Setting up the Pages

We’ve set up the basic website using an install pack. Our next job is to do a bit of tidying.

Watch this video first, then, if you get stuck, use the screenshots and instructions below.

We’ll keep some pages the install pack and setup wizard added. We don’t need three of the pages and we’ll set those to draft, that hides them. Then we’ll add two new pages that we need but don’t have.

After setting up the pages we need we’ll make them look really professional. To do this, we will use the readymade page templates in the Genesis Blocks plugin. We’ll do that in the next tutorial.

We’re going to set the pages we don’t need to draft. Those pages are…

Block Examples
Landing Page
Pricing Page

Setting unused pages to draft

Use the navigation bar to visit a page you want to hide.

Navigate to the page you want to remove.

When you are viewing the page, click the Edit Page link in the Admin bar at the top of the screen.

When the page is in edit mode, click the link in the top right corner that says Switch to draft. Save the draft before moving on to viewing, and then switching the next page to draft.

When we’ve switched all three unneeded pages to draft, we will remove those pages from the navigation bar.

Please note! After switching to draft, logged in users will still be able to see draft pages. But people who visit your site will not. If you’re sure you’re not going to need the draft pages you can delete them if you wish.

Removing unused pages from the navigation bar

We need to go to the dashboard. To get to the dashboard click the big WordPress logo in the top left corner of the screen.

To exit the page editor, click the WordPress logo top left.

Once you are in the WordPress Dashboard, select: Appearance > Menus.

In the Edit Menus tab, look for the section labelled Menu Structure. If you used the install pack, set up wizard to set up your site, there should be only one menu available. If you have more than one menu, choose the menu you need from the drop-down list.

To remove any link from the navigation bar, click that link’s down arrow and then click the text link that says Remove.

Removing a link from the navigation bar.

The pages our finished site will have

First, hide the pages you don’t need by setting them to draft. Then remove the links to those pages from the navigation bar. Finally, make service and contact pages then link to those pages via the navigation bar.

Our finished website will have these pages…

Home
About
Services
Contact
Blog

We need to add these new pages…

Services
Blog

Making the service page and blog page

When you’re logged in to WordPress, you will see the admin bar at the top of your screen.

Making the services page

Hover over: + New
Select Page from the drop-down list
Name your page: Services
Then click the Genesis icon in the top right of the screen
When the Genesis sidebar opens, expand the tab labelled Title, then tick Hide Title.
In the Layout tab: Select Layout > Full Width Content.
Click the blue Publish button

Name your page, hide the page title and set the page to full width.

Making the blog page

Hover over: + New
Select Page from the drop-down list
Name your page: Blog
Click the blue Publish button

Activating your blog page

WordPress will automatically list all your blog posts on your blog page. But before WordPress can do that, you must activate your blog page.

Click the big black WordPress logo in the top left of your screen. This takes you out of the page editor and places you in the WordPress dashboard.

In the Dashboard go to: Settings > Reading.

In the section that says Your homepage displays choose: Posts page displays > Blog.

Click the save changes button.

Permalink structure

Permalinks are the words in the URLs of each page and post on your website. Setting the permalinks to post name makes the URL of your blog posts use the same words as your blog post title. So, if you wrote a blog post with the title, How to Write a Good Blog Post. The post’s URL would include how-to-write-a-good-blog-post.

Both Google and your site visitors like this type of URL or permalink structure.

But! Only change the permalinks if your site is brand new! Changing the permalinks on a well-established website can confuse Google. So, if your site is not new, don’t change the permalinks.

Changing the permalinks

Go to: Dashboard > Settings > Permalinks.
Select the Post Name radio button.
Save your changes.

That’s all for this tutorial

You now have all the pages you need for a service business website. In the next tutorial we’ll use the readymade page templates in Genesis Blocks plugin to make those pages look professional.

Next Tutorial