40+ Key Features of Popular WordPress

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Today we want to share with you this WordPress Guide in 30 steps. We have collected all the functions that we explained from WordPress in our Community Manager course to serve as a refresher guide for students. WordPress .com and .org have many functions with which you can get a huge game. Do you know them all?

Hello! Today we want to share with you this Manual that summarizes all the functions you must learn in WordPress. if you use WordPress.org in your own hosting, most of the following functions are the same. Where it is different I indicate it to you so that it serves for the two versions of WordPress. You will also have other extra functions thanks to the Plugins and the Templates. Here we do not comment, but you can complement this reading with  the best plugins for WordPress .

Still, WordPress.com is the best platform to write your blog and has many functions. Do you know them all?

What is WordPress.com and how is it different from its big brother WordPress.org:

WordPress.org refers to the most used content manager in the world, in which we can download for free and install on our own server. WordPress.com is a system developed by the same company, Automattic, that allows us, using its servers and the same free software (with some limitations), to have our own blog or web in a fast and free way. In the “dot com” version, we will not have to worry about databases, backup, or security, since it is for them. In the “org point” these tasks rework on the user and on his hosting provider. In this article we will see all the features of the dot com version, more accessible for everyone. Most of them work the same in the dot com version.

Some advantages of WordPress:

The most notable advantages are the fast installation of WordPress , its ease of use, its power and scalability. You can create from a simple blog to a complete online store or a virtual classroom. Although it requires a certain learning process, once the operation of the system is understood, its use is fast, intuitive and similar for all the sites you manage.

The titles:

It is important to remember the importance of the titles, especially for our post, have to draw attention and generate traffic to our site from internet and other websites. Remember that 60 is the maximum number of characters that Google shows us in the search results, so try not to pass. Always take advantage to include your keywords in them. Throughout your article, try to divide the content using smaller headlines , which guide the reader and, again, include the keywords.

Keywords:

Keywords are fundamental for positioning , search engines recognize them for their location and density. The most prominent locations are the titles, organized hierarchically from <h1> to <h6>. The first two hundred words of the article and the end of it are also highlighted locations. The density of the ideal keywords is, more or less, around 2% -3%, you can use tools such as the SEO by Yoast plugin or the Internet Marketing Ninjas online tool to measure density. It is highly recommended that you help Google Trends and Adwords to make a preliminary study of your keywordsfor each article or page that you are going to publish. If you use WordPress.org, here are the essential plugins for SEO in WordPress

“Quote” tool

Not very used tool of WordPress and other text editors, allows us to quickly form a paragraph in a different way to the rest to emphasize that its content is an appointment or a testimony. It helps to give an improved appearance to our publications.

Tool to add hyperlink:

If you do not know which tool I’m talking about, you should start using it now. It is a small button with a string of the text editor, which allows us to insert links quickly. Do not forget to complete the title so that information about that link is displayed when we pose on top of it. It is very important that you use the option “Open link in a new window / tab” if you do not want to take your readers out of your page, especially for external links to your website. At your side you will see another similar icon but with the broken chain, use it to remove hyperlinks.

Text alignment and indentation increase:

As in the other text editors, we have the usual paragraph alignment options, left, right, centered and justified. Use well the one that suits you in each moment according to the layout of your post or page. Remember that a good article has to enter easily by sight, inviting reading. The increase and reduction of the indentation of the text is a very useful tool to organize the content hierarchically. It is especially important when we work with lists, because it helps us create lists within other lists.

Image alignment:

In the same way that we align the text correctly, we can and should do the same with the images. Make sure that the text always has a width consistent with the image, around 65% VS 35%, for example, so take care of the size to which you put the image, which does not hinder reading and does not overwhelm.

