WordPress is by far the most popular content management system in the world. Its popularity can be understood by the very fact that WordPress alone powers 40+% of all websites in this world.
If you are reading this article, I can assume two things (either one of them is true):
- You have a WordPress site.
- You intend to build a site powered by WordPress.
Whatever the case be, you must be able to access your WordPress site dashboard. That’s because the dashboard is the place from where you will control the content of your website. The content includes everything you can think of including:
- The articles you write.
- The SEO efforts you put in.
- The plugins that you install to add additional functionalities and display information.
- The themes that you install.
- The images and videos you add.
- The email capture provisions you put in place, and much more.
Thus, having access to the WordPress dashboard is an absolute necessity.
So, how do you access your WordPress dashboard? That is what I intend to tell you in this article.
What Will You Learn in This WP Dashboard Guide?
Here are the list of things you will be learning in this blog post:
- The URL that you use to access your WordPress site dashboard.
- Admin login for a subdirectory blog and a subdomain blog.
- Other methods you can use for accessing the dashboard.
- What to do when you cannot login to your WordPress dashboard?
Ready?
Let’s begin.
The URL to Use for Accessing WordPress Site Dashboard
This is the most logical thing to do. There is a direct URL that you can use for accessing your WordPress site dashboard. This is the URL:
“https://example.com/wp-admin”
Just replace the “example.com” with your actual domain.
Once you place this URL in the URL bar of your web browser and hit the enter button, you will see the WordPress dashboard login page.
This is how it will look like:
Interestingly, that is not the only URL for accessing this dashboard or admin login page. There are other variations that you can use. They include:
- https://example.com/admin
- https://example.com/login
- https://example.com/wp-login.php
It doesn’t matter which URL you use. All of them will lead you to the same page.
On this page, enter the Username or Email Address, and the password you had set during installation, and then hit the login button.
Voila! You have successfully accessed your WordPress dashboard.
Technically, this article should end right here. But I will be a pain in the arse for you, and I will go on blabbering.
So, just keep reading until I become quiet!
Accessing the Admin Dashboard for a Subdomain Site or a Subdirectory Site
Now, what you learned so far was how to access or login to your WordPress dashboard for your main site.
What if you have other sites installed in a subdirectory or a subdomain?
Simple! The URLs for admin login change a bit.
In the case of a Subdomain Site
The URL of a subdomain site looks something like this:
If you want a separate subdomain site for knowledge base articles, it may look something like this:
Note how it is always “something-dot-your-main-domain.”
That is the structure of a subdomain.
In that case, the admin login URL or the URL for accessing the dashboard of subdomain site becomes this:
- https://blog.example.com/wp-admin, or
- https://blog.example.com/wp-login.php, or
- https://blog.example.com/admin, or
- https://blog.example.come/login
In the case of a Subdirectory Site
The URL of a subdirectory site looks something like this:
If you compare this URL with the URL of the subdomain above, you will notice that the subdomain always sits before the domain name. Whereas, in the case of a subdirectory, it will always sit after the domain name and a trailing forward slash.
A subdomain is a child of the parent domain, while a subdirectory is just a subfolder that sits inside the parent domain.
It really doesn’t matter whether you are using a subdomain or a subdirectory, because Google says that it indexes both subdomain and subdirectories in exactly the same way.
So, if you are to go by Google’s words, the choice between a subdomain and a subdirectory eventually boils down to your personal preference.
Now, assuming that you created a subdirectory site, how do you access the admin dashboard for that subdirectory site?
This is how the URL structure now looks like:
- https://example.com/blog/wp-admin
- https://example.com/blog/admin
- https://example.com/blog/wp-login.php
- https://example.com/blog/login
In the case of a Subdirectory Site of a Subdomain
Though people usually do not do this, in certain scenarios, you may decide to first have a subdomain and then create a subdirectory site for that subdomain.
In that case the URL structure looks something like this:
For a subdirectory site of a subdomain, you can access the WordPress dashboard using one of the following URLs:
- https://store.example.com/blog/wp-admin
- https://store.example.com/blog/admin
- https://store.example.com/blog/wp-login.php
- https://store.example.com/blog/login
Other Methods You Can Use to Login to Your WordPress Dashboard
In case you do not like typing in the URL every single time you want to login to your WordPress dashboard, there are at least two things you can do. They are:
Bookmark the Login Page
It cannot get simpler than this.
