The WordPress admin dashboard serves as your central control hub for managing your website. However, as you add plugins, themes, and custom options, it can quickly become cluttered with widgets, menu items, and extra settings. Over time, this clutter may make the dashboard feel overwhelming and reduce efficiency. In particular, it can be distracting if certain items aren’t relevant to your daily tasks.
Fortunately, customizing your WordPress dashboard allows you to create a workspace that’s organized and tailored to your needs. By hiding unnecessary elements, adjusting screen options, and reorganizing the menu, you can greatly simplify the dashboard layout. As a result, this reduces distractions and makes frequently used tools much easier to access.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through essential steps to customize the WordPress admin dashboard. Specifically, you’ll learn how to manage widgets, control menu visibility, create custom login pages, and adjust color schemes. With these changes, your dashboard will become easier to navigate, more visually appealing, and optimized for productive site management.
Ready to transform your WordPress dashboard? Let’s dive in!
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Why Customize the WordPress Admin Dashboard Area?
As you manage a WordPress website over time, you may begin to notice a growing clutter in your admin area. Widgets, plugin notices, alerts, and a host of menu items often appear on various screens in the WordPress dashboard. While some of these, like plugin notices, can be dismissed or closed temporarily, others tend to persist, creating a less streamlined experience.
This can lead to a cluttered and confusing environment for many website owners, especially as more plugins are added. What many WordPress users, particularly beginners, don’t realize is that the admin area can be fully customized. You can hide unnecessary items, rearrange the layout, and even add personalized touches to suit your workflow. This customization not only helps clean up the interface but can significantly improve your efficiency and overall experience when managing your website.
Developers often take advantage of this customization feature, particularly when building sites for clients. They tailor the WordPress dashboard to remove unneeded elements, simplify navigation, and present the most relevant tools front and center. By customizing the admin area, developers create a more intuitive experience for non-technical clients, reducing confusion and ensuring that essential tasks are easy to find and manage.
For example, the dashboard becomes more user-friendly by removing unused menu items or adding shortcuts to frequently used tools. This is especially important for business owners who rely on their websites for day-to-day operations but may not be familiar with WordPress’ technical aspects.
Benefits of Customizing Your WordPress Admin Dashboard Area
Customizing your WordPress admin area offers several key benefits:
- Streamlined Workflow: By removing unnecessary items, you can focus on the tools and features you use most often, reducing time spent navigating through a cluttered interface.
- Improved Usability for Clients: For agencies and developers, customizing the admin area for clients helps deliver a tailored, easier-to-navigate dashboard. Clients are less likely to feel overwhelmed and more likely to efficiently manage their sites.
- Enhanced Branding: You can incorporate your company or client’s branding into the admin area, creating a cohesive experience across both the front-end and back-end of the site.
- Better User Experience: A clean, organized dashboard can significantly improve the user experience, especially for those unfamiliar with WordPress. This leads to a more enjoyable and less frustrating experience when managing website content.
- Increased Productivity: A well-organized admin area leads to increased productivity. You’ll spend less time searching for tools and more time focusing on content creation or website optimization.
1. Customizing Your WordPress Admin Dashboard Area with Screen Options
The WordPress admin area makes it easy to customize your view with the Screen Options feature. You’ll find this option at the top right corner of many admin pages, including the main Dashboard. By clicking the Screen Options button, a drop-down menu appears. This menu lets you tailor the page’s layout by toggling the visibility of specific elements.
On the Dashboard page, you can hide widgets that aren’t relevant and keep only those with valuable insights, like recent site activity or updates. The widgets are also draggable, so you can rearrange them for easy access to important information. For example, moving the At a Glance and Site Health widgets to the top gives you a quick overview of your site’s status each time you log in.
Each admin page offers unique Screen Options relevant to its content. For instance, on the Posts > All Posts page, Screen Options let you show or hide specific columns, adjust the number of posts displayed, or switch to an extended view. This flexibility helps you streamline your workflow and focus on the information that matters most.