Title, alt and image size:

When you upload a new image (and any other file) to your WordPress library, try to complete the data: the name of the file (that you assign on your hard drive), the title, description and legend (this text is likely to appear at the bottom of the photo, so most of the time I do without him). A lot of eye with linking the image to itself if it is not necessary, most of the photos we use in the posts are to animate the content, they do not have a didactic purpose, so it does not make sense that they are linked about themselves. Assign it the correct size for its use. You can always insert it to its full size and then decrease it through the window of adjustments of the image in the editor, in the column of percentages. In that same window, in the advanced settingsEdge, vertical space, horizontal space:

In that same “advanced settings” tab of the image you will see 3 property boxes: border, vertical space and horizontal space. The edge is barely used and I do not find it very useful, try to give it a value in pixels, to see if you like it. The interesting thing is the values ​​of space, of margin, that the image will have by its sides. Insert a value in pixels, for example 10, see how it looks, try to ensure that the text and the image of your posts do not overwhelm each other. By default we will put margin above and below or left and right, let’s say it goes in pairs. If we only want margin on one of the sides, for example the left one you would do the following: you add the value in the horizontal space box, you click outside the box so that it becomes effective, you will see that it writes you a text in the box of styles .

 

Creating numbered and unnumbered lists:

I guess you’ve already realized how common are the post points or lists. Much more advisable than creating the lists manually by putting hyphens or numbers and giving the space a few times, is to use the tool for creating automatic lists of the text editor. Each line break will be a new point. You can choose between lists sorted by number or unnumbered. As I said before, this tool, combined with the option to increase the indentation, allows us to create lists within other lists, a very easy and clear way to sort information and generate directories or indexes.

Inserting forms:

A contact form is almost essential in a blog or web. WordPress makes it very easy for us since it is a function implemented in WordPress.com and very easy to implement in WordPress.org , either through Jetpack or any other plugin. It is as simple as pressing the button of our text editor, edit the fields we want to show and fill in where we want the mails to reach us and with what subject. This point of the matter is important especially when we have more than one form on our page, since it tells us where they have written us from. I will quickly review the features of WordPress.com forms, which is the same as we use through Jetpack:

Edit a field: each field has its option to edit the text that we want to show with the information of what has to be filled in each one.

Add a field: We can add as many fields as we want by simply pressing the button.

Field types: we have up to 8 types of fields, from simple text boxes, drop-down boxes with several options or check boxes. In all of them we can configure it as a mandatory field or not.

Editing the URL of our post or page:

If you notice, just below the title of your post or page, you have the permanent link through which it will be found in the browsers. You can edit what URL you want to appear in the address bar just by clicking on edit. Try to use a text that helps you position. It is also essential to use this option when we put provisional titles, and that they remain written.

Insert an image in a post:

It is one of the most used functions when writing posts or creating pages. After clicking on “add object” or “add multimedia”, we will upload the image from our hard drive or we will choose it in the library if we already have it uploaded to our WordPress. We select the image and configure a few options that are shown on the right. As we have said before, at least the title and the alternative text must be completed (this is the one that will be shown when, for whatever reason, the image can not be displayed). Now we configure if we want the image to be linked, or not, and where. The next thing will be to decide the alignment, how we want to show the image in the entry with respect to the text and the container box of our post. Finally, it is left to decide the size. By default WordPress gives us 3 variations of each image (miniature, medium and large), apart from the original image in its full size. It only remains to insert it in the post or page.

Insert a tweet:

WordPress makes it very easy to insert tweets in our posts. In the dot com , you will see that in the insert object window (or insert multimedia) it gives you the option to add a tweet directly, it allows you to search by user, hashtag or location, among other things. For those of the org point, the thing is also quite simple (these steps can also be followed for WordPress.com) since it is enough to copy the link to the status of the tweet: search for your tweet, click on the date and copy the url of the new page where that tweet is shown. Paste that link in your post, directly, and you’ve already done it.

Create a gallery:

While the  org point  we have infinite plugins to show images, in the  com point  we have to conform only with this option. It is very useful. I’ll explain briefly how to use it: Instead of inserting an image as before, we created a  gallery , a group of images that would be shown together. The gallery offers different presentation options, I recommend especially the “tiled mosaic” especially because it allows us to create lightboxes for individual images, which are very useful for tutorial-type posts that need to illustrate things graphically.

