WordPress is one of the most popular content management systems (CMS) for bloggers and website owners. With a user-friendly interface and a vast range of plugins and themes, WordPress can be customized according to the blogger's needs.

However, many bloggers might find it challenging to navigate WordPress's various tools and features. In this article, we aim to teach bloggers how to use WordPress and its various tools, such as Yoast, Edit Flow, Jetpack, Extra Theme Review Box, and Autoptimize, to enhance their blogging experience and improve their website's performance.

Log in to TravelUpdate at https://travelupdate.com/wp-admin

Your credentials (username and password) will be emailed to you. If you do not receive this email, reach out to help@boardingarea.com to request your credentials be resent.

When you log in, you will be taken to your Dashboard.

Your Dashboard is the homepage of the backend of your blog. You can add, remove, and rearrange widgets on your Dashboard. Click on Screen Options in the top right corner to add or remove widgets.

You can make each widget larger or smaller by clicking on its title bar. If you want to move a widget, hover your mouse cursor over the widget's title bar. When the cursor transforms into four arrows, click and hold down the left mouse button, drag the widget to your desired location, and release the mouse button. This action is known as drag and drop.

We think the most helpful widgets are Yoast SEO Posts Overview, Quick Draft, Notepad, and Jetpack Stats.

The QuickDraft tool enables you to create a new draft swiftly and with minimal effort. Just input a title for your post, upload or insert any media you want to include, write your post's content, add relevant tags, and then click either the Publish button or the Save Draft button. That's all there is to it!

Yoast SEO is a WordPress plugin that helps bloggers optimize their website's content for search engines. It analyzes your content and provides suggestions for improving its SEO quality and readability. It also allows you to configure settings for how your content functions in Google and social media. It's essential for new bloggers to learn how to use Yoast SEO because it can help improve their website's search engine ranking, drive more traffic to their site, and increase the visibility of their content on social media platforms. In other words, it's a powerful tool that can help bloggers reach a broader audience and grow their website's traffic.

The Yoast SEO dashboard widget has two main features. Firstly, it displays SEO scores for your posts in the meta box. This feature allows you to quickly identify which posts require SEO improvement. By clicking on the text behind the colored bullets, you can access a list of posts with the same SEO score. Additionally, the gray bullet collects posts that don't have a focus keyphrase yet. Secondly, if you've activated the Wincher integration, the widget displays the top-performing keyphrases on your site along with their search result ranking. Finally, the widget displays the most recent blog posts from yoast.com at the bottom of the meta box.

Read more on The Yoast SEO Dashboard Widget article.

Jetpack is a WordPress plugin that offers a suite of features to help bloggers enhance their website's functionality and security. It includes features like website backups, spam protection, social media sharing, site stats, and much more. It's important for new bloggers to learn how to use Jetpack because it can help streamline their website's management, keep it secure, and improve the user experience for their visitors. It's an all-in-one plugin that can help bloggers save time and effort by providing all the necessary tools in one place. Overall, Jetpack is an essential plugin for bloggers who want to take their website to the next level and ensure it is secure, fast, and reliable.

You will need to sign into Jetpack, so you can see your site's stats. You can do this by:

Once you have signed into Jetpack, you'll see your site's statistics on the Dashboard.

Learn more about the statistics you can see in the Jetpack Stats and Insights article.

You will also need to connect the social accounts that you plan to actively use to promote your blog to Jetpack if you would like to utilize Jetpack's auto-posting. You will need to select Settings in the Dashboard menu on the left. Then Select Jetpack Social Settings.

Click Connect next to the social media accounts you will be using auto-posting for, enter your credentials, and follow the prompts to connect the social media accounts.

Read more on the Jetpack site about Jetpack Social, Connecting to Social Networks, Auto-Sharing Posts, Facebook, and Twitter.

BoardingArea staff can use the view-only notepad widget on the dashboard to leave instructions, important announcements, etc. for every user.

You will need to set up your profile by adding a picture, choosing a public name, adding your social links, and adding a blurb about your blog.

