Ghost Admin — Dashboard, Settings, Navigation, Branding and Integrations

In this tutorial, you'll explore the Ghost admin dashboard — every section of the admin panel from Posts and Pages to Settings, Members, Integrations, and Custom Branding — so you can manage your entire site from one interface.

What You'll Learn

• Navigating the Ghost admin sidebar and understanding each section
• The Posts and Pages management interface
• Member management and engagement metrics
• Site settings: title, description, timezone, language
• Navigation menu configuration
• Branding: logo, cover image, colors, and accent color
• Integrations: custom integrations and Zapier connections
• User management and invitation system
• Code injection for custom scripts and analytics

Why It Matters

The admin dashboard is where you manage every aspect of your Ghost site. Understanding the layout saves you time — you do not get lost hunting for settings. More importantly, some configuration is only available in the admin panel (not in the config file), such as navigation menus, branding assets, and integration tokens. Knowing the admin panel thoroughly means you can onboard other team members and manage your site efficiently.

Real-World Use

A content team of five authors and one editor uses Ghost to run a tech publication. The editor sets up the navigation menu with the top four categories, uploads the publication logo and a cover image, configures the accent color to match the brand, creates user accounts for each author with appropriate permissions, and sets up a Zapier integration that posts new articles to Slack. All of this is done through the admin panel without touching any configuration files.

Learning Path

flowchart LR
  A["Ghost Config"] --> B["Ghost Admin
You are here"]:::current
  B --> C["Ghost Labs"]
  C --> D["Ghost Migration"]

  classDef current fill:#38bdf8,color:#0f172a,stroke-width:2px

Accessing the Admin Panel

Navigate to your Ghost site's URL followed by /ghost/.

• Local development: http://localhost:2368/ghost/
• Production: https://blog.example.com/ghost/

You are greeted by the login screen. Enter your admin credentials. If this is your first time, the installer prompts you to create an admin account.

Admin Dashboard Layout

The admin panel has a left sidebar with the main navigation sections.

Sidebar Sections

Dashboard (Analytics)

The dashboard shows your site's key metrics:

• Total members: How many registered members you have
• Paid members: How many are on paid tiers
• Open rate: Email newsletter open rate (if using Ghost's newsletter)
• Click rate: Email newsletter click-through rate
• Member growth: Chart showing member growth over time
• Top posts: Most-viewed content

This gives you a quick pulse on your site's performance without needing external analytics.

Posts Management

The Posts section is where you manage all your content.

Post List View

The main post list shows:

• Title: The post title
• Author: Who wrote it
• Status: Published, Draft, or Scheduled
• Access: Public, Members-only, or Paid-members-only
• Sent: Whether it was sent as a newsletter
• Date: Published or last modified date

You can filter by:

• Status: All, Published, Draft, Scheduled
• Author: Specific author
• Tag: Posts with a specific tag
• Access: Public/Members-only/Paid

Bulk Actions

Select multiple posts to perform bulk actions:

• Publish
• Unpublish (revert to draft)
• Feature/unfeature
• Delete
• Change access level
• Send newsletter

Pages Management

Pages work the same as posts but are static and do not appear in the blog feed or RSS. The page manager has the same filters and bulk actions.

Tags Management

Tags are Ghost's primary content taxonomy system. The Tags section shows:

• Tag name: Display name
• Slug: URL-friendly version
• Post count: How many posts use this tag
• Description: Optional meta description for tag pages

Tags are the only taxonomy in Ghost. There are no categories separate from tags. We cover tags in detail in Lesson 11.

Members Management

The Members section is the hub for your audience.

Member List

Displays each member with:

• Name: Member's display name
• Email: Email address
• Status: Free, Paid, Comped (complimentary), or Canceled
• Tier: Free, Monthly, Yearly, or custom tiers
• Created: When they joined
• Last seen: Last active date

You can:

• Filter by status, tier, and date
• Search by name or email
• Export members as CSV
• Import members from CSV
• Add or subtract labels for segmentation

Member Detail

Click a member to see:

• Full profile (name, email, avatar)
• Subscription history
• Email engagement stats (opens, clicks)
• Timeline of activity
• Labels for segmentation
• Notes (internal only)

Settings

The Settings section has several tabs.

General Settings

• Site title: Visible in browser tabs and search results
• Site description: Often used in search snippets
• Publication language: Language code like en or es
• Timezone: Sets the publication date display
• Date format: Display format for post dates
• Navigation: Configure primary navigation links
• Secondary navigation: Footer-style links

Branding

• Publication logo: Appears in the theme header (SVG or PNG, typically 160x60px)
• Publication cover image: Background image on the site
• Accent color: The primary brand color used throughout the theme
• Facebook page: Associates your site with your Facebook page for rich sharing
• Twitter profile: Associates your site with your Twitter profile for Twitter cards

Members

• Portal settings: Configure the signup/login modal appearance
• Default access: What new content is accessible by default (public, members, paid)
• Email signup: Toggle newsletter signup options
• Email reports: Weekly engagement reports sent to site owners

Email Newsletter

• Newsletter name: Display name for your newsletter
• Sender name: "From" name on emails
• Sender email: "From" email address
• Default recipients: Who gets new posts by default (all members, free, paid)
• Email design: Header image, footer text, logo
• Email frequency: Control how many emails members receive

