How to add pages in WordPress
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WordPress is one of the most popular applications for creating beautiful and functional websites. Part of its appeal is how effortlessly you can build web pages.
In this step-by-step guide, we will show you how to add a new page to your WordPress website and customize it.
When you do this, a blank page editor will open up, ready for you to start building your new content.
How to add a new page in WordPress
You can add a new page in the Pages section by pressing the Add New button or by selecting Add New from the expanded Pages menu on the left.
Depending on your website’s WordPress version, you will load either the Gutenberg Block editor (from WordPress 5.0 onward) or the Classic editor (all versions lower than WordPress 5.0). Even if your version is 5.0 or higher, you can still use the Classic editor by installing the eponymous plugin.
Apart from these native tools, you can use page builder plugins (such as Elementor) or themes (such as Divi).
They usually come with additional features like drag-and-drop builder but keep in mind that they are not native to WordPress. Occasionally, pages built with external editors may break due to conflicts with other parts of your website. Thus, we will focus on the conventional editors built in WordPress.
How to edit pages in WordPress
Hovering over one of the existing pages shows the actions you can perform on it.
- Edit – loads the page editor where you can modify the entire page – text, images, links, settings, etc.
- Quick Edit – opens a quick editor on the same screen. In this mode, you can edit only the page’s general settings – title, slug, publishing date, etc.
- Trash – unpublishes a page and moves it to the website’s trash bin.
- View – opens the page to view it as a visitor.
You can also sort the pages by status (published, draft, or trashed) or search for a specific page with the Search Pages bar.
How to create a new page with the Gutenberg Block editor
If you are a long-time WordPress user, you’ve probably noticed that the default page editor has drastically changed over the years. That’s because, since version 5.0, WordPress introduced a brand new editor overhauling the way you build pages called Gutenberg Block editor.
Each text paragraph, image, audio file, widget, or embedded content is treated as a separate media block. This approach provides great flexibility in customizing different parts of a page. You can easily change each block’s font, colors, alignment, or other settings without affecting the rest of the blocks.
Add a page title
Albeit a single line of text, the page title is essential and the first thing you should focus on when building a page. It is crucial for your page visibility as it grabs your audience’s attention and is first shown in search engines’ results. Thus, it must be catchy and relevant to the page’s content.
By default, the title field appears on top of the page area with the text Add Title. Simply click on it and start typing your unique title.
Add a block
A block is a section of the page visualizing various types of content. Clicking on the Toggle block inserter ( “+” sign) icon creates a new block area and opens a sidebar on the left.
In the Blocks sub-section, you can choose the available media types to insert in the new block.
The options are:
- Text – different formats of text. You can add a simple paragraph, new heading, list, table, and many more.
- Media – lets you insert a multimedia file in the block. It could be a single image, a gallery of images, an audio file, or various other media files.
- Design – different options for customizing the page’s layout like page breaks, spacing, rows, columns, etc.
- Widgets – provides tools extending the page’s functionality, such as calendar, archive menu, shortcodes, social icons, search bars, and others.
- Theme – inserts widgets native to the active theme, such as contact forms, navigation menus, post lists, etc.
- Embeds – аllows you to embed content from external sources such as social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.)
After adding the blocks, you can easily re-arrange their positions or change their settings.
Additionally, from the sub-section Patterns, you can select pre-designed templates of blocks to insert into your page. Subsequently, you can customize their design and text.
Page settings
On the right side of the editor’s screen, you can adjust the page’s various settings from the sub-section Page – URL slug, comments options, visibility, and others.
Status and visibility
The first section on the Page tab is Summary, where you can define the general settings – visibility, URL, and publishing date.
Who can see the new page
The menu Visibility determines who can see the page. There are three available options:
- Public – the page is visible to any visitor.
- Private – only administrators and editors can see the page.
- Password protected – the page requires a login and is visible only after the password and username are provided.
How to schedule the page publishing
By default, any new page is set to be published right away. However, you may wish to publish the page on a specific date. For instance, you are creating a marketing campaign page that must be published on the campaign’s start date.
The menu Publish lets you schedule the publishing date. If you wish to publish the page right away, you can leave the setting on Immediately. Otherwise, click on Immediately, which opens a calendar where you can select the publishing date. Your WordPress website will then automatically post the page at the scheduled time.
URL
Each page has a unique URL, also called permalink or slug. It is the address on which the page is visited and distinguishes it from the other pages. The page’s URL is created with a default name defined by the website’s general permalink settings, but you can customize the name from the section URL.
