Wordpress Basics for Newbies
It can be difficult for beginners to learn wordpress basics. Newbies have all the information at their disposal, but get overwhelmed. I was thinking about some things I really wish I knew when I first started using wordpress. When you’re just starting, it’s not easy to know what’s important and what isn’t, so here we go.
Most people tend to use too many unnecessary plug ins and most are redundant. Beginners are simply unaware of what’s already built in. I highly recommend you actually read the wordpress codex. While some of the information maybe hard to understand, there is an astonishing amount of useful tips even a novice can use. Any question you have is answered in the codex, if you take time to read it.
Permalinks - The first thing to do with a new site
One of the most important prerequisites in starting a new WP blog is knowing about Permalinks (the url structure of your posts which is customizable). The default setting has your post url’s looking “ugly”. A default permalink url looks like:
http://example.com/?p=325
Instead of the post title, a page number is used. I still can’t believe the default setting is probably the worst possible. You need to set it up before you write your first post, but it’s not like they tell you that when you’re just starting out.
I wish someone had told me about permalinks before I started this blog. Almost everyone realizes a year later (after writing 300 posts), they should have used a different permalinks structure. Every beginner tutorial for first timers should cover Permalinks as the step after installation. I suggest you read the codex about them. If you have a really new blog with very few incoming links, you can change the structure. Once your blog is older, you shouldn’t change it unless you know how…even then, it’s usually not a good idea. You can set up your permalinks in your wordpress settings.
This blog uses: /%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/
This is one of the 4 standard choices - the “day and name” structure. It makes each post’s url look like:
http://revellian.com/2008/07/22/search-engine-friendly-article-titles/
Recommended Permalinks Structures
1)If I could start over, I’d use one of these two custom structures:
I might use /%postname%/ only. Post url’s would have my site name, followed by the post name like this:
http://revellian.com/search-engine-friendly-article-titles/
This structure is great because it’s simple and no matter what changes you make (like deleting or changing categories, changing the original timestamp or whatever) your post’s url never changes. It is in a sense, dateless. You could recycle old posts and display them like they’re new. That’s cool functionality to have!
2) After reading many opinions about permalinks, I believe a little better choice is this structure:
/%postname%/%post_id%/
The above is a safe and wise choice for most bloggers. It is equally flexible as the one above. The addition of the post id is highly recommended because only using a postname structure has potential problems and adding a post id will prevent them…supposedly. If you have an older blog and want to change your permalinks, read this great seo permalink tutorial.
I’m really not 100% sure which of the two permalink recommendations is best, and the experts differ on opinions. Both of these are good because each post’s url never changes, even if other things change. The classic SEO For Wordpress - The Complete Guide is a fantastic tutorial from Jim Westergren with his views on the “postname only structure”. This is perhaps the best basic seo primer on the web. Go read it!
Here’s a common scenario of a newbie and why reading the codex first is key: Newbie Ned installs wordpress automatically on his new hosting account. He installs a gravatars plug in and a tags plug in to display tags under each single post. No plugin is necessary…it’s already built in.
Display Tags Under Posts
The default template already has this feature and has a php script you can easily add to your custom template - you don’t need a plug in for this. In your single.php, just add the following script below the line that says “php the content”. You can play around with different locations to fit your template just right:
<?php the_tags('Tags:', ', ', '<br />'); ?>
Your tags will be listed beneath each post when viewed individually. If you want tags under every post on your homepage, I will let you figure it out yourself.
Adding avatars beneath comments
You could use the myavatars plugin to add MyBlogLog Avatars beneath comments. Just for example, we’ll add the built in avatars feature. In your wp-control panel; settings; discussion, you can select to add gravatars, wavatars, etc beneath comments automatically if your template has the script added to comments.php. My template didn’t include it, so I had to add the code (which comes standard on the default template). Just add the following code above the line “php comment text”. Again, you can put it a line or two above to fit your template - just play with it:
<?php echo get_avatar( $comment, 32 ); ?>
Save and you will see avatars beneath comments. It will display wordpress.com users avatars and Gravatars. It will not display Mybloglog avatars. Because I don’t like using too many plug ins, I use many of the built in features instead.
Get Yourself a Global Gravatar!
Every blogger should get a Gravatar. Once you get one, your picture will appear with your comments on many blogs that currently don’t (gravatar is basically associated with your email address). If you want your personal gravatar to appear in my comments, you’ll need a Gravatar, or wordpress.com account. Otherwise, you’ll be assigned a goofy monster pic.
Use the Codex
I bet 90% of wordpress users have never even looked at the wordpress codex. It is the bible of your wordpress blog and should be your main resource. It is fantastic! It has everything you will ever need and answers virtually any question you could think of. Because it’s quite vast, I’ll point you to some great sections to get you interested:
Template Tags: A great page for beginners to check out. Simply click any of the examples to see directions on how to use them. To begin understanding how to design a wordpress template or make yours more personal, you have to become familiar with each individual template page. You can look through your comments.php page for example to see the different tags used in it.
