Site Management and Customization

This unit covers hands-on WordPress site administration, theme and template customization, plugin selection, and basic security and publishing workflows. Students will practice installing and maintaining WordPress, managing backups and upgrades, and preparing sites for responsive, content-driven publishing in preparation for more advanced development topics.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze the differences between sites and blogs and determine when to use WordPress as a content management system, including comparing RSS and publishing options
• Apply installation, backup, upgrade, and secure transfer procedures by installing WordPress, backing up and restoring the database, configuring automatic updates, and explaining SFTP concepts
• Demonstrate theme and template management skills by installing and customizing themes (e.g., Hestia, Twenty Twenty), preparing parent/child themes, editing templates (headers, sidebars, colors), and addressing responsive design considerations
• Implement and evaluate plugin-based publishing and security workflows by identifying core plugins (e.g., Jetpack, Limit Login Attempts Reloaded), arranging the dashboard, inserting cover images and galleries, and publishing posts