Posts are the dated entries that make up a blog or news section. A new WordPress site starts with a sample post called Hello world!, a sample comment and a Sample Page. This guide shows how to clear them out, publish your own content and remove posts later, one at a time or in bulk.
Before you start
- Access to the WordPress dashboard; see log in to wp-admin.
- An account with the Administrator, Editor or Author role.
Remove the sample content
- Go to Posts → All Posts, hover over Hello world! and click Trash.
- Go to Pages → All Pages and trash Sample Page (and Privacy Policy only if you will write your own).
- Go to Comments, hover over the comment from A WordPress Commenter and click Trash.
Write and publish a post
- Go to Posts → Add New Post. The block editor opens.
- Type a clear title in Add title.
- Click in the body and start typing. Press Enter for a new paragraph block, or click + to add headings, images, lists, quotes, buttons and more. Type
/to search for a block quickly. - In the right sidebar (Post tab), set:
- Categories and Tags so readers can find related posts; see manage categories.
- Featured image, used by most themes on archive pages.
- Excerpt, a short summary for lists and search results.
- Slug (under the URL setting), a short readable URL such as
/my-first-post/.
- Click Save draft while you work and Preview to check the layout.
- Click Publish, then confirm with Publish again.
Tip: To schedule a post, click the date next to Publish in the sidebar, pick a future date and time, and click Schedule. WordPress publishes it automatically; for reliable timing set up a real cron job.
Delete a post
- Go to Posts → All Posts.
- Hover over the post and click Trash. Inside the editor you can also use Move to trash in the sidebar.
Bulk delete posts
- Go to Posts → All Posts. Use the filters (date, category) or search to narrow the list.
- To show more than 20 posts at once, open Screen Options at the top right and raise Number of items per page.
- Tick the posts, or tick the box in the header row to select the whole page.
- Choose Move to Trash from Bulk actions and click Apply.
Restore or empty the Trash
Open the Trash link above the post list. Hover over a post and click Restore to bring it back, or Delete Permanently. Click Empty Trash to remove everything. WordPress empties the Trash automatically after 30 days.