Insert a Youtube video:

As with tweets, WordPress.com gives us the option of inserting a YouTube url that it will automatically transform into a video embedded in our page. This is done through the shortcodes implemented in WordPress functions, in fact, you will see that the link that you have pasted will transform it slightly and it will put it in brackets. With WordPress.org we will do the same but copying and pasting the link manually, apart, in this case, we can use some simple plugins to show the videos in a lightbox and use a specific image as a link.I recommend this article with 20 tricks to improve your Video Marketing and SEO on Youtube.

Insert survey:

Surveys are a good resource to open debate or find inspiration when writing new material for our blogs. WordPress.com gives us this function in a very simple way, almost as much as inserting a contact form. The only difference is that we will have to register in Polldaddy through a quick process. Another option, for me more complete, is to use the forms offered by Google, Google Forms , can be integrated into our WordPress through a code that we will get on the page where we create the forms, in “File> Embed” .

SlideShare

SlideShare presentations are a fairly common resource that we can use in our articles to complete the information and add more value to our blog. We will get traffic to the presentations, ours or from others, that we want to promote. Insert them is quite simple, again just go to “Share” in the device and look for the option with the WordPress icon , there we will find the usual link that we will paste in our blog, it will be shown in your post and it will be interactive.

Entry formats:

Input formats are one of the least used WordPress things, not without reason. In fact, the standard input format allows us to do almost everything that the rest allow us, so its use is reduced to very specific occasions, such as creating a post that is an appointment in itself and we want it to be packaged in a special way. In addition, these formats depend on each template, which will have to be investigated a little in each case if they are worthwhile.

Featured image, differences between templates:

The highlighted image of each post or page is a feature by which the image we choose will have a special role , it may be the image that heads our post or the one that is shown on the main page of the blog, illustrating the extract the post. Almost all the templates usually show them in some way, but you will have to investigate 5 minutes to see where, because it is different in each topic. Do not forget to use it, it is a feature very used in WordPress, in all types of templates. You will find the highlighted image option to the right of the text editor, below the labels.

Publishing options :

Very interesting options both to leave future publications, Buffer style, and to publish in the past if necessary (for example to order our entries and highlight a certain one at the start of our blog). In the “Publish” box, where it says “publish” or “published” we can quickly change the date of our WordPress publication. This is an important tool when designing a publication calendar within our Online Marketing strategy, as we have in our manual .

Unpublish an entry:

As in the previous case, in the same box but under the option “status”, you will find a drop-down that lets you change the status of your publication. From published to draft, from draft to pending revision, etc. It is the option that you will have to use to unpublish an entry.

Screen options:

When you are editing a post or page, look at the top right of your WordPress. You will see a small window that says “Screen Options”, click on it and you will see that a menu is displayed in the upper strip. These boxes are the ones that you will see by default in your creation window of posts and pages, as you scroll down. I recommend activating all, at least at the beginning, so that you investigate a little and know with what you count.

Trackbacks and pingbacks:

The trackbacks are something like the mentions of Twitter, if you are naming a blog or web, send them a trackback to be notified. On the other hand, the pingback refers to the inverse case, is a notification in the form of a comment to warn you that your article has been linked from another web page, you can approve it so that the link appears as a comment, edit it or delete it. So do not be scared when you get pingbacks, they’re good.

Reviewing the administration panel of our WordPress

The sections of your left management menu give you access to the publications and configuration of the content of your page.

Categories:

The categories will define the set of themes that we discuss in our blog. Well used, they will help a lot so that our readers are well oriented and quickly and easily find the content that interests them. Try to use the keywords that define your blog as categories, this also helps search engines to position your blog because the categories generate a url with your name. Try not to create many, 5 or 6 should be enough. You can create them both from your section and from each post, in the assign category box.

Tags:

In the same way that the categories define the theme of the blog, the labels are going to refer specifically to each post. They should be the most relevant keywords in our article. Do not cut yourself with its use, choose 4 or 5 for each post. As with the categories, you can create them from your section or from your new entry.