Just type in the URL for the admin login page and bookmark it on your browser and place it on the bookmark bar.
Every time you need to access that page, just click on the bookmark, and voila! The page will open!
Now, all you must do is enter your ID and Password. If you have some password manager available, it will fill up the fields for you and you can just hit the “Log In” button.
A Link on Your Website Menu
You can just place a link to that dashboard login page on your website menu, or in the footer, perhaps. Just click on the link and you will immediately see the login page.
I personally do not like this method because it keeps the login page right in front of everyone’s eyes.
What to do When You Cannot Login to Your WordPress Dashboard?
There can be many reasons for which you may not be able to login to your WordPress dashboard. Here are some possible scenarios that can cause that along with the possible solutions:
Hacked Site
It is a possibility that your site may get hacked. In a scenario like that, you will not be able to access your site, because in all likelihood, the ID and password have been changed.
This is where you must do one of the following:
- Restore an old backup of your site and assign a new and powerful password.
- Ask your web hosting company to perform a cleanup (in most cases, that will cost you money).
- Use a third-party service for hack removal. Even that will cost you money.
Once your site has been restored, make sure that you amp up the defenses using a strong password, security plugin, and a thorough CDN that will prevent DDoS attacks, hacking attempts, malware injections, etc.
Forgot Password
It is possible that you forgot your password. In that case, there is a link on the login page which says, ‘Lost your password?’
Click on that, and you will receive an email with a password reset link. Now, just follow the instructions for setting up a new password. Make sure that it is difficult to guess, and easy to remember (for you) so that such incidences do not happen again.
Make a note of the password and keep it safe online using a password manager, or at least write it down and keep it offline.
Error Establishing Database Connection
If you see a white screen with the message ‘Error Establishing Database Connection, it will not only impact your entire site, but also prevent you from accessing your WordPress dashboard.
This situation usually occurs when there is bad traffic hitting your website repeatedly, or when your WordPress site database has been corrupted.
Other reasons may include:
- Core WordPress files have been corrupted.
- There is an error in the database server.
Because there is no clear reason for this error to occur, there is no single method to fix it, either.
So, the best you can do include:
Wait
Wait for some time. The error might vanish in some time. This will work only when the bad traffic hitting your site vanishes.
Wp-config.php configuration
If that is not playing out well for you, check the WordPress core files. There might be some misconfiguration in the wp-config.php file (you must access it from the server). May be, this configuration file does not have correct information available.
Repair database
Repair and fix your database. One way to do this is to back up your entire database, visit the MySQL interface, select the database and repair it using a simple repair button. If the MySQL database looks intimidating, there is another way.
In a situation where you do not want to fool around with your MySQL database, there is a simple way.
Just open the wp-config.php file, and add the following like to it:
define(‘WP_ALLOW_REPAIR’, true);
Make sure that you are adding this like just about the line that reads:
‘That’s all, stop editing! Happy blogging.’
Once you have added the line, just type the following URL into your web browser:
http://www.example.com/wp-admin/maint/repair.php
Once you type this in the browser, you will notice something like this:
I will usually suggest going for the ‘Repair and Optimize Database’ option, but you can use the first option, too.
Remember, repairing the database may take some time. So, don’t get agitated. Let it run its full course. If you stop it suddenly, the database may get corrupted even further.
Create a New Database
Lastly, if nothing works out, visit your Database manager segment in your hosting account and create a new database.
Once you have created a new database, update the database username and password in the wp-config.php file.
Now, creating a database is quite technical, and so, I will skip explaining that part here. I will do a separate tutorial on this one later.
Once you have completely fixed the database error by repairing it or by replacing it with a new one, try logging in again. You should be able to log in properly.
Login Disabled
It is possible that the dashboard login page has been temporarily disabled because of too many failed login attempts. This is usually triggered by some kind of security plugin or some standalone plugin such as ‘Limit Login Attempts.’
Wait for some time so that the plugin releases the block. Alternatively, you can just visit your website file manager and disable the plugin manually directly from the server.
Conclusion
Accessing the WordPress dashboard is fairly simple. In certain cases, you may fail to login. There are many potential reasons for that. Attempt the different solutions provided in this article, and you should be able to fix the problem quickly.