You can access your profile in two places: by hovering over your name in the top right corner and selecting edit profile or by selecting Profile in the Dashboard menu.

You will need to fill out the following sections:

Once you have completed the changes you want to implement, select Update Profile at the bottom of the page.

Your Display Name, Social Links, Biographical Info, and Profile Picture will be displayed on your blog's About section and on the Our Bloggers page.

Now that you have your Dashboard configured, your Profile set up, and Jetpack connected, it is time to write your first post!

Select Posts and the Select Add New. Once you have added a post, it will appear in the list. You will see lots of organizational tools and Yoast data is provided to help you understand each post's performance.

When you select Add New, you will be taken to the WordPress editor. This is where you will write and edit your posts. You will see widgets surrounding the area where you write and edit your post. The Publish widget is where you will see data from Yoast and Jetpack about your post and be able to Publish your post, Preview what your post will look like on your blog, or Save a draft of your post.

The Paragraph and Heading drop-down list allows bloggers to format text by selecting different heading levels or paragraph styles. The Bold, Italic, and Underline buttons allow you to add emphasis to text. Bullet and Numbered lists allow you to organize content into lists. The Quote tool creates an indented blockquote. The left, center, and right justify buttons align text in different ways. The Insert read more tag tool breaks up the content on the blog page so that only a summary appears with a “read more” link. Strikethrough, horizontal lines, and text color allow for additional text formatting options. Paste as Text and Clear formatting help to clean up text copied from other sources. The Special character tool lets you insert symbols or special characters. The decrease and increase indent tools adjust the level of indention in a list. The Undo and Redo buttons allow you to undo or redo an action. The keyboard shortcuts let you use keyboard commands to complete tasks. Finally, the Superscript and Subscript tools format text to be raised or lowered above or below the baseline.

The Insert link tool lets you add links to other pages or sites. The Select part of the text and ask readers for Feedback tool creates a text box where readers can leave comments. The Insert poll tool lets bloggers create polls for readers to participate in. The Insert TablePress table tool lets you insert a table created with the TablePress plugin. The Add contact form tool lets you create a contact form. The Insert Bloom Opt-In, Inline Opt-In, and Travel Update Mailchimp Page tool insert forms for readers to subscribe to email lists.

The Add Media button on the WordPress Classic post editor is a tool that allows bloggers to add images, videos, and audio to their posts. When clicked, it opens up a window where bloggers can choose to upload files from their computer or select files from their Media Library. Bloggers can also use the Create Gallery, Create audio playlist, and Create video playlist options to create multimedia galleries and playlists for their posts. The Featured image option allows bloggers to select an image that represents their post, while the Remote library and Insert from URL options allow bloggers to insert media from external sources.

When adding media, it is important to fill in the alt text, title, caption, and description fields with relevant information that accurately describes the media and its relation to the post. For example, if using a woman's headshot on a boat with the ocean sunset in the background, the appropriate text for the alt text could be "Woman enjoying the sunset on a boat," while the title could be "Boat sunset headshot." The caption and description fields can provide additional information about the image, such as the location and purpose of the photo.

The attachment display settings for media, such as alignment, link to, and size, can also be adjusted to optimize the media's appearance and function in the post. For example, bloggers can choose to align an image to the left or right of the text, link the image to a specific URL, and adjust the size of the media to fit the layout of the post.

By utilizing the Add Media button and filling in the relevant fields and settings, bloggers can enhance their posts with visually appealing and informative media that improve their SEO and engagement with their audience.

Categories map your post to the BoardingArea homepage feed (more info). Tags are optional.

Categories and tags serve similar purposes by organizing content in various ways. However, there are a few distinctions between the two. Categories are better suited for grouping broad topics, such as Books, Films, or TV, while tags are more specific and used to associate related content, such as science fiction or horror, or action adventure. You can use both to categorize your content efficiently. For example, when writing a review for a romantic comedy, you can assign the broader category of Film to the post and use more specific tags such as romantic comedy, the names of actors and directors, or any other relevant information. This enables readers to find related posts easily by using specific tags.

