Installing WordPress gives you a working website, but the default configuration is not necessarily the right configuration for your project.
Before you begin publishing content, you should review several important WordPress settings. These control everything from your website title and URL structure to comments, homepage display, timezone, privacy, and search engine visibility.
Configuring these settings early can also save you from awkward cleanup later, particularly when it comes to URLs and search indexing.
In this tutorial, we will walk through 15 essential WordPress settings you should review after installing a new website.
Important: The exact options available in your dashboard can vary depending on your WordPress version, hosting environment, active theme, and installed plugins.
Before You Start: Back Up Your Website
If you are working with a completely new and empty WordPress installation, there may not be much content to protect yet.
However, if your website already contains important content or has been customized, create a reliable backup before making significant configuration changes.
You should be particularly careful when changing:
- WordPress Address
- Site Address
- Permalink structure
- HTTPS configuration
- Website visibility
Some settings can affect how visitors and search engines access your website.
Now, let’s configure the essentials.
1. Set Your Site Title and Tagline
Navigate to:
Settings → General
You should see fields for your Site Title and Tagline.
Site Title
The Site Title is the name of your website.
For example:
Example Business
or:
My WordPress Blog
Enter the actual name you want associated with your website.
Your theme may display the Site Title in areas such as the header or browser-related metadata, although the exact presentation depends on your theme and SEO configuration.
Tagline
WordPress may include a default tagline on a fresh installation.
Replace the default text with something relevant to your website or remove it if you do not need a tagline.
For example:
Site Title: WP Tutorial Hub
Tagline: Practical WordPress Tutorials for Beginners
Whether the tagline appears publicly depends on your theme.
When finished, save your changes.
2. Check Your WordPress Address and Site Address
While still in:
Settings → General
you may see two important URL fields:
- WordPress Address (URL)
- Site Address (URL)
These settings are often identical.
For example:
https://example.com
The WordPress Address tells WordPress where its core application files are located.
The Site Address represents the address visitors use to access your website.
For a standard installation, both usually point to the same URL.
Important Warning
Do not change these values simply because you are experimenting with settings.
Entering an incorrect URL can make your website or administration area inaccessible.
If your website already works correctly at the intended domain using HTTPS, you may not need to change anything here.
If you need to move WordPress to another domain, subdirectory, or URL structure, follow a proper migration process instead of casually editing these fields.
3. Confirm Your Administration Email Address
Your WordPress administration email is another important setting under:
Settings → General
WordPress can use this address for important administrative notifications.
Make sure:
- The email address is correct
- You can access the inbox
- There are no spelling mistakes
Depending on the change you make and your WordPress setup, WordPress may require confirmation when updating the administration email.
Do not use an email address you rarely check.
For a business website, consider using an actively monitored administrative email account rather than an employee’s temporary personal address.
4. Review User Registration Settings
Under Settings → General, you may see an option labeled:
Anyone can register
Do not enable this automatically.
If your website does not need public user registration, leave registration disabled.
You may need registration for websites such as:
- Membership sites
- Community websites
- Certain online stores
- Learning platforms
If you enable registration, also review the New User Default Role.
Avoid assigning the Administrator role as the default role for public registrations.
The default Subscriber role provides much more limited access and is generally safer when basic user registration is required.
Plugins used for memberships, e-commerce, or learning platforms may manage user registration differently.
5. Set Your Site Language
WordPress allows you to choose the language used for the website’s administration interface and certain default WordPress text.
Navigate to:
Settings → General → Site Language
Choose the appropriate language for your website.
Changing the Site Language does not automatically translate the content you have written.
For example, if your pages are written in English and you switch the WordPress Site Language to Spanish, WordPress will not automatically translate those pages into Spanish.
Multilingual websites require a separate content and translation strategy.
6. Configure Your WordPress Timezone
One of the most overlooked settings on a new WordPress website is the timezone.
Navigate to:
Settings → General → Timezone
Choose the timezone appropriate for your website.
This setting can affect:
- Scheduled posts
- Publication times
- Certain plugin tasks
- Date and time displays
When an appropriate city-based timezone is available, it can be preferable for websites affected by daylight-saving changes because a fixed UTC offset does not automatically represent seasonal clock changes in the same way.
After selecting your timezone, review your:
- Date format
- Time format
- Week starting day
Choose the formats that make sense for your audience.
7. Configure Your Homepage Display
Navigate to:
Settings → Reading
WordPress allows you to determine what appears on your homepage.
You will generally have two options.
Your Latest Posts
Choose this option if you want your homepage to display your newest blog posts automatically.
This can work well for:
- Traditional blogs
- News websites
- Content-focused publications
A Static Page
Choose this option if you want to use a dedicated page as your homepage.
