Navigating the admin area

This is a brief overview of the WordPress admin area, highlighting the most common things you’ll need to do to make changes to your website. For more detailed information on how to use these tabs, see our Knowledge Base.

Note: Your view of the tabs may vary slightly from what we describe. Every site build is unique, and sometimes options are added or removed based on your website’s features and functionalities. You can always reach out to us if you have concerns about missing items or if you need help understanding your admin area.

Dashboard page

When you first log in, you’ll likely land on the dashboard page. This is a simple page that may display a welcome by WordPress or something else. You can dismiss these items or change what shows up on this page by clicking Screen Options at the top right of the page.

We always leave a widget here to remind you of our support options in case you get stuck and need to reach out for help.

Posts tab

If your website has a blog or utilizes posts for things like resources, insights, etc., this is where they will be managed. 

Media tab

This is where you’ll upload images, files, and links to your website so that they can be used in blog posts or on pages of your website. 

Note: The Knowledge Base has more detailed information about managing your media library. 

Featured Images tab

When we set up your website, we will use this space to define featured images that will be used as defaults when someone shares your website via an app like Facebook that includes some kind of image as part of the preview. 

Forms tab

This is where Gravity Forms lives in your admin space. You can go to this tab to make changes to the forms that appear on your website or to view the entries of any submitted forms. 

Note: We’ll have more tutorials on how Gravity Forms works and how to leverage it for your website, so keep an eye on our Knowledge Base.

Pages tab

All the pages that exist on your website will be found in the Pages tab. You’ll be able to edit those pages with Elementor through this tab, or you can make changes to the settings for those pages, such as:

  • Changing the URL
  • Adjusting SEO settings
  • Excluding a page from search results
  • Change the featured image for a page

Comments tab

This tab will only be enabled if you have a blog with comments or a WooCommerce store with reviews. You’ll be able to see all the comments and manage them if needed.

Elementor tab

Note: We don’t recommend you open this tab or make any changes unless you are certain of the changes you want to make. These settings have been carefully defined during our setup of your site.

In this tab, you’ll be able to add integrations and more. There are more tutorials coming or already published for these items, but we don’t recommend making any changes that you aren’t certain of.

Templates tab

There are two views available in this area: Elementor’s view and WordPress’ table view, but both versions will show you the same thing. You’ll be able to see the different templates that are on your site, as well as your popups.

If you click on Theme Builder under Templates on the sidebar, you’ll see a different view of these components (global header, global footer, search results, 404, etc.). You can click on Switch to table view to get back to WordPress’ default display.

Appearance tab

🚨 Caution: We suggest staying out of this tab, for the most part. Unless you have set up a staging site and have a plan for making changes on your own, don’t utilize this area.

Themes are found under this tab. We carefully set up your child theme when we built your site, so you likely won’t want to make any changes here.

Plugins tab

This is where your plugins will be managed. This area is covered in another video. 

Users tab

This is where users can be managed. This area is covered in another video.

Tools tab

🚨 Caution: We recommend staying out of this tab as these items are sensitive and require knowledge to use and change. 

The only item you may need from this tab is the CDN Cache Purge, which can also be found in the top toolbar. We recommend using the toolbar rather than the Tools tab. In the toolbar, hover over CDN Cache and click Purge Everything. This will be used when you have made changes and need them to propagate across the entirety of your website. 

Settings tab

This tab is where you will find things like:

  • Permalinks
  • Your website’s name
  • Your tagline
  • Time settings

We have carefully set these items when we built your website, so you likely won’t need to change any of them. However, there is one area that can be useful, and that is Search Exclude. This is where you can see the pages of your site that are excluded from the search feature on your site (note: these are not pages excluded from a Google search, only a search run using the toolbar on your website).

SEO tab

This will vary by site, but every site will have some version of an SEO tab. We will have set this up during your site build, but you can use it to manage your SEO settings. Things you may want to explore and change in this tab include:

  • Redirects
  • Advanced settings for social media

Note: The Knowledge Base will have more information on how to use this section and dive deeper into your SEO.

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