High-quality WordPress tutorials are being published all the time. Here, we've sifted through the good, the bad and the ugly to bring you the very best WordPress tutorials to hit the web. You’ll find beginner WordPress tutorials on this page, intermediate WordPress tutorials on page two, and advanced WordPress tutorials on page three.
Since its launch in 2003, WordPress has quickly risen to become the world's most-used content management system. This enduring popularity is partly due to the enthusiastic community surrounding the open source system. It's highly customisable, very easy to use and it's completely free, making it an obvious choice for anything from a simple blog to an online design portfolio.
Before you can start using these WordPress tutorials, you'll need to log in. To access your WordPress dashboard, simply add /wp-admin to the end of the URL for your WordPress website. For example: example.com/wp-admin. And voila! You're ready to go.
Right, let's get started...
How to install WordPress
Perhaps the most frightening part of getting started with WordPress is the business of actually installing it. Thankfully this comprehensive WordPress tutorial from WPBeginner covers all the bases, with detailed instructions to help you get up and running with ease.
A beginner's guide to creating a WordPress website
This complete guide to creating your first WordPress site is a great place to start if you're a total beginner, or someone with a bit of experience looking to fill holes in your knowledge. There are sections on everything from domain names, to how to choose a theme, and tips for keeping your WordPress site secure.
WordPress cheat sheet
Cheat sheets are ideal when you're starting out, and can still prove useful to refer back to when you're more experienced. This one lays it all out for you and provides a brilliant go-to for any WordPress woes.
How to learn WordPress in one week (for free)
This step-by-step WordPress tutorial is aimed at beginners who are trying to become competent with the platform in their spare time. It assumes some familiarity with the WordPress, as well as a basic understanding of HTML, CSS and PHP. If you have all that, and 2-3 hours free each day, this course will turn you into a WordPress whizz in just a week.
How to make the WordPress editor look like your website Using the Preview button is OK, but it's much better to be able to write your posts and see how they're going to look on the site without having to switch back and forth between view modes. This great WordPress tutorial shows you how to do just that.
How to use FTP to upload files to WordPress for Beginners
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is a fast and simple way to upload files from your computer to your WordPress website. This six-minute video from WPBeginner walks you through three popular ways to do so. If you don't want to watch the video, there's a text-based explanation too.
How to Center Align a Video in WordPress
If you post video on your WordPress site with a width that's less than your article area, it will automatically be aligned it to the left, leaving extra white space on the right-hand side. There are many reasons, though, why you might prefer it to be centred on the page. This quick and easy WordPress tutorial walks you through how to do it.
How to Properly Add Google AdSense to Your WordPress Site
If you want to monetise your website without the effort of chasing individual sponsors directly, Google AdSense is a great way to earn money through programmatic ads. This tutorial walks you through the simple steps that allow you to add Google AdSense in WordPress, along with some best practices and tips to increase your income.
How to Create a Private Post in WordPress
Normally, anything you post on WordPress is public, but it is actually possible to create private posts, which are only visible to logged-in users. This quick and easy WordPress tutorial walks you through the process of creating them.
How to Appear in Google Answer Boxes with Your WP Site
Google likes to answer questions typed into its search box directly on the search results page, through 'answer boxes' that feature a relevant extract from a website that deals with people's queries. If you want the articles on your WordPress website to appear in an answer boxes, use this tutorial.
How to Create a Landing Page Template for Your Theme
A landing page is a special page on your site that's designed to encourage a certain type of visitor – for example, someone wanting to buy something. This simple WordPress tutorial explains how to create a page template file for your theme, so you can create your own landing pages quickly and easy.
Your Startup Guide to SEO
If you want people to find your WordPress site through Google, you need to understand search engine optimisation (SEO). This tutorial explains what it is, and how construct a solid SEO strategy for your WordPress website.
Add Custom JavaScript to WordPress the Right Way
Sometimes it's helpful to add custom JavaScript to your WordPress site, for example to change the layout and design of your WordPress theme, or enhancing the functionality of a WordPress plugin. This tutorial explains how to do it the safe and proper way.
How To Prevent Common WordPress Theme Mistakes
There are a number of common mistakes people make when creating WordPress themes. This WordPress tutorial by Nauris Pūķis explains what they are and how to avoid them.
How To Internationalize Your WordPress Website
WordPress is currently fully localised for over 65 languages, so if you want your site to have global appeal, take full advantage of this. This WordPress tutorial explores how to internationalise your WordPress theme or plugin to translate it into any of these languages automatically.
Prepare your WordPress site for a surge in traffic
A sudden traffic spike on your site can be a lovely surprise, until your site can't deal with the sudden influx of visitors. This tutorial explains how to anticipate spikes and prepare your site in advance. It also shows you what to do if your site slows down or crashes after a surge. Handy stuff.
How to Disable Trackbacks and Pings on WP Posts
Trackbacks and pingbacks used to be a handy way for blogs to notify each other that they'd linked to a post. Today they're mostly used by spammers to flood your comments with links to their sites. WordPress makes it easy to prevent link notifications on new posts, but disabling them on older posts is a little more involved; here's how to do it.
