Where are WordPress Pages Stored?

The short and sweet answer to the question “where are WordPress pages stored?” is WordPress Database.

Where are WordPress pages stored and how does the CMS (content management system) access them?

This is an in-depth guide that tells you exactly that.

WordPress is a CMS that keeps your website’s content safe and secure over the web.

The CMS is based on PHP language and MySQL database. It offers advanced functions to create complex and high-functionality websites, making it an ideal CMS for almost every user.

The best thing is, it manages all your website’s files for free.

So, if you have ever wondered where are WordPress pages stored, by the end of this article, you’d have good knowledge of it.

Let’s get into the details now.

 

Where are the Pages Stored in WordPress?

Before knowing where are WordPress pages stored, it’s important to know how does WordPress database work.

WordPress is a content management system that stores your website’s pages as an HTML file. WordPress utilizes codes to gain access to pages every time they get loaded.

Some might think why it is important to know where the website files are stored. But, knowing about it can have multiple benefits.

One of them is that you’d be able to fix any WordPress issues without technical help.

Every WordPress page has theme files. For instance, single.php for blog posts and pages.php for pages.

The MySQL database, on the other hand, stores information like images, embeds, texts, and more. This means a WordPress user has to go through the MySQL database in order to access the content of a website.

In addition to the database, WordPress comes with plugins, files, themes, media, and stuff that a user uploads to their site.

Moreover, it also contains core files that get installed to run the CMS itself.

WordPress also allows you to create your website pages with coding, however, it’s a time-consuming and technical task.

Most of the users use WordPress CMS because of the ease it provides in building website pages.

How does WordPress load the pages? When someone visits a webpage, a signal is sent to the database to showcase the content through a set of PHP scripts.

WordPress then processes the scripts and creates an HTML page on the go. The page is then sent to the user’s browser.

Using the database, you are collecting the dynamic content into a single page. The WordPress CMS gathers this content from different sources. This includes page content, sidebar, footer, and header.

The WordPress database stores specific pages and items of the user’s website. This includes:

• User data and settings
• The general settings of the website (site title, plugins, themes, description)
• Attachment information (name, alt text, pages/posts information, and description)
• Site’s metadata (post categories, custom taxonomies, plugins’ metadata, and custom field)

The database stores the pages and posts by dividing all of the items into 12 tables. These tables are all interconnected and keep the posts and pages safe.

There are a variety of database tables, one of the most important ones is the wp_posts.

Let’s see a few WordPress database tables.

• • wp_usermeta – This saves metadata about your users
  • wp_users – saves user’s data like their username and password
  • wp_terms – saves your site’s taxonomy terms. (tags and categories)
  • wp_commentmeta – saves metadata related to your site’s comments
  • wp_posts – saves the content of your site. This includes titles, text, creation date, modification date, publishing status excerpt, and the author.

These database tables are necessary to keep your WordPress site’s pages organized.

 

Where are WordPress Pages in cPanel?

Not only WordPress pages, but everything that your site has is in the PHPMyAdmin dashboard of your cPanel.

Almost every web hosting company provides a cPanel. Users can easily manage and edit their WordPress database within this cPanel.

But, where are WordPress pages in cPanel?

Simply, the WordPress pages are stored in the PHPMyAdmin dashboard. You’d go there, click on your site’s database, and then go to the pages by searching “page” in the search bar.

 

How Do I Access My WordPress Database?

So, you’ve learned where are WordPress pages stored in the WordPress MySQL database. But, how can you access your WordPress database?

How can you access the tables and files in the MySQL database?

There are a few simple steps that you can follow to access your pages in the database.

Your website hosting provider would have a cPanel that you can log into. You can access your website pages in that panel.

Log into your cPanel account and find the PHPMyAdmin icon. Go to the PHPMyAdmin option.

 

Keep in mind that you shouldn’t make any changes to your WordPress pages via this route. Unless, of course, you know what you are doing and it’s an absolute necessity.

Otherwise editing your pages through the WordPress dashboard should be your top priority.

After going to PHPMyAdmin, you’d see a list of databases on the left side of the cPanel dashboard.

If you used a WP auto-installer, you’d see a name like “wp_21”. Click on the option.

You’ve selected your database. You’d now see a list of tables. Click on “wp_posts”.

 

You’ll see a list of your site’s content now. These include pages, posts, and revisions.

Every column will show you specific metadata against each item. For instance, you’d see columns about post content, post excerpt, comment status, post status, and more.

Most of the time, you’d only be looking for a specific type of content. For instance, pages or posts. If you are looking for pages, just search the term “page” in the search bar and they’ll appear.

