WordPress settings is your website’s basic configuration. This guide gives you an overview on settings. And suggestions on which WordPress settings to change.
WordPress settings
Configuring your website settings is the very first step you should do after you have installed WordPress. Although you can change settings at anytime, it is advisable configure properly from the very beginning. In general, WordPress settings are especially simple to understand and manage.
Since most settings are self explanatory, for example, Date and Time Formats. We will be focusing on the important ones.
General Settings
The General section of Settings, allows you to configure some basic settings.
Tagline
Tagline for your website. Since most Themes seldom use this setting, you should change or remove the default line.
WordPress Address
This refers to where the WordPress installation resides. Do not change this setting unless you know what you are doing. By changing this setting, you should also move the physical location of the installation.
Site Address
This refers to where the URL address of the website. Do not change this setting unless you know what you are doing. A change in Site Address will most likely result in breaking your WordPress installation. Consequently, you would not be able to login to your WordPress dashboard to change it back.
Membership
Unless you are running a website that allows members to register, leave the “Anyone can register” option unchecked.
New User Default Role
For the security of your website, leave the default role as “Subscriber”.
Site Language
Site language refers to the language of the WordPress installation. This setting changes the language of WordPress admin dashboard. WordPress is capable of displaying several languages on the front-end. However, if you need a plugin or theme translated, you may need a translation management plugin.
Writing Settings
While there is nothing of much importance in this section, these settings may help in better productivity and website crawl rate.
Default Post Category
This sets the default category of your new posts. Changing this setting to your default category can be a time saver when composing posts. Especially if you are one that always forgets to change the category.
Update Services
WordPress automatically will inform major feeds when you update of posts or new article. However, you may like to add more services to the ping list. You can do so in this section.
Reading Settings
Settings here are configurations for the front end of the website.
Front Page Displays
You can set a Static front page or a feed of your latest posts as the Home Page. Generally speaking, if you are running a blog site you would be using the “Your latest posts” option. And if you are running a business website, it would be “A static page” option. However, it differs, depending on the Theme.
Search Engine Visibility
A very important setting. Check this option if you not ready to launch the website yet. Uncheck it when you are launching the site. This option basically sets the robots.txt file in your website to allow or deny Search Engine Crawlers. However, it is up to search engines to honor this request.
Discussion Settings
Also known as Comments Settings. Settings here are often ignored. Resulting in thousands of spam comments even if there is no comment box on posts or pages. There is no switch to turn on comments site wide. Instead, you can enable comments on individual posts and pages.
Avoid Comments
If you do not want any comments on your website, you should check “Users must be registered and logged in to comment“. And check “Comment must be manually approved“, just in case. This would normally stop all unwanted comments. But if that does not work, you might want to install a plugin like No Page Comments.
Enabling Comments
If you choose to enable comments, you should consider the following settings to avoid spam. Check “Comment author must fill out name and email” and “Automatically close comments on articles older than X days”. And “Comment must be manually approved “.
Media Settings
Media Settings allows you to configure sizes of images and folder organization.
Thumbnail size
If you are wondering why your thumbnails are always getting cropped, the culprit is in the settings. Uncheck “Crop thumbnail to exact dimensions”
Uploading Files
Because uploaded files grow with time, it is easier if your uploads are organized. Check “Organize my uploads into month- and year-based folders”.
Permalinks
WordPress offers the ability to use and create “clean urls”. From this section, you may set up the your website URL structure. Most websites will opt for “Post name” option.
Conclusion
Thank you for reading our simple guide. We hope you find the content informative and helpful on your WordPress journey.