Read more about Categories vs. Tags.

The Yoast SEO meta box is where you'll interact with the plugin the most on a daily basis. The meta box helps you by analyzing your content's SEO quality and readability while also allowing you to configure settings for how your content functions in Google and social media. The meta box appears underneath the WordPress editor, and it includes three main tabs: SEO, Readability, and Social.

The SEO tab analyzes how well-optimized your content is for search engines. The content optimization tab includes the Focus keyphrase section, where you can input a keyword and Yoast SEO will analyze your content's optimization for that specific keyword. Additionally, you can edit the Google preview manually by adjusting your SEO title and Meta description. The SEO analysis section evaluates your content in SEO terms, including areas for improvement such as image alt attributes, meta description, outbound links, keyword distribution, and more.

The Readability tab gauges how readable your content will be to human visitors and provides suggestions for improving your content's readability. Yoast SEO prefers content that uses active voice, subheadings to break up the text, and short paragraphs and sentences. The tab includes a green, orange, or red light at the top of your screen, giving you a quick view of your readability score and SEO analysis.

Lastly, the Social tab allows you to manually configure how your content will appear when shared on Facebook or Twitter. Although Yoast SEO automatically generates the information based on your SEO title and content's featured image, you can override those defaults in this tab.

Yoast is a wonderful tool to learn how to use if you want to master SEO. Learn more about how to use Yoast in The Beginner's Guide to Yoast. Yoast also has a collection of 16 Must-Reads for Higher Rankings and Free SEO Training for Beginners that are worth checking out.

A WordPress excerpt is a brief overview of a longer article that is often used as a substitute on the blog index and archive pages. It is used to avoid displaying the full content of each post, which would result in an unmanageable wall of text for readers. Displaying the full content of multiple posts that are 1,000 words each on listing pages could make the page unnecessarily lengthy, difficult to navigate, and overwhelming for readers. By using an excerpt, readers can quickly get an idea of the content of the post and decide whether or not to click through to read the full article. Overall, excerpts help to streamline the reading experience and improve user engagement on a website.

You can read more about this widget in the article titled What is an Excerpt?

This widget is used to post advertising or affiliate deal disclosures in posts. Adding a disclosure to posts about making money from advertisers or affiliates is a good idea for new bloggers as it helps to establish trust with readers. Disclosing any potential conflicts of interest helps readers understand that the blogger is being transparent about their sources of income and is not trying to deceive or mislead them. It also helps bloggers to comply with legal requirements for disclosing sponsored content, and it can improve the credibility and reputation of their blog. Overall, adding a disclosure to posts about making money from advertisers or affiliates is a simple yet effective way to build trust with readers and maintain the integrity of the blogging community.

WordPress custom fields are a feature that allows users to add extra data or metadata to posts, pages, or custom post types. This information can be used by the theme or plugins to create customized content layouts or functionality. However, as an author, it is not recommended to use custom fields as it can interfere with the theme's design and functionality. Custom fields are typically used by developers who have a good understanding of how to work with them and integrate them into a theme or plugin. Using custom fields without proper knowledge and understanding of how they work can cause errors and conflicts with the theme's design, and it can be challenging to troubleshoot these issues. Therefore, it is advisable for bloggers to avoid using custom fields and focus on creating content using the theme's default features and functionality.

PublishPress Planner is a WordPress plugin that helps bloggers and site owners streamline their editorial workflow. It includes various features such as a calendar, custom statuses, notifications, and more to help manage content production and publication.

With PublishPress Planner's Request Review feature, bloggers can send specific posts to BoardingArea team members for review and feedback. Using PublishPress Planner to request reviews can help new bloggers improve their editorial workflow, ensure that content is of high quality, and maintain consistency across their posts.

The Editorial Comments and Editorial Metadata post widgets are two of the features provided by PublishPress Planner.

The Editorial Comments widget allows editors to leave private comments on posts to discuss and provide feedback to authors and other editors.

The Editorial Metadata widget, on the other hand, allows editors to add custom fields and data to posts to help manage the editorial workflow.

