WordPress can be a powerful platform for your website if you know how to use it. One thing that makes it so useful is the amount of control you have over your website through the settings. And although a high level of control is nice, having so many options can feel overwhelming if you are new to the platform.
If you want to get the most out of your website, you need to understand how the settings work. Once you do, you’ll be able to make changes when you need to and set up your website without much external help. Here is your guide to WordPress settings.
Getting started with WordPress settings
Before you begin digging into your settings, it’s important to take several steps. First and foremost, make a backup of your website. There are plenty of ways to do this, including plugins. Hosting platforms like Bluehost’s WordPress hosting often have a backup feature, as well. You’ll need this backup if you mess something up and need to restore your site.
The second thing you need to do is make a note of the settings on your website. Some of these settings are crucial, and you will need to know what they are so you can restore your website. Write everything down or take screenshots before you make changes so that you have all the information you need.
General settings
When you open the settings tab, you’ll see seven basic settings categories. If you have other plugins and features installed, you may see more. The first section is for general settings, which set up the basic features and functions of your website. The most important ones are outlined below.
- Site title and tagline
When you set up your website, one of the first things to do is define the site title and tagline. These are both important for SEO, functionality, and marketing purposes. The site title is the overall title of your website and is usually displayed on the browser tab. The tagline is often used to describe your website quickly and is used in marketing operations. Set both as soon as your website is online.
- Site address
The site address is the URL for your website. The vast majority of people don’t, and should not, touch this setting at all. If you do change it, your site could be broken until you go into your database and fix it. The only time you should change the setting is if you are moving your website to a new location.
- Membership settings
WordPress can let people create membership accounts, so they can subscribe to your posts and gain access to other features that you can create. The membership settings control how these accounts are created. The most important membership setting is the default role that controls how much access new accounts have. It should be set to “Subscriber,” unless you want to give people more control right away.
- Time zone and site language
Go into your settings and change the time zone and site language for where you are. This makes it easier to manage communications for the region you are in. Plus, they match your current time if you are going to schedule posts for future releases.
- Writing settings
The next section is the writing setting that controls how you create posts. Most people use the default setting, which makes it easy to create new blog posts. However, there are several circumstances where you may want to change the settings. You can even add settings to help you improve and create content, like using Google Analytics.
- Post category: The post category chooses the default category for each post. It’s set to “Uncategorized,” by default. Categories can be a powerful keyword and organizational tool if you can get them organized. Change this setting to whatever category you designed to be your default option.
- Post format: The post format option can change how your posts are structured by default. It is traditionally set to optimize writing, but you can change it if you often use different media types.
- WordPress address (URL)
This setting defines the web address where your WordPress core files are located. Typically, this remains the same as your site’s domain name. However, in some cases, you may need to modify it to match your server setup.
- Administration email address
Your administration email address is where you’ll receive important notifications, including password resets and system updates. It’s essential to keep this email address up to date to ensure you don’t miss critical information.
- New user default role
This setting determines the role assigned to new users when they register on your site. WordPress offers several default roles, such as Subscriber, Contributor, Author, Editor, and Administrator. Choose the role that aligns with the level of access and responsibility you want new users to have.
- Date format and time format
These settings allow you to define how dates and times are displayed on your website. You can choose from various formats to match your preferred style and regional conventions.
- Week starts on
WordPress allows you to set the starting day of the week, which can be essential for date-based content like event calendars. Choose the day that best suits your site’s requirements.
- Post via email
WordPress offers the ability to publish posts via email. While this feature is not commonly used, you can enable it and configure specific settings to allow contributors to submit content through email. However, be cautious about security and spam concerns when using this feature.
- Update services
This setting is crucial for notifying search engines and content aggregators about new content on your site. By default, WordPress pings the Ping-O-Matic service, but you can extend this list with additional update services to ensure your site’s content is promptly indexed and distributed.
13. Reading Settings
The WordPress reading settings control how people see your posts. Most of the settings should be left alone unless you have a specific reason to change them. However, there are a few worth noting that can make your site more customized. Let’s explore this setting in detail:
- Your homepage displays: This setting determines what content appears on your website’s front page. You can choose between displaying your latest blog posts or a static page as your homepage. If you prefer a traditional blog layout, select “Your latest posts.” For a more custom front page, choose “A static page” and specify which page should serve as the front page.
- Blog pages show at most: This setting controls the number of blog posts displayed on each page of your blog’s feed. You can adjust this number based on your content strategy and how much content you want to display at once. It affects pagination and load times for your blog pages.
- For each post in a feed: WordPress allows you to include either the full text of your blog posts or a summary (excerpt) in your RSS feeds. This setting can influence how readers interact with your content through RSS subscriptions.