Media:

In the media section you will find all the files you upload to your blog, whether images, pdfs, audios, videos … The main window shows you a list of all the elements, it is interesting because we can see which images we are using and which are not, with what the task of periodically cleaning our WordPress (remember that in the free version you have a limit of 3 gB) it becomes easier. Be careful because the images assigned to widgets and special locations are not reflected, so you could erase some image that you are using because it does not indicate it, it only indicates those assigned to pages or posts.

Links:

In the side menu of our WordPress panel , you will find a section referring to links. Use it to promote blogs, websites and sites of interest through your page. Once you fill in the necessary fields (remember to assign categories to the links to have them organized) you can show them in your sidebar or foot using a widget called blogroll. It is also highly recommended that links open in a new tab or window: at destination select “_blank”.

Edit Options:

If we want to  edit the data  of a file already uploaded, we can access it from the media list, through the “edit” option. In this window we correct the title of the file, the alternative text, the description and the legend. It is the best place to  copy the URL  of that file, the link to that element.

Pages:

The pages are usually used to display static content, they are essential for setting up sites with a web page structure. Unlike the blog, they are not automatically updated every time you post. The clearest example is the page “About me”, where the author of a blog can take to tell some personal information that will be fixed for a season, another very clear example is the page “Products and Services” that may have any company Its creation is more or less similar to that of a post, so remember to correctly align the images and the text. It is a good place to include our contact form and any relevant tweet or video that we want to promote. The pages, to be accessible from the navigation menu of our website, have to be assigned from the menu section, inAppearance , we will see below.

Comments:

In this section you can see and moderate all the comments you receive in the articles of your blog. From here you can approve them if they are pending moderation, reject them, edit them, for example to correct misspellings, or delete them. You can respond to comments directly from this window, without having to go to the specific post.

Suggestions

In this window we will see the polldaddy poll results that we have created, we can edit them and copy the link to insert it in another post or different page. You will also see the ratings, which refer to the readers mark the star when they like a post ours. It’s something similar to Facebook likes. It is one of the features that make WordPress.com something like a social blogging network . You will receive in this section the answers to the requests for feedback that you have made.

Appearance menu

This section will be used a lot, especially at the beginning, until you have your blog more or less well presented and configured. I will make a brief review of what you will find in him.

Topics:

From here you choose the template on which to build your blog. The variety on WordPress.com is not too high but you will find something that works for you, for sure. Take a moment to try different templates and investigate what options each one gives you. At the beginning it is very funny, but it can become an infinite task if we do not decide, so set a time limit, and start writing;). Some templates are premium, that is, paid. Try a good season free and then, if you feel like it, try some payment, when you have it very clear.

Customize

You will access a configuration screen of the selected template, it is the site to investigate the theme options and layout it, as far as possible. Again you will see that there are several payment options, depending on the themes.

Widgets:

Widgets are small applications that are placed in additional places of the theme, usually sidebars and footers. They are a very simple way to add additional content, such as links to social networks, the blogroll we have seen before, suggest relevant or recent content from our blog, etc. It is simple to use, just drag the widget you want to use to one of your widgets areas, you configure it, depending on the type that is and ready, it will appear in your blog. The most common are usually the photo of the author, social networks, the Twitter TL, a Facebook fan page, there are many. Remember that not all templates have the same space for widgets, some only allow you to place them on the foot, so keep this in mind when choosing the theme.

Menus:

The menus in WordPress allow us to navigate through the different pages of a site, they are very important and you have to understand them well. The elements that can be added to a menu are basically three: the pages that we have created, the categories that we use for our posts and personalized links, which serve to link our blog with another site, such as a store that we have on another platform , our YouTube channel or anything else we need. We can also create sub-menus easily with these links. All items added to the menu will appear in that order in our site navigation bar. Changing the order is a matter of clicking and moving, very easy. On the other hand, depending on each theme, you will have the option of displaying more than one menu, for example, a main one in the navigation bar and a secondary one in the foot. Which menu is shown in each site you configure in the “Manage places” tab.

