Adding the First Pages to your WordPress Website
Yesterday, we added our first Plugin to our WordPress website, the All in one SEO Plugin. Today, we are going to add our first “page” to our new site! If you recall, several days ago I write a pretty basic explanation of the Differences between a WordPress Page, Category and Post. Our pages are going to be static pages that don’t often change, and remain constant throughout our website.
Planning the Pages for your Website
Before we start the planning, keep in mind that much of you do is pretty easily changed, or added onto, in the future. In other words, just because you are going to have an “About Page”on your WordPress website, and someday you may have additional editors on your blog, you don’t have to add those right now!
At this point in my site development, the actual market or niche is not that important to me, with the exception of what I want to offer my visitors! Lets take a look at what EVERY website should have, regardless of the market:
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Contact Page- Adding a way for visitors to contact you adds immediate credibility to not only yourself, but your site as well! This can be anything from a basic email address where visitors can send you email, to a more advanced form that submits targeted email messages to you. I tend to go with the form method due to the way I can control the message format and next week, I will share some plugins with you that take all the work out of the process!
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About Page – Your about page should not really be just about YOU, but more about you and your website. Its purpose, why it was started and what you intend to provide your visitors. In addition to the basics, share with your readers why they should choose you over the thousands of others in the same market! In most cases, this page is automatically created for you during the wordpress install process. We will simply edit this page.
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Privacy Page- Everyone has concerns about their privacy! Your privacy page can be commented out of your main menu with some basic code or plugin work, but it is a good idea to have one! Google, eBay and just about every affiliate network worth their salt requires you to tell your visitors how their information will be used on your site.
Aside from these three basic starter pages, you don’t have to add any others if you choose not to! It may not be good for your visitors… as they won’t be able to find anything, but your pages are based on what YOU want after this point!
Additional Pages you May Have on your Website
This is the point where your niche market or target visitors start to come into your page planning. You need to know what different types of content your visitors may expect to find on a site like yours! In my case, since the site is very focused on the Do it Yourself visitors, I want to include some sections that will make my site a good resource for them:
- Shopping Page – This section will actually lead to my store pages with Build a Niche Store loaded. Since my site helps people with choices in their projects, I should have a store that also shows them where to find the right deals on items used in the project reviews.
- Resource Directory – Since there is literally no way I could cover every type of DIY project, I want to have a resource directory where other websites can submit their information to me, I will review their websites and see if it is a good fit for my visitors. If so, I will post it within the resource section.
- e-Books- Since I mentioned early on that I hope to write at least one new e-book every quarter, I want to have a single place to list a summary of each book, as well as a link on how to download it. In the end, I will create a separate sub-page or child page for each of these ebooks. This page will be added immediately on my site, even though the first book will not be available right away.
- User Forums- Since my new WordPress website is going to involve my experience on different projects, I also want to have a way where niche experts can post followup and help others in a user to user type format. Although forums DO take away some of your control of the website discussion, they are very popular and will feed you more ways to write your own content! I will not immediately add the forums to the site, but will add the page and simply mark it as inactive for the time being.
The 7 pages listed above are just my initial starting point for my new WordPress website. I have the ability to add new pages anytime due to the platform flexibility.
So Lets Create out First Page
There are a few different ways to get to your pages menu within WordPress. I am going to outline one specific way, so you get used to the Menu and Submenu system. If you prefer to watch the video, Click here : Video Length - 6:53
1 – Login to your WordPress administration and from the dashboard, choose “Write” from the MAIN menu.
2 – After you click on Write, a SUBMENU will appear, Choose “Page” from the SUBMENU:
At this point, please watch the short video on the explanation of the different page fields as well as a brief overview on how to complete your first WordPress page.
Add WordPress Page Video - Length, 6:53
Do you have any tips for adding pages or suggest any pages that EVERY website should contain? If so, please share by commenting below.