How to create landing pages in WordPress (Template)
Usually, all pages on a WordPress website have a similar look defined by the active theme’s preset design. However, you may run a campaign for which you want to create a landing page with a distinct web design. The traditional method in older WordPress versions uses landing page plugins, but with the Gutenberg editor, you can create page templates with different designs.
Thus, you can create a template for your website’s standard pages, another for customized landing pages, and others for pages with different purposes.
You can select one of the existing templates or create a new one from the menu Template.
Choose the page’s author
The following setting is called Author. It is a drop-down menu for registered users (excluding subscribers) on your WordPress website. From this menu, you can select which user is the page’s author.
Featured image
Featured images are thumbnails that visually represent the page. For example, the featured image appears when you share the page’s link on social media.
You can choose it from the section Featured image, then simply click on the field Set featured image. A new window will pop up where you can select one of the images in your WordPress Media gallery or upload an image from your computer.
Does the page allow comments (Discussion)
Comments are a great way to engage your audience, as they can lead to interesting discussions urging visitors to revisit the page more than once. You can easily enable comments on the new page from the Discussion section by checking the box for Allow comments.
How to set a parent page for the page (Page Attributes)
In Page Attributes section, you can assign a parent page to the new page. This is a great way of organizing your pages based on specific criteria.
Under the Parent page, click on the drop-down menu showing all published pages on your website that you can set as a parent page to the new page.
Block settings
The Block section opens a contextual menu displaying the settings specific to the type of the current block you are editing.
For example, if you edit a text block, the section will display options for color, size, and alignment of the text. However, if you edit an image file, the Block section will show options for the image’s resolution, borders, shape, alt text, etc.
How to create a new page with the Classic Editor
The Classic Editor is the legacy default editor replaced by Gutenberg since WordPress version 5.0. Although Gutenberg is much more flexible and feature-rich, some users find the Classic Editor’s simple and clean interface easier to use.
The Classic Editor is not native to later WordPress versions, you must install the Classic Editor plugin from the WordPress repository to use it. In your website’s dashboard, go to Plugins>Add New and type in the search bar classic editor.
The first result is the Classic Editor plugin which you can install by hitting the Install Now button.
How to add content to the page
Adding content in Classic Editor is pretty straightforward. Unlike Gutenberg, the entire page is treated as a single content block containing all text paragraphs and media. The Page Settings are pretty much identical to Gutenberg’s. They are positioned on the right side of the screen as well, and there are only minor differences in the presentation.
How to add a title
In Classic editor, the title has a separate field located above the page body. Simply click on the title field and add your custom title.
How to add text
The text is written in the large box below the title, which is the main area of the editor. This is where you insert all the page’s content – text, images, widgets, etc. At the top of the text box are the tools for formatting the text.
How to add media
To add an image or audio file to the page, place the cursor on the line where you want the media to appear. Then press the button Add Media. A new pop-up window will appear where you can select one of the uploaded files in your website’s gallery or upload a file from your computer.
How to preview a new page
Before publishing the page, you may want to preview how it appears live on your website. Regardless of the chosen editor, you can do that by using the Preview button in the top right corner. By clicking on it, the page loads, showing how the content appears for visitors.
How to save a draft
The page is not finished yet, and you need to leave it for the moment, but you don’t want to lose the new edits. That is not a problem in WordPress since you can save the progress anytime. When you go back to editing the page, you will pick up from where you left off.
Simply click on the Save draft button, and WordPress will save your new changes.
How to publish a page
Once you finish the page, it’s time to publish it. Clicking on the Publish button in the top right corner of either editor will make it accessible to visitors.
How to delete a page
Your website will change over time, and eventually, a page might contain outdated information you no longer need. You can move the page to your WordPress trash bin. It will stay there for 30 days giving you the option to restore it should you reconsider. After 30 days the trash bin will delete the page permanently.
You can delete the page from the Pages section in your WordPress dashboard. Hovering over a page will show the different actions you can perform on it. Delete the page by pressing on Trash.
Alternatively, you can delete the page from the page’s editor screen. From the Page settings section, click on the Move to trash button.
Summary
Nowadays, having a reliable system for publishing web pages is a must. WordPress is a great solution with various powerful tools allowing you to create beautiful, user-friendly pages with little effort.
This guide outlined the basics of adding a page and page-building with the built-in editors in WordPress. We hope it will help you create an awesome and successful website of your own.