In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to log into your WordPress Dashboard. What’s WordPress dashboard? You may wonder. WordPress dashboard, also known as WordPress admin panel, is basically a place behind your “front-end” website – that’s why some refer to it as WordPress “back-end” or admin, where you can manage your entire website’s content, functionality and much more:
You can create new content and publish it.
You can edit, update and delete your existing content.
For more advanced users, you can even create new functions (by installing plugins), manage users, set a new theme (design) for your website and much more under your WordPress dashboard.
In short, WordPress dashboard is like a headquarter of your website.
Log into Your WordPress Dashboard:
You can log into WordPress Dashboard by following these simple steps:
1. Type or copy your WordPress dashboard URL into your browser’s address bar and click enter: http://www.YourSiteName.com/wp-admin/
You can change the “wp-admin” word of your WordPress dashboard URL to something else that you prefer, but let’s first stick to this for now.
This should bring you to this login screen.
2. Copy & paste your username and password from the Quick Install page (or email) into this login screen and click “Log In”.
If you enter your username and password correctly, you should be able to log in into your WordPress “dashboard” successfully and see this screen:
If you do, Congratulations! You did it. Now you’re already inside your WordPress dashboard or admin panel!
Update Your Profile
If you’re logged in for the first time, I recommend that you update your profile as the first thing you do inside your WordPress dashboard. This includes creating your nickname, then setting it to your display name and possibly changing your password as well.
To update your profile, make sure you’re already logged in to your WordPress “Dashboard”.
1. On the left-hand side, in the menu (near the bottom) – you want to mouse over on “Users” then click on “Your Profile”.
Or alternatively, you need to click on “Users” then “Edit” under your WordPress username on the new screen
2. Now under your “User Profile” page, create your nickname and set it to your display name. You may want to change your password under “Account Management” section too.
3. Once you’re done, click “Update Profile”
Now that you have successfully updated your profile information.
What Kind of Passwords should You Use?
It’s interesting when it comes to setting passwords as there are many suggestions and ideas:
- Some recommend you to set a strong password, write it down somewhere so that your website is secure.
- Other suggest you should never write down your password and that you should set your password to something you will actually remember.
My personal suggestion when it comes to password setting is to make sure it satisfies these 2 requirements. First of all, you have to always set a strong password – a password that no one on this Earth including robots, machines, let alone your friends or relative, could ever be able to guess, for all your logins – be it your email, website or bank accounts. Second, you want to set a unique password for each application and website. Why? Because if you accidentally lose one password, you don’t need to worry about others. I’ve seen many people who set the same and only one password for all their online accounts including Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, lose their password once and then lose everything else altogether.
Apparently, you couldn’t do these 2 things by your mind, your note or pen and papers alone. You need a tool!
To be honest, I had always struggled with these kinds of password setting and management until I find “KeepassX” which is a strong, free and cross-platform password management system. It satisfies all my requirements above; it saves my time and all the troubles these password thingy would have otherwise caused! I’m using KeepassX for my Ubuntu desktops, Macbook and Android phone and it’s working perfectly so far.
PS: Please note that as per WordPress version 4.3, you don’t need to enter your new password then confirm it to create a new password. Now you just need to click on “Generate Password” button, WordPress will automatically create a new and strong password for you.