Know Your Sources:For beginners, this is the most important information on the entire codex. This is a resource guide of HTML, CSS, XHTML, PHP, Mysql and other building blocks of a wordpress blog. You don’t need college to learn html, php and so forth. If you are just a beginner, go to this page and click HTML in the first section. It has tutorials from W3 Schools, a free on line tutorial service. Start of with HTML, CSS and XHTML tutorials. You can literally learn the basics in one weekend. Anyone willing to spend a few hours per week can master these in a short time. These tutorials are as good if not better than paying for classes…and they are free.
The point is, the wordpress codex is your reference for everything. It’s surprising how many cool features, alterations and ideas are offered. Most people get a host, install wordpress through some automatic installer like fantastico and just start without knowing the basics. You really should start by reading the codex, learn the basics beforehand, install wordpress manually and then start blogging.
Create A Test Blog
On your server, create a testblog in a sub folder for practice. You can set it to be private so it’s not crawled by the search engines. Add different templates so you can practice without messing up your real blog. If you don’t have a host, but want to learn wordpress before purchasing a hosting account, you can install Xampp to have your own personal server for testing. You simply install wordpress on it. I may write some tutorials coming up on getting yourself a free web development environment on your PC, but there are already so many. It’s easy, but can be a nightmare for newbies.
With a test wordpress blog, you can rip it apart and try anything. One of the first skills is using features from other templates, and splicing in pieces and parts to yours. Many of today’s popular themes are not written from scratch. They are chopped and pasted - built from parts of many themes.
Become a Web Designer
I am a completely self taught in all aspects of coding, blogging and so on (with the exception of learning a little C and Fortran years ago. I am currently taking a C, C++ and C# primer class). Learning php, html and css can be really difficult if you don’t have a structured plan. In my opinion, the following approach will help you do it the right way:
Learn html, css, xhtml and php as it relates to your wordpress blog; meaning, don’t just learn html by itself. Learn html for wordpress as the main reason - it helps to think this way. In other words, wordpress is your project, all the components are parts of it.
Learn a little of each, don’t just take 30 css tutorials. All these concepts should be learned at the same time. At first, the most important are html and css. The first time I tried to learn css, I was lost. That’s because I had nothing real to practice on…in a hands on fashion. This is why you need a practice blog - you don’t want to go wild on your live site. You need to butcher and tear things apart to learn!
Html is really easy, and most bloggers learn the basics through trial and error - cutting and pasting snippets of code. I suggest you start hacking the default template and learning every part of it. I’ve learned more in the past two months than in 10 years of messing around. Why is that? Because I have a structured format to work in (wordpress). I also have a need for the knowledge. It’s like learning algebra or calculus for the first time. Without a real world purpose or application, math is boring and useless. You cannot understand math without an application and purpose. Coding and web site design is the same way.
My goal is to be able to write a complete wordpress template from scratch - many theme designers can’t even do that. It used to seem almost impossible, but after getting a little serious here lately, I know I can do it. After my database nightmare, I have submersed myself in wordpress design and actually enjoy it now.
Remember, wordpress is a free open source product. It is awesome. There is no better vehicle to master basic programming, scripting and coding with. That means you can do whatever you want to it and even sell your designs if you’re good enough.
Eventually, all serious site owners will need some PHP knowledge. I recommend KillerPHP video tutorials to start with. The videos are great, especially for newbies because you are being shown how to do it, not going through dry text based tutorials. This will show you how to set up your own development studio using Xampp or Wamp. PHP is a great first programming language, and virtually every blogger needs to learn the basics. I went through all the videos in one day, and it really helped me.
I may start some test blogs for my readers to use if they are interested in learning the basics before actually paying for a hosting plan. What do you think? Is it something any of you blogspotters would be interested in?
I’m learning this stuff out of necessity and I’m tired of not knowing how to do everything myself. For some reason, things are coming together and it’s a lot of fun.
Website Design Tutorials
Tizag Tutorials - This site actually makes learning html, css and many others fun. The way it’s set up is great, and you can apply what you learn immediately. You need a server to upload your files to, so check into it.
So You Want to Create Wordpress Themes Huh? is a fantastic 16 part tutorial that will guide you in writing a theme from scratch. The way I see it, anyone can cut and paste. If you really want to learn the right way, this is a great starting point.
The Wordpress Starter Theme Project is a very useful tool. It is a skeleton wordpress theme ready to be built upon. It’s much like a bare bones html page, but contains all the files like a header, footer and archive to get you started. Really, I just started getting into this design thing. In just a few weeks, I’ve already put together several themes. I’m still a beginner, but it won’t take long to have something I will use on this site.
