How to customize your WordPress blog!
Alright, you’ve built your stunning blog, It’s time to customize your blog.
If you don’t have a blog already, and you wonder how to create one, Click on How To Start a Blog in 2021.
In this guide, I’ll show you how to customize your blog step by step.
Customization can, in a way, be a representation of yourself. Make your WordPress blog stand out. Sometimes more is less, so try not to exaggerate in design. WordPress is an incredibly powerful tool.
Watch out for readability! Beware of font, size, colors and spacing between lines. Colors of text and background can easily blend and become unreadable if you don’t pay attention. Make sure to use “Preview” option to see your post through visitor’s eyes. Making your links in a different fun color can only add to your blog charisma.
Now let me show how to customize your blog.
Go to your Dashboard > Appearance > Customize :
Now click on “Site Identity”
Here you can add:
Site Title (name of your blog that appear in every page),
Logo for your site (a small picture, appear in your header),
Tagline : short text which serves to clarify a thought for your blog,
Site Icon : an icon appears in browser tab for all your blog pages,
Colors & Dark Mode : Here you can choose your blog colors, like font color, links color..etc
Also Twenty Twenty-One Theme supports dark mode. Not all themes support it and each theme got it’s own options.
Background Image : this option allows you to add a background for your blog.
Customization includes adding a navigation menu, categories, custom pages.
First let me explain what are these.
Category :
Category is a general method of a grouping and arranging content of your blog. It helps your visitors navigate through the blog faster. For example, your blog is talking about food opinions and recipes. You don’t want your visitor to be confused if they wanted a specific post to read about an opinion not a recipe, so you make a category for opinions and one for recipes.
Costum pages :
Costum pages allow you to create your own page and sort them as you like.
Navigation menu :
Navigation menu is a list of links pointing or navigating users to important pages of your blog, such as posts, category, page or even an external link.
Let’s start!
How to create a category
Go back to your blog dashboard. From the left side navigation, hover on Appearance > Categories.
- Name : Name of your category.
- Slug : Which is your category name that appears in your URL (e.g. https://yourdomain.com/YourCategory
If you add spaces (e.g. My First Category) will be automatically converted to dashes (e.g. Yourdomain.com/my-first-category/) - Description : It’s optional to describe or add short text to tell your visitors about this category.
Now click “Add New Category“.
How to create a custom page.
Go back to your blog dashboard. From the left side navigation, hover on Pages > Add New.
Once you click on “Add New” you will be redirected to block editor. as you see in the picture below, we’re going to create “About me” page.
Don’t forget to click Publish.
How to create a menu :
Menus in WordPress is one of the best options to customize your blog.
Go back to your blog dashboard. From the left side navigation, hover on Appearance > Menus
Write your menu name. Then click “Create Menu“.
You can check these options if you want. I recommend leaving it unchecked because some themes have more options, it may not support it.
“Automatically add new top-level pages to this menu”
Every time you publish a page, it’s going to add to this menu.
“Primary menu”
You can choose the location of the menu by checking this option to add it in your header menu (top of your blog pages).
“Secondary Menu”
Same as Primary menu but instead usually it goes at bottom of your blog pages.
Like I said before, some themes may not support this option.
Now we need to add some items inside this menu.
Check Which Page, Category, Posts or Custom Links to add to your menu.
Click on “Categories” to expand it and add your new category to your menu.
If you can’t find it, please click on “View all” to show you all the categories you’ve created.
You can change the order of the items by dragging it into the order you prefer. You can make it submenu.
Once you finish it, don’t forget to save it!
Click “Save Menu”.
Now let’s go back to customize your blog. Go back to your dashboard, from the left side navigation, hover on “Appearance > Customize”.
Click “Menus”
You will see the menu you just created.
Check “Primary Menu (Current: YourMenuName)”
As you see, your menu at the top right if your page.
Widgets
Widgets are blocks you can add to your blog. Such as sidebar or content to your footer or even ads. Amazing way to customize your blog!
Every theme has its own options and blocks it, you can add plugins to get more useful widgets.
Check WordPress website to download awesome widgets
Homepage Settings
Here you can change whether you like that your homepage shows the latest posts you have or a fixed page appears when your visitors visit your website.
Excerpt Settings
You can choose to show full text or summary of your post in your homepage.
Additional CSS
This option for advanced customization if you know CSS.
This is a simple guide to customize your blog, if you’ve any questions, please leave a comment or contact me.
P.S. Happy posting ⌨