Do not forget to configure this part correctly so that browsing your mobile device site is as pleasant as possible.

Users:

The user panel allows you to see who can post to your blog and add new collaborators, in addition to editing the information of each one and the access privileges of the authors. The most common roles are those of author, who can write and publish their own posts, the editor, who can edit and publish any post independently of the author, and the role of administrator, which is what you will be using right now in your blog and that does not have any kind of limitation.

In “My profile” you will find the boxes that you should complete with the information about you and your collaborators. Pay special attention to the “Display name publicly as” or its version in Spanish, that name will be the one that shows as the author of the posts and comments, make sure it is your real name and not your username with acronyms, scripts and unpronounceable;).

Gravatar

Gravatar is a page that is part of WordPress.com and manages the public avatars of WordPress users. That is, all public places, such as comments, where you are going to participate, will automatically show the image you have associated to your account through Gravatar. Sound complicated, right? Well, it’s nonsense. Connect to Gravatar.com with the same WordPress.com user and add as many emails and profile photos as you want. You can assign a different image for each email, something very useful to centralize in a single account the management of avatars of all your brands and blogs.

Personal Configuration

Within the personal configuration options, in the users section, we can select the language of the WordPress control panel , which is important for those who do not want to deal with English. A little further down we have the option to change the username and password to access our blog, in addition to the email where we want to receive notifications from the blog.

Tools: Import and export

It is quite usual that someone wants to change CMS platform, for example from Blogguer to WordPress. Fortunately for all, these platforms have tools to export and import content through XML files. The process is simple, export the XML file with the information you need from the old blog (post, comments, pages) and import into the new one with the option to import. If at some point you want to permanently delete your WordPress.com site, here is your option. In case you are in the middle of this process, here is a video tutorial on how to import and export content from one WordPress to another.

​​Basic configuration:

This point is one of the first that you should review when you are starting with your blog. I will focus on the most important sections.

General:

The title and description are essential. Beware of the time zone, because if it is incorrectly configured and programs a post will be published at a different time than yours. Here you should specify the language in which you write in your blog.

Writing: It is a good idea to select a predetermined category for your articles. This way you will avoid that in one of your posts one of your posts appears as “uncategorized” or “uncategorized”.

Reading: The option “Front page shows” is fundamental in the creation of blogs and pages with WordPress. Basically it defines if our “homepage” will be our blog or any other static page that we decide.

Maximum number of entries:  Eye with the maximum number of entries that your blog will show, I do not recommend that they be more than 5 or 6. This, along with the “more” tag, will be basic to have a blog that loads fast.

Visibility: You must allow search engines to index the site as soon as possible. You can use this option while you are building them and creating the first contents, so it will not appear in the search results.

Comments:  In this section you can configure the comments. For example, I recommend that you use the option “For a comment to appear: The author of the comment must have a previously approved comment”, so we will only have to moderate the first comment of each user. I personally also recommend deactivating the option that users should be registered, because it makes it difficult to participate.

Share

I wanted to make a separate point with this section of the WordPress configuration. I think it is very important to have it clear, since it allows our content to be distributed more and better. A good organization when it comes to spreading content in networks is one of the qualities most sought by Social Media agencies when hiring a Community Manager .

First of all we have the option to spread. Use it if you want to connect your blog with your accounts from your social networks, automatically your new posts will be published in them. I prefer to do it by hand.

Share buttons : These are the buttons that you see at the end of each entry and that allow readers to tweet and recommend the posts we like.

Twitter Username: Do not forget to fill in this box, so when readers want to publish a tweet from your article using the share button, their username will appear automatically and they will mention you.

Statistics

One of the things that is missing in WordPress.com is Google Analytics . However, we can get a good idea of ​​the traffic of our site with which they are implemented. From where visits arrive, by what keywords, which entries or pages are the most viewed … Here we have a few keys that will help us to know what works best and what contents are helping us to have more visibility.

We will update this manual if new functions come out. Have we left any? Do you have any WordPress recommendation that you can share with us? Thanks for reading and sharing.

 

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