The Ratings and Reviews widget in Extra Theme would be useful for travel bloggers who write about hotels, restaurants, and other travel-related products. By using this widget, travel bloggers can display ratings and reviews of various travel products, providing their readers with valuable insights into the quality and reputation of these products.

The Ratings and Reviews widget is customizable, allowing travel bloggers to adjust its design and layout to match their website's overall look and feel. With this widget, travel bloggers can help their readers make informed decisions about where to stay, eat, and explore, improving their overall travel experience.

Learn more about this widget in the Ratings & Reviews In Extra article.

WordPress Post Formats is a feature that allows bloggers to define how specific types of content are displayed on their websites. Post Formats are essentially a way to add structure and consistency to content and make it easier for readers to navigate and consume. There are several Post Format types available in WordPress, including Standard, Video, Audio, Quote, Gallery, Link, and Map formats.

By using Post Formats, bloggers can add variety to their content and make it more engaging and visually appealing for their readers.

Autoptimize is a WordPress plugin that optimizes your website's performance by minimizing and caching your website's HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files. This plugin is useful for bloggers who want to improve their website's loading time, as faster-loading websites tend to have better search engine rankings and a better user experience.

When it comes to the Post widget in the Autoptimize plugin, it is recommended to leave all of the boxes checked. This is because each box represents a different optimization feature, such as optimizing your website's HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files. By leaving all of the boxes checked, you will ensure that your website's performance is optimized to the fullest extent.

The Extra Settings widget on the WordPress Classic post editor is a section that allows bloggers to make additional adjustments to their posts.

One of the options available in this widget is the ability to change the location of the sidebar or choose the sidebar/widget area for the post. This option is useful for bloggers who want to create a specific layout for their posts, such as having a full-width post without a sidebar or having a different sidebar for different posts.

Additionally, bloggers can also use the Extra Settings widget to choose whether to feature a post, hide the author box, show related posts, hide the title and meta on the post, or hide the featured image on the post. These options can be useful in situations where bloggers want to emphasize or de-emphasize certain elements of their post, such as hiding the featured image for a post that has no visual content or featuring a post that is particularly important or timely.

The Featured Image widget on the WordPress Classic post editor is a section that allows bloggers to select a specific image that represents their post. Setting a featured image is important because it provides visual interest and context for the post, and it also helps with search engine optimization by making the post more visually appealing and shareable on social media.

When selecting a featured image, it is important to fill in the alt text, title, caption, and description fields with relevant information that accurately describes the image and its relation to the post. The alt text is used by search engines to understand the image and its context, while the title, caption, and description fields provide additional information for readers and search engines.

By using the Featured Image widget and filling in these fields with relevant information, bloggers can improve their post's visual appeal and search engine optimization, leading to increased traffic and engagement on their websites.

Media is where you can manage all of the media files (images, videos, audio) uploaded to your website. You can use it to upload new files, organize them into folders, edit metadata, and view usage statistics.

Comments are where you can manage comments on your blog posts. You can approve or delete comments, reply to comments, and mark comments as spam. You can also configure settings for how comments are displayed and how they are moderated.

Projects are a feature of the Extra theme installed on TravelUpdate. This feature allows you to organize your posts into groups, such as portfolios or case studies. You can create new projects, add posts to them, and display them on your site using shortcodes or widgets.

TablePress is a plugin that allows you to create and manage tables in WordPress. You can use it to create tables with data, such as pricing tables or comparison charts. You can also format tables with custom CSS, add sorting and filtering functionality, and import/export tables.

The Gallery is where you can create and manage image galleries in WordPress. You can use it to upload images, organize them into galleries, and display them on your site using shortcodes or widgets. You can also configure settings for how the galleries are displayed, such as the number of columns and the size of the images.

WordPress is a popular content management system for bloggers and website owners. In this article, we have discussed various tools and plugins available on WordPress to enhance bloggers' experience.

By learning how to use these tools, bloggers can improve their website's SEO, enhance their content's readability, streamline their editorial workflow, and boost their website's overall performance.