Previously Published Articles You May Like to Read:
- Using Popshops to add Full Product Pages to your WordPress Website
- Build a Niche Store Empire – Adding your Product of Subcategory Pages
- Adding your First Plugin to WordPress
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I have been doing my part to "Build the Internet" since 1994, when I built my first website! Since then, I have built hundreds of niche websites for myself and many others, focused on design, applications, ecommerce, search optimization and internet marketing.
Mark, if a “Shopping Page” or “Store Page” is created. How do you make the seamless transition when you click on that page and it takes you directly to the BANS side?
Or for that matter, how do you create a “Shopping Page” and have it take you to “any” type product page, such as Popshops etc etc…
Thanks for the info!
Mark
Excellent info and video as always. Even when I think I know it all, You surprise me and come out with something I never thought about.
You are brilliant like always, nice to have you around.
I like the resources page idea. It will work well on the new site I am developing along with this series from Mark.
Mark recently went over how to make a tab that when clicked on goes right to your store but I can’t find the actual post right now. If I remember correctly you need to make a page titled the same as the folder your store is in. I already have it up and running on my new site.
Anyone else remember where the info JeffLeft needs is?
@ All -
In order to redirect a WP “Page” directly to your store folder:
1 – MAKE SURE you have the permalink structure set first!
2 – Create a new page, name it Shop, Buy, Store, whatever you want.
3 – Save the new page with no content.
4 – Edit the page permalink, to point to the directory you installed BANS, and click Save on permalink.
5 – Click save on PAGE to make it permaenant.
Mark
THANK YOU!!!!!
@Mark
Thanks for the post – I thought I’d know everything in here but I found I learned a think or 2 I didn’t know!
RE: ebooks… I just thought of an ebook I could crank out right NOW! But I’ve never written one, and wondered if you use or can recommend any of those ebook writing packages – I really need more of a template on how the thing ought to be formatted. I’ve seen lots advertised but figured you know of a good (and cheap) one to use.
RE: forums… once you decide you need one, is there a plugin you use for this?
This doesn’t work for me.
I cannot add a / to my permalink…it always deletes it.
@ Bill –
You shouldnt have to add the / at the end of the link, WP usually adds it itself.
If the url is mydomain .com/shop/
You should just change the permalink to “shop”, and WP does the rest.
@ Alice –
I honestly dont know girl!! I have seen hundreds of them, but have just started my own in MS Word and will print it to a pdf with my pdf generator.
I realize I will likely NEED one, but never used any before.
Mark
I’ve actually written a couple ebooks myself. Basically, I did what Mark has done…written it using MS Word and then converted it to a PDF file by using a program.
The program I use is called DocuDESK and it works great! I think it was around $30 for the program. Super easy to use.
Eric
Mark….if you can get one to work on the site you know I am working on right now then I’d be forever grateful. It just doesn’t work….the store pages add the extra /store in there so you need an extra slash that I see.
I must be missing something simple.
@Eric,
What does DocuDesk do besides save to pdf? You can get free utilities that do that – had one on my now-defunct computer that worked like a printer selection.
I use pdf995 – But I know there are other free options out there as well.
PDF995 is Free as long as you dont mind one single ad each time you pront, otherwise, its 9.95.
Alice
Here is a list of DeskPDF’s features….
http://www.docudesk.com/desk_pdf_professional.shtml
I know there are free ones out there, but I liked all the stuff you could do with this one. Plus, the security features were something that was important to me. (disable printing, modifying etc)
Eric
Mark Said:
@ All -
In order to redirect a WP “Page” directly to your store folder:
1 – MAKE SURE you have the permalink structure set first!
2 – Create a new page, name it Shop, Buy, Store, whatever you want.
3 – Save the new page with no content.
4 – Edit the page permalink, to point to the directory you installed BANS, and click Save on permalink.
5 – Click save on PAGE to make it permaenant.
Mark
@ Mark, when i go to edit the permalink, it has a default mysite.com/blog and i can’t back up past the blog folder. Would i have to change the permalink structure for the entire blog to be able to use the root?
