In this guide: A complete WordPress dashboard tour: every admin menu explained — posts, pages, media, appearance, plugins, users, and the settings you must review.
The first time you log in to WordPress, the dashboard can feel like a cockpit full of unfamiliar buttons. The good news: you’ll use about 20% of it 80% of the time. This tour explains every main menu so you know exactly where to go.
Dashboard home and widgets
After logging in at yoursite.com/wp-admin, you land on Dashboard → Home. It shows:
- At a Glance: number of posts, pages, and comments.
- Activity: recent posts and comments.
- Quick Draft: jot down post ideas.
- Site Health status: warnings about security or performance.
- Widgets from plugins, such as SEO or analytics summaries.
Click Screen Options (top right) to hide boxes you don’t need. Dashboard → Updates shows available updates for WordPress core, themes, plugins, and translations.
The top admin bar (visible when you’re logged in and viewing your site) gives quick links to create content, edit the current page, and visit the dashboard.
Posts, pages and media
Posts are time-based content — blog articles, news, tutorials. They appear in your blog feed, have categories and tags, and are included in RSS feeds.
- All Posts: list, search, filter, and bulk-edit posts.
- Add New Post: opens the block editor (Gutenberg).
- Categories: broad topics (like “HowTo” or “Marketing”).
- Tags: specific keywords (like “SSL” or “caching”).
Pages are static content — Home, About, Contact, Services, Privacy Policy. They don’t use categories or appear in the blog feed, but they can have parent-child relationships (for example, /services/web-design/).
Media is your library of images, videos, PDFs, and other files. Tip: rename image files descriptively before uploading and always add alt text. See how to optimize images for the web.
Comments lets you approve, reply to, mark as spam, or delete comments.
Appearance and plugins
Appearance controls how your site looks. Options depend on whether you use a block theme or classic theme:
- Themes: install, preview, and activate themes.
- Editor (block themes): the Site Editor, where you design templates, headers, footers, and global styles.
- Customize (classic themes): live customizer for logo, colors, fonts, and layout.
- Menus and Widgets (classic themes): manage navigation menus and sidebar/footer widgets.
Plugins is where you add features:
- Installed Plugins: activate, deactivate, update, enable auto-updates, or delete.
- Add New Plugin: search the official repository or upload a premium plugin ZIP.
Keep plugins lean — our list of 15 essential WordPress plugins is a good baseline.
Users and roles
Users manages everyone who can log in:
- All Users: see accounts and roles.
- Add New User: invite team members.
- Profile: change your name, email, password, and admin color scheme.
Assign the lowest role needed: Administrators have full control; Editors manage all content; Authors publish their own posts; Contributors write but can’t publish; Subscribers can only manage their profile. Learn more in WordPress User Roles and Permissions Explained.
Tools includes import/export, Site Health, and privacy tools for handling personal data requests.
Settings you must review
The Settings menu contains options that affect your whole site. Review these once:
- General: site title, tagline, WordPress and site URLs (use
https://), admin email, time zone, date format, and site language. - Writing: default post category and format.
- Reading: choose whether the homepage shows latest posts or a static page; set the number of posts per page. Important: the “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” checkbox must be unchecked when your site goes live.
- Discussion: comment settings, moderation, and avatars.
- Media: default image sizes.
- Permalinks: choose Post name for clean, SEO-friendly URLs.
- Privacy: select your Privacy Policy page.
Plugins often add their own settings pages here or as new menu items in the sidebar.
FAQ
Why do I see different menus than someone else?
Menus depend on your user role, your theme type (block vs classic), and installed plugins.
Can I hide menus for clients?
Yes — give clients an Editor role or use an admin-menu customization plugin.
Further reading: official WordPress documentation
Key Takeaways: WordPress Dashboard
- Posts are for blog content; Pages are for static content.
- Appearance controls design; Plugins add features.
- Give users the lowest role they need.
- Review General, Reading, and Permalinks settings immediately — and make sure search engines aren’t blocked.