This is where you can access your WordPress pages. You can manage and edit your content from here. However, as mentioned earlier, avoid changing anything here unless you know what you’re doing.

 

How to Find WordPress Pages in File Manager

You can easily find WordPress pages in File Manager. All you need to do is follow a few simple steps discussed below.

Let’s get started.

First, go to the cPanel of your hosting provider. You’d be able to log into the cPanel even from the hosting service’s account.

Scroll down the page until you see “File Manager”. Click on it.

 

After clicking on File Manager, you’d see a list of your websites. You’d see a single website if you only have one.

So, click on the website you want to find the pages of. You’d see a list of folders. Click on “wp-content”.

 

This opens a list of content that your website contains. Find “themes” and click on it.

 

After clicking on “themes”, you’ll see a list of elements that you can access and edit. This also includes pages and posts.

Your pages are saved in the page.php file while your posts are saved in the single.php file.

 

WordPress HTML Location

WordPress HTML location is quite easy to find too. You won’t have to do anything except access your hosting provider’s cPanel.

The steps involved in accessing the HTML files of your WordPress site are almost similar to the ones that we followed before.

Let’s get into the procedure.

• • Go to the cPanel.
  • Click on the File Manager. File manager, as the name suggests, allows users to manage the files of their websites. You can access and edit your files within this folder.
  • To access your HTML files, you’d have to go to your WordPress theme. And, your website’s theme is located in the wp-content folder under your website’s folder.
  • After going to the File Manager, click on your website’s folder and go to the “wp-content” folder.
  • The next step would be to go to your theme. Find the “themes” folder and open it.
  • You’d be shown your themes (installed and uploaded). Click on the installed theme.
  • The theme folder has all the files that you can access and edit. These files are in PHP and HTML formats.
  • These “.php” files can now be opened and edited if you want. But, make sure you know what you are doing as any changes made will affect those pages.
  • For instance, you can access the HTML file of your website’s footer. Just open the “php” file and start making changes to the HTML code.

 

Is WordPress Site Secure?

WordPress is the most popular CMS out there. And, because it’s free and keeps on updating, it attracts more website owners.

This also makes the CMS prone to attacks and hacking.

But, thankfully, keeping your WordPress site safe and secure is quite easy. You just need to follow a few best practices.

 

Keeping the Software Up to Date

The WordPress core software is quite secure if you keep it updated. The security team at WordPress does a great job at fixing any security vulnerabilities due to outdated core software.

 

Keeping the Themes and Plugins Updated

One of the best things about WordPress CMS is that it offers a variety of free themes and plugins. Themes affect your website’s appearance while plugins add functionality to it.

But, the more options, the more chance the malicious actors get. Although most coders do a great job at keeping these WordPress products secure, there is still a need for precaution.

There could be three major reasons why themes and plugins are vulnerable.

• • A vulnerable theme or plugin can be dangerous for your site as it can get easily undetected. This is because it’s not as meticulously examined as the WordPress core software.
  • It can also be that the theme or plugin developer has discontinued working on their products and the user keeps on using it.
  • There could be an issue and the developer fixes it in time, however, the user doesn’t update.

 

So, what should you do as a website owner? Keep your products up to date all the time and install everything from a reputable source.

You might wonder, “who should be held responsible for a security breach?”.

Well, officially, it’s the WordPress security team that’s responsible to keep your WordPress websites secure.

But, they can’t check every theme and plugin on the WordPress directory. So, you’d have to keep a careful eye while installing any product from there.

Is WordPress site secure? While there is no CMS that’s 100% secure, WordPress is one of the most secure ones out there.

Most breaches are a result of the user not following best security practices.

What can you do on your part?

• • Keep your website’s plugins and themes updated
  • Only install products from reputable trusted sources
  • Use strong passwords
  • Protect your computer from viruses
  • Use an SSL (secure socket layer) certificate on your websites. Most of the time, you get a free SSL certificate while buying a hosting package. However, it’s not that expensive.You can get an SSL for your website for just a few bucks. An SSL keeps the communication encrypted.
  • Always use a host that offers the latest technology and has a secure environment

Conclusion

WordPress pages are stored in the WordPress database. You can access your WordPress website’s pages and posts either in the file manager or the PHPMyAdmin dashboard.

Once you get access to your files, you can then edit them as you like. However, if you don’t know how to code, it’s better to edit your pages in the WordPress dashboard.

WordPress database offers an opportunity for developers to access and edit their website’s pages and files and change their appearance and functionality.

All you have to do is go to your hosting provider’s cPanel, open your file manager or PHPMyAdmin folder and access your files.