To explore and adjust settings across various sections of the WordPress admin, simply experiment with Screen Options on different pages. Note that these preferences are user-specific, so changes you make will apply only to your account and won’t affect the views of other users on your site.
2. Enhancing Your Workflow in the WordPress Block Editor
The WordPress Block Editor is the default tool for creating and editing content, providing a streamlined and spacious interface for writing blog posts, crafting pages, and formatting layouts. With its customizable options, you can further personalize the editing experience to meet your specific needs.
To access these settings, click on the three-dot menu in the top right corner of the editor and select Preferences. This opens a menu with three main tabs—General, Blocks, and Panels—where you can make various adjustments to optimize your workflow.
1. General Settings
Under the General tab, you have options like Reduce the User Interface, which makes the layout more compact, giving you more screen space to work with. You can also enable Spotlight mode to fade out all blocks except the one you’re currently editing, allowing you to focus on individual sections of content without distractions.
2. Block Management
Switching to the Blocks tab enables you to control the visibility of different blocks in the editor. You can show or hide certain block types depending on what you need, ensuring that only the relevant tools are available as you work.
3. Sidebar Panels
The Panels tab provides options to show or hide elements within the editor’s right-hand sidebar. For instance, if you prefer a cleaner view, you can remove sections you don’t often use—such as Post Revisions or Categories—to minimize screen clutter. Additionally, you can collapse each panel by simply clicking on the upward arrow icon. This creates an organized, distraction-free environment that allows you to focus on your content more effectively.
Moreover, for an even cleaner view, you can click on the Gear icon in the editor’s top bar to hide the settings sidebar. This is especially useful when working with full-width content layouts, as it maximizes your workspace and allows you to engage with your content without interruptions.
By configuring these options, you can transform the WordPress Block Editor into a streamlined, distraction-free workspace. This setup enhances productivity and contributes to a more enjoyable editing experience.
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3. Customizing WordPress Admin Dashboard Menu Visibility
As you add plugins to your WordPress site, each plugin may add its own menu item to the admin sidebar. While some of these items, like SEO settings or Contact form entries, are essential for easy access, others may be less relevant or even unnecessary for regular use. In addition, if multiple users have access to the admin area, you may want to control which menu items appear to specific user roles for streamlined access and improved security.
Using the Admin Menu Editor plugin, you can customize the visibility of these items based on your preferences. Here’s how to do it:
To start, install and activate the Admin Menu Editor plugin. Once activated, go to Settings > Menu Editor to begin customizing the admin area menus. This plugin provides a flexible way to tailor the menu options available to different users, ensuring a cleaner and more organized dashboard experience.
After opening the Menu Editor interface, you’ll see a list of main menu items displayed in the first column, with any nested sub-items shown in the second column. From here, you can make several adjustments:
- Delete menu items: To remove any unwanted items from the sidebar, select the menu item you wish to delete and click the delete button in the toolbar. This helps to reduce clutter and streamline the interface.
- Adjust visibility by role: If you need to control access for specific roles, you can select a menu item and adjust the Extra capability setting. For instance, if you only want Administrators to access the Comments section, simply set this restriction accordingly.
Save and Refresh
Once your customizations are complete, click Save Changes to store your settings. If you don’t see the updates immediately, try refreshing the page or logging out and back in. Now, your admin menu should reflect a more organized, role-specific setup, making the dashboard more efficient for each user.
4. Tailoring the WordPress Admin Toolbar
The WordPress admin toolbar appears at the top of the screen when you’re logged into the dashboard or navigating public-facing areas of your site. Customizing the toolbar can improve efficiency by keeping essential tools within reach and removing items that may clutter the view.