How to Install Google Analytics in WordPress
The best way to know your audience is through your traffic stats. That's where Google Analytics comes in. It's free and it can tell you who visits your site, where they come from, when they visit, what they look at while they're there, and how they interact with your content. Follow this guide to get up and running.
Use Colour Psychology to Boost WP Site Conversions
Choosing the right colours for your website can have a big impact on its effectiveness (and on an ecommerce site, that means more sales). This WordPress tutorial shows you how to convert colours to customers.
Add icons to WordPress custom menus without plugins
Adding icons to custom menus can be a nice way to add personality to your site, as well as improve usability. It's a relatively simple, two-step process that doesn't involve any PHP coding whatsoever. And this WordPress tutorial will show you just how to do it.
How to create and customise a WordPress child theme
When looking to customise a website, a lot of people edit the theme directly. This creates a number of problems, not least that you can't update the theme without losing your changes. The smart way to modify your site design is with a child theme. This tutorial walks though how to create one.
The ultimate guide to A/B split testing with WordPress
Even tiny changes to the phrasing of copy or the position of a button on your site can have a big impact on how people use it. There's no need to guess what will work and what won't – you can prove it using A/B testing. This WordPress tutorial shows you how to test out different options before you commit to them.
5 free essential plugins for your first WordPress blog
There are a massive number of plugins available for the WordPress users. So how do you pick out the ones that will actually be useful? In this tutorial, the guys at WPMU DEV pick their five must-have plugins for your first blog. They cover everything from monitoring pageload speed to protection against spam.
How to create your very first WordPress plugin
If you can't find what you need in the vast library of
WordPress plugins, the next step is to think about making your own. It's not as difficult as it sounds. Find out how in this WordPress tutorial.
How to make your WordPress site multilingual
Businesses that want to expand internationally might want to consider making their WordPress site multilingual. This tutorial from net magazine explains how to do so, with the help of some tools, plugins and translation services.
Implement a Service Worker for single-page app WP sites
Service workers are a popular way of speeding up meaningful renderings of and interactions with any browser. In this tutorial, learn how to implement service workers for a website that runs on WordPress, with the goal of speeding up loading time and providing offline-first capabilities.
Power a blog using the WordPress API
In this WordPress tutorial, Luke Harrison explores how to implement the WordPress REST API into a simple blog app, which is currently using a local JSON file as its data source, and is built as a single-page application (SPA) using the popular JavaScript framework Vue.js.
Build a skin for your web app with React and WordPress
This WordPress tutorial by Muhammad Muhsin, the co-founder and lead developer at Laccadive IO, explains how you can build a SPA WordPress theme with React, and why this is a good choice for your web app's back-end technology.
Add code-splitting capability to WordPress sites with PoP
It's not easy for WordPress websites to implement code-splitting through WebPack. So in this tutorial Leonardo Losoviz implements his own version of code-splitting for the open-source PoP framework.
Make a dynamic site static using a content CDN
Wouldn't it be great to have a WordPress website whose dynamic content can be exported as static files? In this tutorial, Leonardo Losoviz explains how you can combine both worlds – switching to a static site generator without having to abandon WordPress.
Override styles in WordPress
Occasionally you might find that a new plugin conflicts with your installed theme or with another plugin, and the results can ruin your site's looks. Fixing such conflicts can be quite a challenge; this tutorial talks you through some techniques for overriding conflicting CSS.
Responsive images in WordPress with art direction
Support for responsive images has been in WordPress for a while, in the form of viewport-based image selection. But there's another, more versatile way to do responsive images on WordPress: using art direction. This tutorial show you how to design with images whose crop or composition changes at certain breakpoints.
Free SSL for any WordPress website
Even if you don't process sensitive information, serving your site via SSL makes you look more credible, protects passwords and improves SEO. And if you have an ecommerce site and want to process credit cards, it's mandatory. Here's how to set up your site to serve via HTTPS, for free.
Hide your login page from hackers and brute force
Even WordPress sites that don't get much traffic attract huge numbers of malicious login attempts. There are a number of different strategies you can use to help protect your site. This WordPress tutorial runs through one simple way to make yourself less visible to hackers.
How to make WordPress hard for clients to mess up
WordPress can confuse your clients and put them at risk of breaking their site, so it's a good idea to turn off anything that isn't needed. In this article, seasoned developer Emerson Loustau outlines which features can do the most damage and explains how to remove them to create a simpler, safer interface for your clients.
Use WordPress functions to reduce HTML in your posts
Keeping HTML classes out of your content is a good idea, because they can make a real mess when it's time to redesign the site. It's possible to generate the HTML you need and insert it into the right place in the post, and then update this function when you redesign the site, thus removing the need to update posts manually. This tutorial shows you how.
A look at the modern WordPress server stack
Troubleshooting is always easier when you've got a sound mental picture of how something works. This fascinating article demystifies the WordPress stack, so you can make wise choices about your site and keep it performing well.
The ultimate guide to WordPress caching
If your website doesn't load quickly, a good proportion of your visitors won't hang around to use it. This article explains how to use caching plugins to help you get your site into people's screens as fast as possible.
Timber and Twig reignited my love for WordPress
Once you get properly stuck in with WordPress, the intermingling of PHP and HTML can become confusing. Twig is a template that keeps them separate, making your codebase easier to work with.