Staff

• Current users: List of all admin users with their roles
• Owner: The original admin (cannot be deleted)
• Administrator: Full access to all settings
• Editor: Can create, edit, and publish content from any author
• Author: Can create and edit their own posts but not publish
• Contributor: Can create posts but not publish; needs editor approval

Code Injection

Add custom code to your site:

• Site Header: Code inserted into <head> on every page
• Site Footer: Code inserted before </body> on every page
• Post Header: Code inserted into <head> on posts only
• Post Footer: Code inserted before </body> on posts only

Common uses:

• Google Analytics and other tracking scripts
• Custom fonts
• Chat widgets
• Redirect scripts

Analytics

Ghost has built-in analytics for:

• Member growth
• Email open and click rates
• Top content

For detailed analytics, integrate with Google Analytics via code injection (Lesson 32).

Integrations

The Integrations section manages API access and third-party connections.

Custom Integrations

Create custom integrations to get API keys:

• Content API Key: Public read-only key for fetching content
• Admin API Key: Private key for full CRUD operations
• Admin API URL: The base URL for API requests

Zapier

Connect Ghost to Zapier to automate workflows:

• Trigger: Post published, Member added
• Actions: Create post, Add member to list
• Send data to: Slack, Mailchimp, Google Sheets, and thousands of other apps

AMP

Accelerated Mobile Pages — toggle AMP support for posts.

First Promoter

Built-in integration with First Promoter for Affiliate Marketing.

Slack

Post notifications to a Slack channel when content is published.

Unsplash

Built-in Unsplash integration for free stock photos directly in the editor.

Navigation Configuration

The navigation editor in Settings lets you add, edit, and reorder navigation links.

# Navigation structure in settings
- label: Home
  url: /
- label: Blog
  url: /blog/
- label: About
  url: /about/
- label: Contact
  url: /contact/

You can add primary navigation (main menu) and secondary navigation (footer). Each item has a label and URL. Drag to reorder.

User Roles and Permissions

Ghost has five user roles:

The Owner role is unique — there can only be one owner, and only the owner can delete the site or transfer ownership.

Common Mistakes

1. Giving contributor access to someone who needs to publish: Contributors can write posts but not publish them. If you give a contributor role to someone who needs self-publishing, their posts stay in draft until an editor publishes them. Use the Author role for self-publishing.

2. Forgetting to configure the navigation menu: A new Ghost site has no navigation configured. Visitors only see your posts through direct links. Always set up at minimum a Home link and key sections in Settings > Navigation.

3. Using the Owner account for daily work: The Owner account has unrestricted access to everything. If it is compromised, your entire site is at risk. Create separate Administrator accounts for daily use and reserve Owner for critical operations.

4. Not enabling code injection properly: Code injection code goes into the site header or footer, but some scripts need to run at specific points in the page load. Test injected scripts carefully — a JavaScript error in the header can break your entire site.

5. Assuming all settings are in config.production.json: Many settings — navigation, branding, accent color, staff roles — are only available in the admin panel. Do not search the config file for settings that are purely administrative.

Practice Questions

1. What is the difference between an Author and a Contributor in Ghost? Answer: An Author can create, edit, and publish their own posts. A Contributor can create and edit their own posts but cannot publish — their posts remain in draft status until an Editor or Administrator publishes them. Use Contributor for guest writers who need approval before going live.

2. Where do you configure the site's accent color and logo? Answer: In Settings > Branding. The accent color is the primary brand color used throughout the theme. The publication logo appears in the header. Both are set through the admin panel, not the config file.

3. How does code injection work in Ghost? Answer: The Code Injection section in Settings lets you add custom HTML, CSS, or JavaScript to your site at four insertion points: Site Header (in <head>), Site Footer (before </body>), Post Header (in <head> on posts), and Post Footer (before </body> on posts). This is used for analytics scripts, custom fonts, and other third-party code.

4. Challenge: Set up a complete Ghost admin configuration from scratch. Create three user accounts (Owner, Editor, Author), configure the primary navigation with five links, upload a logo and set an accent color, enable the Unsplash integration, create a custom integration and save the API keys, and set up a Zapier Webhook that triggers when a new post is published.

FAQ

Mini Project

Your task: Configure a complete Ghost site using only the admin panel.

1. Set up a new Ghost installation locally.
2. Log into the admin panel and configure: the site title "Tech Insights Weekly," a cover image, an accent color of #2563EB (blue), and a publication logo.
3. Create a primary navigation with four links: Home, Articles, Podcast, About.
4. Create three staff accounts: yourself as Owner, a fictional Editor, and a fictional Author.
5. Create a custom integration named "Mobile App" and save the Content API key.
6. Add a Google Analytics tracking script using code injection in the Site Footer.
7. Write a brief guide documenting every setting you configured.

This exercise ensures you can set up a Ghost site from scratch without touching the command line.

What's Next

Now that you understand the admin panel, explore the experimental features that Ghost offers:

Continue to Lesson 8: Ghost Labs — Explore beta features, experimental settings, and custom configuration options.

Related lessons:

• Ghost Config — Server-side configuration file settings
• Posts and Pages — Content management in Ghost