This is commonly used for:
- Business websites
- Portfolio websites
- Service websites
- Landing-page-style websites
Before selecting a static homepage, create the page you want to use.
You can also choose a separate page to display your blog posts.
For example:
Homepage: Home
Posts page: Blog
Do not select the same page for both purposes.
8. Review the Blog Page Settings
While in Settings → Reading, review how your post feeds and blog-related content are configured.
Depending on your WordPress version and setup, you may see options controlling:
- The number of blog posts displayed
- The number of items shown in feeds
- Whether feeds show full text or an excerpt
Choose settings appropriate for your website.
For many websites, displaying a reasonable number of posts per archive page can provide a better browsing experience than loading an unnecessarily large number at once.
Your theme can also influence how blog archives appear.
9. Check Search Engine Visibility
This is one of the most important settings to review before launching your website.
Navigate to:
Settings → Reading
Look for:
Search engine visibility
WordPress can provide an option asking search engines not to index the website.
This can be useful while a website is under development.
However, if your website is ready to appear in search results, make sure you have not accidentally left search engine indexing discouraged.
Important
This WordPress setting is a request to search engines. It is not a privacy or access-control system.
If a development website contains confidential information, protect it using appropriate authentication or access restrictions rather than relying only on search visibility settings.
Before launching a public website, always review this setting.
10. Configure WordPress Discussion Settings
Navigate to:
Settings → Discussion
This section controls many of WordPress’s built-in comment features.
You should review settings related to:
- Comments on new posts
- Comment author information
- Comment moderation
- Comment approval
- Email notifications
- Avatars
Should You Allow Comments?
There is no universal answer.
Comments can be useful for:
- Blogs
- Communities
- Educational content
- Publications that encourage discussion
They may be unnecessary for:
- Business brochure websites
- Portfolios
- Landing pages
- Certain documentation websites
If you do not plan to use comments, configure your discussion settings accordingly before publishing large amounts of content.
Remember that changing the default setting for new posts may not automatically change the comment status of every existing post.
11. Configure Comment Moderation
If you decide to allow comments, do not ignore moderation settings.
WordPress provides options that can help control which comments appear publicly.
Depending on your requirements, you may choose to require:
- Manual approval
- Previous approval for returning commenters
- Moderation based on links or specified terms
Spam remains a common problem for websites with public comment forms.
A sensible moderation strategy can prevent your comment section from becoming a tiny digital landfill.
The appropriate configuration depends on the amount of discussion your website receives and how actively you can moderate it.
12. Review Your Media Settings
Navigate to:
Settings → Media
WordPress can generate additional image sizes when you upload an image.
The standard Media Settings screen may include dimensions for:
- Thumbnail size
- Medium size
- Large size
Your theme and plugins can also register additional image sizes that do not necessarily appear on this screen.
Before changing these values, understand how your theme uses images.
Changing the dimensions generally affects image sizes generated for future uploads. Existing images may require thumbnail regeneration if you want them recreated using new dimensions.
For most beginners, the default values may be perfectly acceptable unless the active theme or project has specific requirements.
13. Choose Your Permalink Structure
Navigate to:
Settings → Permalinks
Permalinks determine the URL structure used for your WordPress content.
Depending on your installation, WordPress may offer structures such as:
- Plain
- Day and name
- Month and name
- Numeric
- Post name
- Custom structure
For many general-purpose websites and blogs, a clean post-name structure is easy for users to understand.
For example:
https://example.com/how-to-install-wordpress
instead of a URL based primarily on an internal post ID.
However, there is no single permalink structure that is correct for every website.
Large publications or websites with specific architecture requirements may choose different structures.
Important Warning for Existing Websites
If your website already receives traffic, do not change the permalink structure casually.
Changing existing URLs can create:
- Broken links
- 404 errors
- Lost referral traffic
- Search visibility problems
If you must change established URLs, implement appropriate redirects from the old URLs to their new destinations.
For a brand-new website, deciding your permalink structure before publishing large amounts of content is much easier.
14. Review Your Privacy Settings
Navigate to:
Settings → Privacy
WordPress includes tools that can help you select or create a Privacy Policy page.
A privacy policy can explain how your website collects, processes, stores, or shares information.
However, WordPress cannot automatically determine every legal requirement that applies to your website.
Your privacy obligations may depend on factors such as:
- Your location
- Your visitors’ locations
- Analytics tools
- Advertising
- Contact forms
- Cookies
- User accounts
- E-commerce
- Email marketing
- Third-party services
Treat WordPress’s privacy tools as a starting point rather than automatic legal compliance.
15. Remove or Review Default WordPress Content
A fresh WordPress installation may contain sample or default content.