- Search engine visibility: This is a critical setting for SEO. By default, WordPress allows search engines to index your site and display it in search results. However, if you want to hide your site from search engines temporarily, you can check the “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” option. Keep in mind that this doesn’t guarantee complete privacy, but it can be useful during site development or maintenance.
- Homepage settings
Every WordPress theme settings has a homepage template; but you can make any page in your site the homepage. This can be useful for special sales, or if you have something to highlight.
- Search engine visibility
In most cases, you want your website to be found by the search engines. However, there are many behind-the-scenes websites that don’t want to be found. The search engine visibility option can hide your website if you don’t want it to be found.
- Discussion settings
If you want to have comments and discussions for your posts, then look at the WordPress discussion settings. They let you control things like allowing comments, when comments are automatically shut off for posts, and how the comments are organized. The default settings work for most situations. However, knowing how to control comments is important if you write about controversial topics or have a problem with harassment.
- Media settings
The WordPress media settings are mostly unseen and should be left as their defaults. You can control things like what size pictures should be by default. If you work with different media types often, then you should look at how WordPress handles different types of media and how it can work with your theme. Here are the key elements of media settings:
- Image sizes: WordPress generates multiple image sizes when you upload media files like images. In the media settings, you can specify the dimensions (width and height) for these sizes, including thumbnail, medium, and large sizes. By defining these sizes, you can ensure that your images display correctly and fit the design of your website. This also helps improve page load times as WordPress serves appropriately sized images for different devices and screen resolutions.
- Uploading files: In this section, you can specify the default folder for organizing your uploaded media files. WordPress uses the default “wp-content/uploads” directory to store your media files, categorized by date. However, you can choose to organize them into month- and year-based folders for better file management. This can be especially useful if you have many media files on your site.
- Organize uploads: The “Organize my uploads into month- and year-based folders” option allows you to determine how media files are stored. When enabled, WordPress automatically categorizes uploads into folders based on the month and year of the upload. This can help keep your media library organized and make it easier to locate specific files.
- Permalink settings
The permalink settings are the most crucial to your website and should be left alone unless you have a reason to change them. Permalinks are the URLs for your posts, and you can change how they are formatted. Many of the available options make them shorter or easier for people to read. However, you should make any changes before your site becomes popular, and you have a lot of posts that are shared. Changing the permalink structure breaks all the old links unless you have a way of updating them through a plugin or going to the places where they have been shared directly.
- Privacy settings
Privacy settings are relatively new to WordPress and were added because privacy has become a major issue. The privacy settings are designed to help you create a privacy policy for your site. That way, you have your policies in place and can avoid legal issues down the road. Here’s how to change your privacy policy page in WordPress:
- Create the privacy policy page: If you don’t have a Privacy Policy page already, you can create one by going to your WordPress dashboard, clicking on “Pages,” and then selecting “Add New.” Enter your Privacy Policy content on this page.
- Access privacy settings: In your WordPress dashboard, navigate to “Settings,” and then click on “Privacy.” Within the Privacy Settings section, you’ll find the option to “Change your Privacy Policy page.”
- Select the new page: Clicking on “Change your Privacy Policy page” opens a dropdown menu that displays all the published pages on your website. From this list, you can select the page you’ve designated as your Privacy Policy page or the one you’ve just created.
- Save your selection: After choosing the appropriate page, click a button like “Use This Page” to confirm your selection. Make sure to save your changes.
Common questions about WordPress settings
Absolutely! In WordPress, media files are typically organized by upload date. However, they’re not customizable by default. To categorize media files differently, you might consider plugins like “Media Library Assistant” or “Real Media Library” that provide more advanced organization options.
WordPress’s privacy settings determine your site’s visibility. In ‘Settings’ > ‘Reading’, you can choose whether search engines can index your site. For more granular control, use plugins like “Yoast SEO”. It’s essential to set these correctly to control your site’s online visibility.
To enhance security, always ensure WordPress, plugins, and themes are updated. Use strong passwords and limit login attempts. In ‘Settings’ > ‘General’, change the default “admin” username. For advanced security measures, consider security plugins like “Wordfence” or “iThemes Security”.
Yes, you can. Go to ‘Settings’ > ‘General’ and find the “Site Language” dropdown. Select your desired language, and then save changes. WordPress will then display your site in the chosen language, ensuring better localization.
To access admin settings, log into your WordPress site. You’ll land on the dashboard. On the left sidebar, click ‘Settings’. This section houses various sub-settings like ‘General’, ‘Writing’, ‘Reading’, and more, allowing for extensive site customization.
Conclusion
WordPress settings can be a good way to change how your site works. Just make sure you understand the settings before you make any changes to them. Whether you want to change your WordPress settings to optimize your website through Google Analytics or want to add a contact form, there are unlimited ways to take advantage of your WordPress settings. You can also work with your hosting provider to make changes as you see fit. Their customer service representatives should be able to walk you through the process.
