Who doesn’t love having fun with all the different ways you can make a WordPress website look like? All of these things you can do to make a website appear and act in different ways are definitely some of the best things about WordPress. This is what can help you create, say, a legal-themed website and make it look completely different from, say, a business directory website.
While these changes aren’t purely cosmetic — they can affect how a website behaves — they’re geared outward, to the people who visit the website. But WordPress can also be customized the other way around, inwards – you can white label WordPress if you know how to do it.
And that’s what we’re here to show you! In this article, you will discover:
What is the white label?
White labeling is the process of taking a product or service created by a company and then affixing your brand image to it. As a branding or product sourcing strategy, white labeling has been around much longer than WordPress. Supermarket brands are usually white label. The same goes for some consumer electronics.
In WordPress, white labeling means changing the entire website to have a more uniform brand image. Since WordPress already lets users do a lot by using themes or website builders to customize the look of the website, white labeling is generally reserved for areas where regular visitors don’t tend to hang out. linger. These areas include, but are not limited to, the admin dashboard.
Why would your website need labeling?
Now why would anyone bother to white label the backend of a WordPress website? It’s not like website developers don’t already have enough work to do when creating a website. Even though the process itself is quick and easy, and there are a lot of developers to do with plugins and themes, it can still be a lot of work to get a perfect website.
So if this website, the one we need to get the right result, is built for a client, wouldn’t it be great if there was no brand break between front-end and back-end -end? The two can’t and shouldn’t look alike because they don’t have the same function, but there’s no reason why certain branding elements shouldn’t permeate the entire website.
It is also possible to customize the dashboard menu to meet the exact needs of a customer. Usually you shouldn’t just remove menu options from the dashboard and hide them, but if you’re working with a client who clearly knows what they want, having the ability to do this can be very useful. small customization.
How to White Label Your Website Admin Area
How do you do something in WordPress that requires coding? You modify your website files or download and install a plugin. In this case, a plugin will do – it will protect any changes against future theme updates, and it will save you from having to create a child theme for your website.
When it comes to white label plugins, the most popular one on WordPress.org is white label CMS, so we’ll use it to explore the admin area of a white label website. You can find and install the plugin as you usually do – go to Plugins > Add New From your website dashboard, find the White Label CMS, install it and activate it.
After installing and activating the plugin, you can go to Settings > White Label CMS and start configuring it. Right off the bat, you’ll be able to choose between running a quick setup wizard or skipping it altogether. The wizard will help you set things up faster.
Setup Wizard
On the first page, it will ask for your brand – that of the developer. You can provide information that includes your name, URL, text you want to appear in the footer, and even an RSS feed.
In the next step, you will be asked to provide customer information, including their company name and logo. You will also have the option to enable the Retina login logo and you will need to provide an appropriate image for it.
The wizard is optional, so in any case you will need to familiarize yourself with the plugin options. They are separated into several sections, and we will explain them one by one.
Brand Options
The branding options start with the WordPress brand. You will be faced with the possibility of hide the WordPress logo and links, hide the version of WordPress you’re using, and replace the “WordPress” in page titles with custom text.
In the branding section of the admin bar, you will be able to replace the WordPress logo in the admin bar, replace the WordPress alt text, replace the “Hi” welcome text and the WordPress.org link with your own.
In the brand section of the side menu, you can add an image to the sidebar, an image that appears when the sidebar is collapsed, a URL to attach to that image, and alt text for the image.
In the Footer Mark section, you’ll be able to replace the “thank you for creating with WordPress” copy with an image, add text to follow that image, or use HTML to create other changes in the footer.
Login Options
In the login options, the options you have are those that allow you to customize the login page of the website. Again, there are several sections under these options. The first concerns the logo and the background – in addition to choosing the image of the logo, you will be able to choose its size, as well as the color and the image of the background, its position and if it should repeat.
The Advanced section contains options for hide the “back to” and “save/lost password” links and choose the colors for the buttons and links that are present on the page.
You will have the option to add custom JavaScript and custom CSS to modify the login page.
Dashboard Options
In the dashboard options, you will be able to choose which dashboard panels you want to hide. Before doing this, however, you will also be able to change the dashboard icon, as well as its name, and select the user roles that will see the dashboard panels.
You will also see the option to add your custom welcome panel. You’ll be able to choose the roles, again, as well as the type of models, the title of the panel, and its HTML description. You can make the panel full width and even add a second panel if you want.
You will also be able to add an RSS panel to the dashboard. You will be able to choose the title and the logo of the feed, the number of elements that appear, whether or not you want to display the content of the message, the HTML code for the introduction and you will be able to add the address of the RSS feed.
menus
The first thing you can do in the menu settings is to Choose whether you want to hide menus from people with other roles on the website.
Then you can choose the menus you want to hide, including submenu options.
You will also be able to do the same for the admin bar that you can see at the top of your website when you are logged in.
Settings
Under the settings, you will be able to hide the front-end admin bar that logged-in users can see. You will also be able to hide the help box and screen options, as well as disable reminder messages.
Ultimately, you will be able to add custom css for admin and upload custom css stylesheet.
As you go through all of these options, you’ll notice the remaining settings at the bottom of the page. They will allow you to import settings, export them and reset the plugin if you wish.
Let’s get it over with!
White labeling a WordPress website is a great way to ensure that the front-end and back-end provide a smooth and unified user experience when transitioning between them. With plugins like White Label CMS, you’ll easily be able to do things like customize the login screen and have full control over the dashboard and main menu. Be careful though, if you’re building a website for clients and want to hide certain options – you might think you’re just moving them out of the way, but for them they may be completely lost if you don’t. t configure the appropriate roles and allow someone else to be a super admin.
