Writing your first article on a WordPress blog can be overwhelming. There are so many ways to do it. You can use the WordPress editor or a third-party one, or even write the HTML code by hand. Here is a quick introduction to publish your first post, here is our WordPress 101.
Editor
When it comes to starting a new blog post, you will need to choose between multiple editors. By default, WordPress offers a Block editor, which means you can structure your layout before adding your content. Eg: you want to add a title block on top of your paragraph block, and then an image block, a second paragraph block, etc.
You can easily re-order the structure of your post that way.
The code editor is still a good option for advanced users if you want to setup a specific layout for your post, or to check for HTML errors.
Nowadays, for standard usage, we do not really need to manipulate code directly.
To avoid any layout/HTML errors, I recommend making sure the content you might paste from a text editor, or an email is pure plain text.
For advanced options you can use a third-party editor. At The Cyphers Agency we love Elementor. It allows us to create custom layouts for posts without using code, it is an incredibly good addition to WordPress.
Adding your first block
When you click on the Add Block button, you can select the type:
Once your block type is selected, you can add the content.
If you want to delete your block, edit it, or move it, you can easily by clicking on it:
Featured Image
Either with WordPress Blocks or Elementor, you can add media to your post. It can be a single image, a slideshow, or a video.
A featured image is more specific and linked directly to your article. It is usually shown as the main article illustration. It is very theme dependent.
Here is how the featured images are shown on The Cyphers Agency’s blog:
To add a featured image – if your theme supports it – you will need to use the option in the toolbar on the right side of the interface.
Categories and Tags
You can add categories and tags to your article. Categories are meant to group posts. You can even create sub-categories when tags are useful when it comes to describing the content of your posts. The best is to use both. You can select or create a category for the main topic of your article and use tags to add emphasis to some keywords.
Bonus: SEO
A good starting point to enhance your article’s SEO would be to use a third-party plugin like YOAST. You will be able to set up some meta tags and get some feedback on what you should improve to get better discoverability results.
Ready to publish?
Once your article is ready, you can check how it looks by clicking on the computer icon on the left of the Publish button:
If everything looks good, you can now hit the Publish button and let your article go live!
The WordPress interface is easy to use and powerful – this is why we use it for our websites. You want to set up your own website and upload your content, but you don’t know how to register a domain, set up a hosting solution and make it secure for you and your visitors? Contact us and tell us about your project.