All of these resources are free. An Xampp server for your pc and wordpress are free. What are you waiting for? I now have a whole new appreciation for open source products.
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Nice points Bobby. Even if i had a chance i would like to change my permalinks. Unfortunately, it is too late to do it now.
What an informative post Bobby. Thanks for the great links.. I’m in the same boat as you.. it’s annoying to not be able to get all things working the way I want them to…
I have test blogs that I play with so that’s not a need I have but it might be a good idea if you set one up to refer to in your tutorials as you manipulate it..
will look forward to how all of this develops..
My Blogger Blog can beat up your Wordpress blog, but yours looks a lot cooler.
smile
This is AWESOME info. Why, oh why, aren’t you a teacher of all this blogging stuff? You’d be great! I’d definitely sign up for your classes.
My husband just transferred his blog off of a wordpress template- it was self hosted and had it’s own domain, but Wordpress templates are so fussy. I have had issues with posts taking pictures and flash… It’s jut so irritating.
Anyway- as soon as I design my new logos he will be transferring my site to a Drupal site- which will be a learning curve, but Drupal seems to be a much more stable website. We use Drupal for a lot of our development with clients. Drupal is used by a lot of power users online and is just amazing, Warner Bros, Aol, and Yahoo all use Drupal to power some of their sites. I can’t wait to get my blogs off of wordpress and blogger- and onto a Drupal back end. I just wish I could figure out what my new logos will look like.
Great post Bobby- I hope you don’t find my comment off topic- it’s just that I am so irritated by working with Wordpress as of late.
@Madhur: I’d like to change mine. I’m just glad I didn’t use the default. I’ve noticed that it’s not just the permalinks structure that is important, but every template can be built differently, meaning the heirarchy and way things are wrapped vary so much - if you change templates, it can have much more effect than expected.
@Pearl: I found another great tutorial that shows how to build a site with photo shop 1st, then the coding here: http://themetation.com/how-to-create-wordpress-themes-from-scratch-part-1/. I’m starting to understand that css, php and html are like one, not separate…I have a long way to go!
@Eric: It’s not how attractive a blog is, it’s how cool the header is
@Teeni: Hahaha…that’s funny. I know just how little I know, and how an experienced designer would easily know it. That’s how it is…10% of bloggers are really experts, the rest of us (like me) know only a little more than a complete novice
@Michelle: I used to use drupal at a company I worked for. Basically, it’s like slackware linux, where your core files don’t get messed with, and all the features like themes etc. are modules that plug in and out. So, it’s not nearly as flexible as wordpress but is stable. Wordpress is so customizable - it’s a wonder few people have problems. For someone into design, wordpress is really the only choice. Drupal is drupal, and it’s core is the same on all drupal sites, so it does have an advantage in general stability.
Perhaps permalinks is the worst thing which we should do at the beginning and most of us don’t know that(In beginning all of us are not expert at it, I have even seen a “dummies” book for wordpress). I have just upgraded all my blogs to 2.6 without a single problem.
I do not preffer, nor recommend anyone to use %postid% in URL. The best & SEO Friendly URL IMHO is %category%/%postname%
Ah, that’s another great post from you Bobby. I also wished to have a tutorial like this when I first installed wordpress, I’m glad I had a friend helping me with the permalink, it kept saying I should update something in the htaccess file
I don’t understand these stuffs at all.
And also great way to use the title only permalink, I didn’t look at it this way. I thought if I used title only I might have prob later if I have a new post with same title.
Really great when this post will rank on top when “newbies” will search about permalinks, they’ll save a LOT of time trying to figure these out.
I agree with what you say about visiting the codex, everything I have ever learned (well 99% of it) I got from the codex and wp forums, the forums are particularly good for getting an answer quickly
@Steve: It’s a good idea to use the right structure.
@Victoria: I don’t like using a category in a permalink because I often change and or delete categories - the flexibility is nice to have.
@Ruby: Thanks! What I mean by adding to the htaccess file, is a 301 redirect - only if the permalinks are changed. The permalinks are permanent links to your posts and should really never be changed. When you start a WP blog and don’t do anything to the permalinks, you are automatically using the default, which is fine - they should not be changed at all once posts have been written and you have inbound links to them.
If you write a post with the same title, it is automatically assigned a unique post id. However, to be safe, I like having post name, post id as the permalink
@Andy: Most people may glance through the codex, but don’t spend the necessary hours there to learn anything. I don’t understand everything, but I am definetly on my way. I unistalled all of my plug ins when I moved to a new server, and I will reinstall comment luv shortly
Hi, Bobby
Thanks for Gravatar tip. I just went and signed up for one a minute ago. I’m always learning new stuff from your blog
Hey bobby thanks for the the great tips! I am new to wordpress!
Hi Bobby! Great post! This is a must read for newbie wordpress users, like me.