After activating a theme, your next step will be to customize your site and get it ready for the world. This guide will help you get started.
You will use the Site Editor to make changes to every aspect of your site’s content and layout. In the Site Editor, you can change your site’s styles, including colors and fonts, homepage and template designs, and edit your website’s menus.
To open the Site Editor, follow these steps:
- Visit your site’s dashboard.
- Navigate to Appearance → Editor.
Learn how to use the Site Editor before you get started.
Update your homepage to make a strong first impression on visitors. You most likely selected the theme you activated due to how the homepage’s design looked. You can quickly replace the sample content with your own text and images through the Site Editor. You can also remove any unwanted content and add fresh elements using blocks or patterns.
- Visit your site’s dashboard.
- Navigate to Appearance → Editor.
- Click the preview on the right to open the homepage in the Site Editor.
Begin by exploring the blocks on your homepage through the List View option to understand their layout and function.
Here are a few of the most common blocks used to design the homepage template:
- Query Loop block – often used to display latest blog posts, only the design of the Query Loop block is edited on your homepage. The elements (like images and text) are automatically displayed based on the content in individual posts and pages. Learn how to customize the appearance of the Query Loop block or choose the content that displays in the Query Loop block.
- Group Block – the Group block, and its variations-rows and stacked, is a powerful tool for designing the layout of the content on your homepage.
- Columns, Headings, Spacers.
Learn more about how to edit the default homepage.
Once you’re happy with your homepage, you can create additional pages on your site such as an About, Contact, or Blog page. To create a new page for your site, follow these steps:
- Visit your site’s dashboard.
- Navigate to Appearance → Editor.
- Click Pages.
- Click the “Add New Page” button.
- Give the new page a name and add your content.
- Once you have published the new page, you can add the page to your site’s menu.
Learn how to create pages.
You can also customize the design of your page templates, including the headers and footers, colors, and general layout. Learn more about editing templates.
Your site’s layout is made up of several parts, including the site styles, menus, headers and footers. All of these parts come together to create templates.
With multiple pages on your site, your visitors will need a way to navigate their way around. You can choose what content appears in your site’s navigation menu and how it’s displayed, with drop-downs and different menus between mobile and desktop views.
Follow these steps to edit your site’s menu:
- Visit your site’s dashboard.
- Navigate to Appearance → Editor.
- Click the “Navigation” menu item.
You will be able to add, remove, and reorder the links in your menu. Learn all about menus.
You can change the colors and fonts for individual blocks, or change the style for your entire site.
To customize the styles for your entire site, follow these steps:
- Visit your site’s dashboard.
- Navigate to Appearance → Editor.
- Click the “Styles” menu item.
Learn how to customize your site’s styles.
Add your site logo, contact information, hours of operation, social media links and more to your site’s header and footer. The header and footer of your site are made using template parts. That way, you can add the same header or footer to different templates on your site (homepage, pages, posts, etc.) and edit the header from a central location.