create a page with your organization's contacts or any other information.

Now you have a test page. Look at it, try to edit it and then delete it.

In this section you will see all the created pages. If you need to create a new one, then simply go to the “Add New” menu and use the editor, as in menu 3.1.

Here you can see all the comments made by your users. Comments can be disabled, approved and edited.

By default, WordPress provides 3 themes. Their design is so-so and rarely anyone uses them. You can see all three topics in this menu. There are a large number of sites on the Internet that offer to download free templates.

I recommend installing themes from the official WordPress store. Firstly, they are free, and secondly, they do not contain malicious code or viruses. To install a new template, just click on “Add a new theme”.

You will be taken to a section where you can select the topic that you like. Hover over any template and see what it will look like. You can select a topic by filtering the characteristics you need. Once the selection is made, click on install and activate.

Don't be afraid to put different themes. It is very difficult to find one that you like the first time. You can always delete all unnecessary topics at any time.

Free templates also have their downsides. They are poorly optimized for search engines.

Or you can immediately buy an inexpensive template for your project, which will eliminate all technical errors. Install the theme, customize it once and use it.

If you have any questions about setting up the theme, the Russian-speaking support service will always help you free of charge. I recommend choosing from these three templates.

Also in this section you can always change your password and email.

You can safely skip this section, there is nothing interesting here yet. When adding new plugins, some of them will be located here.

For some reason the most important menu is at the very end. Before you start publishing articles and creating new pages, you need to make settings.

Write the name of your site. The description should be short and clear. It should contain the entire essence of your niche. You can skip the brief description. If you have something to write, then fill it out. You can write some slogan.

WordPress address and website address. Here you can specify how your blog will be displayed. For example, with or without www. https or http. This is a very important parameter, be sure to fill it out.

If you registered a domain and hosting in my opinion, then you must have a secure https protocol certificate. So, set the settings as in the picture. Select the date and time format that you need. We skip the “writing” menu.

In this section you can configure your blacklist. If you see that someone is leaving spam comments for you, you can blacklist them. It is enough to add an IP address, which can be seen in the comments or create your own list of stop words.

For example, if you add the words: www, http://, download, free, then such comments will not undergo automatic moderation. You can safely skip media settings.

One of the most important WordPress settings is located here. This is setting up permalinks. Check the “Custom” box and paste the following template there:

/%category%/%postname%.html

To find out how many people visit your blog, you need to install a special counter on it. This counter will show detailed information about the user. I recommend installing Yandex Metrica.

If you do not yet have mail from Yandex, then register it right now, it will take a few minutes.

Once you are inside, click on “Add Counter”.

Next, fill in: the name of the counter and the website address, check the “I accept the condition” checkbox, create a counter. Check the box for web viewer and click save. Below you will see the counter code that needs to be installed.

Copy it and go to the admin area of your blog as shown in the image below.

Find in the right column and click on “Header (header.php)”. Paste the copied code into the free space. It's better to do it where it ends.

Click update file. Return to the list of counters by clicking on “Counters”.

After a few minutes, the counter will update and turn green. If this does not happen, log out of your account and log in again.

Ready! After some time, the counter will record all visitors to your blog. Click on the name and you will be taken to the main menu.

If you want to understand all the capabilities of this tool, then refer to the manual.

If you don’t know what robots.txt is and what it is needed for, you can read it in the Yandex help. In order not to suffer and not compile it yourself, you can simply download it.

Don’t forget to correct your site in the file by replacing site.ru and site.ru/sitemap.xml with yours. Also enter http or https. Now you need to upload it to your server in root folder, where your blog is installed.

If you use Beget hosting, which I recommend, then you can download this file as follows. Log in to your hosting and click “File Manager”.

Find the folder with your site and go into it by clicking 2 times. You should see this:

Go to this folder by clicking 2 times. You are now in the root folder of your site. Now click "Upload Files" and "Browse..."

Select the file and click on the "Upload" button. The file has been uploaded to the site.

Now you can check. Enter in search bar such a request: https://site.ru/robots.txt replace site.ru with your website. Also consider the meaning of https or http.

Order hosting and buy a domain >>>

Now your blog is completely set up and ready to go. Start filling it with quality articles for people. Start to slowly understand SEO (search engine optimization).

As soon as your blog reaches 500 visitors per day, then buy a unique theme. If you have any questions, be sure to ask them in the comments below.

Best regards, Sergey Smirnov.