Since i’m trying to link to a content page that was previously setup with BANS in the root, will i have to go another route or am i missing something? as usual!!!!! HA!
Don’t know if its been covered, but for Marks method of renaming your Permalink, you firstly need to customise your permalink naming protocol
In WP Admin go to Settings -Permalinks, then under Common Settings select Custom Structure & change to %postname% – this will change how the permalinks are displayed, ie displayed as domain_name/blog_title, rather than domain_name/page_007 (for example) this is also good for SEO AND us mere mortals.
Next edit newly created blank page permalink by selecting Manage-Pages then select to view the blank page, once the particular blank page is being viewed then select the edit link for the permalink (just under the page title) then rename the permalink from domain_name/blank_page to domain_name/shop (store, buy or whatever you have named the sub-directory you have put your BANS in)
Works for me.
Sorry if this has already been covered, just trying to help Mark clarify as there are a lot of questions on this topic
@ Jeff and Steve -
Steve, thanks for the help on this.. that is the exact thing that needs to be done first.
@ Jeff – It almost sounds like you have your blog in a blog/ folder, versus on the site root. The redirection only works with the blog on the root. If you have BANS on the root, it is already the homepage.
Mark
OK Mark,
This may really sound dumb, but I don’t really understand permalinks – what they really are and what they do.
I see where to “change” the “permalink” in WP admin, but I don’t know what really happens or is supposed to happen when I “change” it.
Do you have an explanation somewhere for someone who thinks you are speaking Greek when you talk about permalinks. The above discussion went Way over my head.
Yael
A permalink is basically just a full URL (WEB address) of a specific page within a website ie domain_name/contact_us would be the particular contact page of that particular website.
Changing the protocol to %postname% shows the page name as the title of that particular page, which means that people and Google know exactly what that page is about just from the permalink (full page URL)
and
if your page & title have been optimised for a particular keyword then having the permalink as the title of that page is also good for SEO as it will be another relevant instance of your keyword
So if i’ve been running a blog, and had already set the permalink to Month/Name and i change it to %postname% then i’ll get 404′s for all the previous posts? Correct?
Thanks!
@ All -
By default, the permalink in WP is:
“yourwebsite.com/?p=16″
What that means is pull up entry #16 in the WP database. It can be a page, post, or category.
When you set a friendly url structure, you are telling the apache mod rewrite function of the hosting server, to convert the ugly url above, into something much nicer and easier to understand.
Ex: yourwebsite.com/this-page-is-about-that-stuff
@ Jeff asked about changing the permalink structure afetr the site is established. There are plugins to atomatically create 301′s if you decide to change the permalink. (Redirect plugin)
On this site, I use the %postname%.htm for my permalink structure and have had very few problems. WordPress recommends against using this type of postname only structure as it will break your stylesheet and other “include” file paths in some instances.
WP Suggests a name and numeric structure.
Ex: yourwebsite.com/month/postname
Mark
@ Steve,
While trying to keep up with Mark’s posts (such a prolific writer and great teacher!) I’ve just checked your Seiko site (www.seikoheaven.co.uk) and I’d like to know how did you include 2 BANS stores (1 for the UK and 1 for the US): did you create a directory for each in the WP tree structure and a corresponding page to point to each of the stores?
Thanks
FYI: I was looking around your DIYReviews site, and when I clicked on the link on your contact page that should take me to the Privacy Policy page, it did not work.
The link was http://www.diyreviews.net/privacy/ and it appears it should be http://www.diyreviews.net/about/privacy/
I didn’t check all links, only the first one I came to.
Hope this helps.
@ John –
Thank you for the find!! I just set a redirect in the admin!
M
Is there a way to rename an existing page? I also have the shopping page as the primary page. and is titled HOME. I want a static home page that I have created and rename the product page.
Can I do that in wordpres.org?
Thanks for the help
Teresa Cuervo
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