Review areas such as:
Posts → All Posts
Pages → All Pages
Comments
Remove content you do not need.
Depending on your installation, this may include sample posts, pages, or comments.
Also review:
Plugins → Installed Plugins
and:
Appearance → Themes
Your hosting provider may have installed additional plugins or themes.
Do not automatically delete something simply because you do not recognize it. First determine what it does and whether your hosting environment depends on it.
At the same time, keeping unnecessary software installed can create additional maintenance work.
Keep your WordPress setup intentional.
Additional Settings Worth Checking
The 15 settings above establish the core configuration of a new WordPress website, but there are several additional tasks you should consider before launching.
Check HTTPS
Visit your website and confirm that it loads correctly using:
https://
Make sure important pages do not generate browser security warnings.
Configure Backups
Determine how your website will be backed up.
Check whether your hosting provider creates backups and understand:
- How often backups are created
- How long they are retained
- How you restore one
- Whether you need an additional backup solution
A backup you have never tested is a promise written in fog.
Review WordPress Updates
Navigate to:
Dashboard → Updates
Check whether updates are available for:
- WordPress
- Themes
- Plugins
- Translations
Keep your software maintained, but use an appropriate backup and testing strategy for important websites.
Delete Unused User Accounts
Navigate to:
Users → All Users
Review who has access to the website.
Remove accounts that are no longer required and give each user only the permissions they need.
Review Your User Profile
Navigate to:
Users → Profile
Review settings such as:
- Display name
- Email address
- Password
- Personal preferences
Avoid displaying a username publicly when you would prefer to show a proper author or brand name.
Recommended Settings for a New WordPress Tutorial Blog
If you are building a content-focused website, a reasonable starting configuration might look like this:
| Setting | Suggested Starting Point |
|---|---|
| Homepage | Static homepage or latest posts, depending on site design |
| Posts page | Dedicated Blog/Tutorials page if using a static homepage |
| Permalinks | Post name for many straightforward tutorial sites |
| Comments | Based on your moderation capacity |
| Search visibility | Allow indexing only when ready to launch |
| User registration | Disabled unless genuinely required |
| Timezone | Match your publishing operation |
| HTTPS | Enabled |
| Backups | Configured before significant content production |
These are starting points rather than universal rules.
Your website’s purpose should determine its configuration.
WordPress Settings You Should Not Change Carelessly
Some settings deserve extra caution.
- WordPress Address and Site Address
Incorrect values can make your website or administration area inaccessible. - Permalink Structure
Changing URLs on an established website can create broken links and SEO problems without proper redirects. - Search Engine Visibility
Accidentally discouraging indexing can prevent a public website from appearing properly in search results. - User Registration and Default Roles
Incorrect permissions can give users more access than intended. - Theme and Plugin File Editors
Although these are not core settings screens, editing live PHP files without a recovery method can break your website. - When you are unsure what a setting controls, understand it before changing it.
Frequently Asked Questions
| What settings should I change after installing WordPress? |
|---|
| At minimum, review your site title, administration email, timezone, homepage, search visibility, comments, permalinks, privacy settings, user registration, and HTTPS configuration. |
| What is the best permalink setting for WordPress? |
| There is no universal structure for every website. For many standard blogs and tutorial websites, a simple post-name structure provides clean, readable URLs. Existing websites should not change established permalink structures without planning redirects. |
| Should I enable “Anyone can register” in WordPress? |
| Only enable public registration if your website actually needs user accounts. If you enable it, carefully review the default user role and your registration workflow. |
| Should I discourage search engines while building my website? |
| You can use the setting during development, but remember to review it before launch. It is not a security mechanism for protecting private content. |
| Should I change the WordPress Address and Site Address? |
| Not unless you have a specific reason and understand the consequences. Incorrect URL settings can make your website difficult to access. |
| What timezone should I use in WordPress? |
| Choose the timezone that best matches your website’s publishing and operational needs. A relevant city-based timezone can be useful when daylight-saving changes apply. |
| Do I need to change the default media sizes? |
| Not necessarily. The correct image dimensions depend on your theme and design requirements. |
Not necessarily. The correct image dimensions depend on your theme and design requirements.
Final Thoughts
A new WordPress installation works out of the box, but spending a few minutes reviewing its configuration can prevent much larger problems later.
Pay particular attention to your:
Site information → Time zone → Homepage → Search visibility → Comments → Permalinks → Privacy → Users
Once these foundations are configured, your website is ready for the part that actually makes it useful: creating content.
In the next tutorial, we will show you how to create a page in WordPress step by step, including how to use the block editor, add images, configure page settings, preview your work, and publish your first page.
