Before you can fully customize your WordPress site using a WPDistrib installation, it’s important to lay the proper foundations.
Right after installation, several essential settings and initial steps must be completed to ensure a functional, secure, and structured website.
🔍 This page offers a guided path, step by step, to help you through the initial settings and the basics of using your site.
Some words you come across will be underlined: these allow access to additional explanations, useful for exploring a specific point or going deeper into a topic.
These links will gradually be activated as the detailed documentation is published.
Take the time to go through each step: it will help you gain clarity and efficiency moving forward.
Explore the WordPress interface to understand navigation
At first login to your WPDistrib site, the interface may seem dense. On the left, a vertical menu includes all the essential tools to manage the site. On the right, the content of the selected option is displayed.
👉 Get familiar with:
- 📁 Posts, Pages, Media for your content
- 🛠 Appearance, Plugins, Settings for technical options
- 📌 Modules specific to WPDistrib or Astra, added at the bottom of the menu
💡 Tip: each menu item opens a different configuration page. There’s no need to understand everything from the start.
Secure the Administrator account right after installation
The Administrator account provides full access to the site. It’s essential to change its default credentials (email and password) right after installation.
👉 To do this, follow the steps below:
- Go to Users → All Users
- Locate the Admin username
- Hover over the “Admin” row to reveal the Edit link
- Click on Edit
📧 Change the account email address
- Scroll down to the Contact Info section
- Replace the email address with one you check regularly (personal or professional)
- 📩 A confirmation email will be sent → click the link inside to validate the change
💡 This email is used to:
- Receive security alerts related to this account,
- Reset the password if needed.
⚠ Do not confuse this with the site email address (set in Settings → General), which is used to receive general administrative notifications.
🔐 Set a new password
- Scroll down to the Account Management section
- Click Set New Password
- A strong password will be generated automatically (you can edit it)
⚠ Do not lose this password: if forgotten, recovery may be more technical — especially if no recovery tools are configured yet.
✅ Save your changes
- At the bottom of the page, click Update Profile
Adjust general WordPress settings
A well-configured site from the beginning avoids more complex adjustments later. These settings define the site’s general identity and ensure it runs properly.
👉 Go to Settings → General, then:
- ✏ Change the Site Title
- 🚫 Remove the Tagline if unused
- 📧 Replace the site email with a valid, accessible one
This email is used to receive important notifications, security alerts, and administrative requests.
📨 Once modified, a confirmation email will be sent: make sure to click the link inside to confirm the change. - 🌍 Choose the language and timezone
- 📅 Set the date format and start day of the week
💡 These settings apply automatically across your entire site.
Choose a suitable theme and launch the site generator
The theme controls the overall appearance of your site (layout, colors, fonts).
👉 From Appearance → Themes:
- Keep Twenty Twenty-Five if you want to learn how to customize it
- Otherwise, click Add New and install Astra, simple and flexible
💡 Astra includes a visual site generator: ideal for getting started quickly.
Use Astra’s AI assistant to generate a complete site
The assistant guides you in creating a full website in just a few clicks. It offers templates adapted to different industries, which you can customize afterward.
The AI only generates the structure and design. Text content remains generic and must be customized manually.
💡 What you get is a visual mockup to adjust, not a finalized website.
👉 Steps in the AI process:
- From the WordPress dashboard, click Astra → Dashboard, then Starter Templates, and finally Build with AI
- Answer questions about your activity (name, sector, language)
- Enter a description (up to 3000 characters) → use an AI tool to help if needed
- Fill in your contact information (email, phone, social media)
- Select images using keywords
- Choose a primary color, a font, and a logo if available
- Enable any necessary features (Blog, WooCommerce, etc.)
- Create a ZipWP account → then click Start Building
⚠ Watch out for Premium templates: some require purchase (Astra Pro, Spectra Pro).
💡 Once the site is generated, you can edit it like any standard WordPress site.
Explore the pages, posts, and images created automatically
After the site is generated, a number of pages and other content are already in place.
👉 In the admin panel’s left menu:
- Pages: you will find a homepage (“Home”) and other pages created by Astra (About, Contact… )
- Posts: usually 2 or 3 example blog posts in English
- Media: images imported with the template are listed here
💡 These elements are editable, translatable, or replaceable. They provide a good starting point to understand the site’s structure.
Edit your first page using the Gutenberg block editor
Each WordPress page is built with blocks: headings, paragraphs, images, columns, etc.
👉 To edit a page:
- Click Pages, then Home
- Click Edit
👉 In the editor (Gutenberg) :
- Click a block to edit it ✏
- Use the floating context menu to apply styles (bold, link, etc.)
- Open the List View on the left to see the block hierarchy
- Use the right sidebar to adjust layout or block settings
💡 At first, change very little: observe, test, and save.
Make a first backup with UpdraftPlus
Now that your first customizations are done, it’s time to back up your site.
👉 Here’s how:
- Go to the UpdraftPlus menu
- Click Backup Now
- Confirm and start the backup
🗂 Once done, you’ll see the full list of saved backups (with their dates).
💡 In case of an issue, click Restore to revert to a previous version of your site.
🌀 A structured starting point to get started with WPDistrib
This first path helps complete all the essential steps to secure, configure, and view the first pages of your WPDistrib site.
It guides you through discovering the interface, creating a base layout with Astra, and getting started with the Gutenberg content editor.
🧭 To go further, it’s recommended to continue exploring the interface and search for topics of interest using the site’s search tool.
The WPDistrib installation automates most of the technical setup. Now it’s time to get familiar with the WordPress content editor: Gutenberg.
🧱 It’s the most powerful — and sometimes most confusing — tool to master if you want to build and organize your pages independently.
Learning it takes time: don’t expect to grasp it all at once.
📚 For more, consider looking for videos about Gutenberg and Astra to understand how blocks, layouts, and advanced customizations work.
Every step you’ve followed so far provides a solid foundation to build and evolve your site on your own.