Wordpress for Beginners 2017: A Visual Step-by-Step Guide to Mastering Wordpress

by Andy Williams

Master Wordpress using our step-by-step visual approach (over 250 screenshots). This book is a major new release for 2017, covering the latest version of Wordpress. Building a beautiful, professional looking Wordpress website, is no longer the domain of computer geeks. Wordpress makes it possible for anyone to create and run a website that looks great on any device - PC, Mac, tablet and phone, for hobby or business. The primary goal of this book is to take anyone, even an absolute beginner, from zero to Wordpress "guru" in a few short hours. I'll hold your hand, step-by-step, all the way. You get to watch over my shoulder as we explore the Wordpress Dashboard. Inside this book, veteran Wordpress expert Andy Williams will start at the very beginning. You'll learn important topics • The two different versions of Wordpress. • Website hosting and domain registrars. How to set this up with separate registrar and host, for more security. • How to install Wordpress. • An overview of the Dashboard including how to find hidden items. • Cleaning out the stuff that is installed by default. • Finding and installing Wordpress themes to instantly change the look and feel of your website. • Plugins. What they are and how you can use them to create magnificent websites. • How to update Wordpress, themes and plugins. • Every single Dashboard setting, what they do, and what you should use in the settings of your website. • How to find and use the RSS feeds on your site to help search engines find your content. • The importance of user profiles, and how to assign a "Gravatar" image to your email address. • How to create great navigation systems on your site, with custom menus, internal linking and related post sections. • Enabling and dealing with visitor comments. • Using the media library for images, video and more. • The difference between pages and posts, and a simple way to know which one you should be using for each bit of content you publish on your website. • Effective use of categories and tags. Using these incorrectly can get your site penalized or even banned from search engines. • How to write posts, and even schedule them so they will be published at some future date. • Using post revisions. • Two different types of homepage. A blog style page v a more traditional "static" homepage. • Using widgets on your site to add neat features. • This book does not focus on any particular Wordpress theme (website "skin"). Instead, it teaches you how to master Wordpress so you can choose and use any theme you like. You'll also be shown how to install and configure a few plugins • Automatically take database backups and email them to you on a schedule you choose. • Automatically create important legal pages on your site, like terms and privacy policy. • Help reduce the amount of comment spam your site receives. • Setup good SEO practices. • Setup social sharing buttons on your site, so visitors can easily tell their friends about your great web pages. Most people learn better when they can actually see what they are reading about, so one thing this book isn't, is shy about screenshots. There are over 250 of them, showing you exactly what you will see on your screen, and prompting you to take specific actions as you learn and master Wordpress.

Genres: Nonfiction, Technology

222 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 2, 2016

About the author

There is more than one author with this name
Dr. Andy Williams

After graduating from Hull University (North Humberside, UK), I went on to do a Ph.D. at Cardiff University where I studied endocrinology in fish. After working as a research associate at Cardiff University I decided I wanted to be a teacher, so went back to University (this time Birmingham) to study for a teaching certificate.

My first teaching job took me to Tenerife, Spain where I met my wife to be. After a spell of teaching in Madrid, we went back to Tenerife. Two kids later, we now live in North Wales.

On a day to day basis, I write "How To" books and courses related to websites, SEO and other topics of interest to anyone running a website.

Reviews

[Clare O'Beara · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't say this book helped me tremendously, because from the start what the author says is not to use the free online WordPress site - which is what my college wanted me to do. The author spends many of his pages telling you why you need to buy site hosting, what can happen if you don't, why you should not buy from the same place as you registered a domain name, how to set up your purchased site with a WP program you have downloaded to your computer, how to get rid of all the WP suggested content and widgets, why you won't see the content you install appear on the page (that's for later in the book) and so on.

I found a few items I could make use of right at the end of the book, which were about how to customise the appearance of the WP blog pages. A header photo and so on. I am sure this book would be helpful for anyone wanting to use WP the way the author recommends. Amusingly this book is on the must-read college library list for multimedia journalism yet almost none of it applies to the requirements.

Plenty of handy screenshot type illustrations. Of the own-hosted version. But some of them are not as claimed, for instance where the author says he is putting tiles of Union Jack flags in the background, all the page 81 shows is the text with white background. Essentially this book is a long advert for a product I don't need. Also it is not for the genuine beginner. On 104, the author recommends we look at a great plugin for securing the site against hackers. Then he says he won't go into that as people can get locked out of their own site and won't have anyone to ask for help. So - why recommend it? Ah, of course, it's because he has a separate course about WP security and gives a discount to readers of this book... why didn't I see that coming.

I borrowed this book from the Dublin Business School Library. This is an unbiased review.

[Ganesh Ramalingam · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book for newbies with step by step guidance!

A book with clear explanation and pictures to support the steps! A very useful book for all those looking to create a blog site!

[MG Stough · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very Useful

This is an excellent book. It contains a plethora of useful information. The tone of the writing is very personable. I highly recommend this book.

[Shagen Ganason]

Not a bad beginners guide. But a little basic.