To customize the admin toolbar, follow these steps with the Adminimize plugin:
- Install and Activate the Plugin
First, install and activate the Adminimize plugin. For assistance with this process, refer to a step-by-step guide on plugin installation. - Customize Toolbar Visibility
After activation, navigate to Settings > Adminimize and locate the tabs Admin Bar Backend Options and Admin Bar Front End Options. These sections allow you to manage toolbar visibility both in the admin area and on the front end. - Control Toolbar Items by User Role
Inside each tab, you can choose which items appear in the toolbar for different user roles. For instance, you may want editors to have access to quick editing tools, while subscribers only see minimal options. - Save Your Changes
After configuring toolbar options, click Update Options to save. The admin toolbar will now display a customized, role-specific interface, enhancing user experience and workflow efficiency.
5. Customizing the WordPress Admin Dashboard Color Scheme
WordPress offers a selection of basic color schemes to personalize the admin area, allowing users to choose the look that best suits their preference. Here’s how to change the color scheme:
- Select a Default Color Scheme
Go to Users > Profile in your WordPress admin area, and locate the Admin Color Scheme options. Simply click on a color scheme to preview it, and once you’re satisfied, scroll down and click Update Profile to save your changes. - Create a Custom Color Scheme with Admin Color Schemer
If the default options aren’t enough, you can create a fully custom color scheme using the Admin Color Schemer plugin:- Install and Activate the Plugin
For installation help, see a guide on installing plugins. Upon activation, go to Tools > Admin Colors to access the color customization settings. - Design Your Custom Scheme
Use the plugin interface to adjust the color palette for various admin elements. Once satisfied, click Save and Use to apply the new scheme to your admin dashboard.
- Install and Activate the Plugin
- Note: You can revert back to the default scheme anytime by deactivating the plugin or reselecting the original color scheme under Users > Profile.
6. Creating a Custom Login Page for Your WordPress Admin Area
If you’d like to replace the default WordPress login page with a custom-designed version, SeedProd is an excellent tool that allows you to do this without any coding.
- Install and Activate SeedProd
After installing and activating SeedProd, head to SeedProd > Settings to enter your license key (available in your SeedProd account). - Set Up a Custom Login Page
Navigate to SeedProd > Landing Pages. Select the Login Page option and click on Set up a Login Page to begin. SeedProd offers a wide array of professionally designed templates; choose one as a starting point. After selecting a template, assign a name to your login page for easy identification in future edits. - Customize Your Login Page
Click Save and Start Editing the Page to open the drag-and-drop builder. Here, you can edit any page element, add new items from the sidebar, or modify form fields and labels. Tailor the page design to fit your brand, including logos, colors, and any additional text. - Enable the Custom Login Page
Once you’re satisfied with the design, switch to the Page Settings tab, and scroll down to enable Redirect the Default Login Page. This will replace WordPress’s default login page with your custom version. Click Save in the top-right corner, then hit Publish.
After following these steps, your new login page will be live, and users will see your custom design when accessing the login screen. This upgrade not only enhances your branding but also creates a more cohesive experience for users.
Final Thoughts: How to Customize WordPress Admin Dashboard
Customizing the WordPress admin dashboard is an excellent way to enhance your workflow. Not only does it make your workspace more efficient, but it also makes it more intuitive and tailored to your unique needs. By applying the tips above, you’ll simplify navigation, reduce clutter, and improve the overall experience for yourself and any other users on your site.
For instance, whether you’re hiding unnecessary elements with Screen Options, personalizing the Block Editor, managing sidebar items, or even creating a custom login page, each adjustment helps make daily tasks more streamlined and enjoyable. Additionally, custom color schemes and toolbar modifications add a cohesive, branded look that reflects your style and professionalism.
Ultimately, optimizing your dashboard saves time and minimizes distractions. This allows you to stay focused on creating content and growing your site. With WordPress’s flexibility and a range of helpful plugins, creating a personalized dashboard experience is both easy and rewarding—one that aligns with your goals and boosts productivity.
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