Essential WordPress Settings for New Site Owners

Introduction

WordPress settings determine how your site behaves, from basic information like your site title to technical details like URL structure. Properly configuring these settings is essential for SEO, user experience, and site functionality. This guide walks through every settings page, explaining each option and recommending optimal configurations for most websites.

Accessing WordPress Settings

Navigate to Settings in the left sidebar of your WordPress dashboard. You'll find several submenus:

• General
• Writing
• Reading
• Discussion
• Media
• Permalinks
• Privacy

General Settings

Location: Settings > General

Site Title

Your website's name displayed in:

• Browser tabs
• Search results
• RSS feeds
• Some themes' headers

Best Practices:

• Keep it concise (under 60 characters)
• Include main keyword if natural
• Match your brand name

Tagline

A brief description of your site:

• Often displayed below site title
• May appear in search results
• Some themes display prominently

Best Practices:

• Describe what your site offers
• Include relevant keywords
• Keep under 120 characters
• Or leave blank if not used by theme

WordPress Address (URL)

The URL where WordPress files are installed.

Warning: Don't change unless you know what you're doing. Incorrect settings can lock you out of your site.

Site Address (URL)

The URL visitors use to reach your site. Usually matches WordPress Address.

Example Difference:

• WordPress Address: example.com/blog
• Site Address: example.com (WordPress in subdirectory, site appears at root)

Administration Email Address

Where WordPress sends:

• Admin notifications
• Password reset confirmations
• Update alerts
• Comment notifications

Best Practice: Use an email you monitor regularly.

Membership

Anyone can register: Check this to allow public registration.

Best Practices:

• Leave unchecked unless you need user registration
• Enable for membership sites, forums, or communities
• Keep disabled for simple blogs

New User Default Role

Role assigned to new registrations:

• Subscriber: Safest for most sites
• Contributor: If you want submissions
• Never set to Editor or Administrator

Site Language

Changes dashboard and front-end language for:

• Admin interface
• Dates
• Default strings

Must have language pack installed for non-English.

Timezone

Affects:

• Post scheduling
• Comment timestamps
• Dashboard times

Best Practice: Set to your local timezone or where most readers are located.

Date Format

How dates display on your site:

• Various format options
• Custom format using PHP date codes

Common Formats:

• F j, Y = January 1, 2025
• Y-m-d = 2025-01-01
• m/d/Y = 01/01/2025

Time Format

How times display:

• 12-hour or 24-hour
• Custom formats available

Week Starts On

First day of the week in calendars and date pickers. Cultural preference.

Writing Settings

Location: Settings > Writing

Default Post Category

Category assigned to posts when you don't select one.

Best Practice: Create a meaningful default category like "Blog" or "General" rather than using "Uncategorized."

Default Post Format

Post format applied by default. Most themes support:

• Standard
• Aside
• Gallery
• Video
• Quote
• And others

Best Practice: Leave as "Standard" unless your theme uses formats extensively.

Post via Email (Classic)

Allows posting by sending emails to a secret address.

Status: Largely deprecated. Not recommended due to security concerns and limited functionality.

Update Services

URLs WordPress pings when you publish content:

• Notifies search engines
• Updates blog directories

Best Practice: Default (rpc.pingomatic.com) is sufficient. Adding more rarely helps.

Reading Settings

Location: Settings > Reading

Your Homepage Displays

Your latest posts: Blog-style homepage showing recent posts in reverse chronological order.

A static page: Choose specific pages for:

• Homepage: Your landing page
• Posts page: Where blog posts appear

Best Practices:

• Blogs/News: Latest posts
• Business sites: Static homepage
• Most purchased domains: Already configured appropriately

Blog Pages Show At Most

Number of posts displayed on blog pages.

Best Practice: 10-12 posts balances content visibility and page load speed.

Syndication Feeds Show

Posts included in RSS feeds.

Best Practice: 10-15 items is standard.

For Each Post in a Feed, Include

Full text: Complete posts in feed readers Excerpt: Summaries that drive traffic to site

Best Practice:

• Full text for reader convenience
• Excerpt to encourage site visits

Search Engine Visibility

Discourage search engines from indexing this site

Warning: This adds noindex meta tag preventing Google indexing.

When to Check:

• Development/staging sites
• Private internal sites
• Never for live public sites

Critical: Ensure this is UNCHECKED for live sites.

Discussion Settings

Location: Settings > Discussion

Default Post Settings

Attempt to notify any blogs linked to from the post: Sends pingbacks when you link to other WordPress sites. Recommendation: Enable for community engagement.

Allow link notifications from other blogs: Receives pingbacks/trackbacks from sites linking to you. Recommendation: Enable, but moderate for spam.

Allow people to submit comments on new posts: Default comment status for new posts. Recommendation: Enable for engagement; disable if you don't want comments.

Other Comment Settings

Comment author must fill out name and email: Recommendation: Enable to reduce spam and increase accountability.

Users must be registered and logged in: Recommendation: Disable unless you have a membership site.

Automatically close comments after X days: Recommendation: Consider 60-90 days to reduce spam on old posts.

Enable threaded comments X levels deep: Recommendation: Enable, 3-5 levels works well.

Break comments into pages: Recommendation: Enable for posts with many comments, 50 comments per page.

Email Me Whenever

Anyone posts a comment: Recommendation: Enable on low-traffic sites, disable on busy sites.

A comment is held for moderation: Recommendation: Always enable to catch moderation queue items.

Before a Comment Appears

Comment must be manually approved: Recommendation: Disable for established communities, enable for strict moderation.

Comment author must have a previously approved comment: Recommendation: Enable - reduces spam while allowing repeat commenters through.

Comment Moderation

Comments go to moderation if they contain X or more links. Recommendation: Set to 2 links - legitimate comments rarely have more.

Moderation keywords: Comments with these words held for moderation. Use for: Industry-specific terms that might be spam.

Disallowed Comment Keys

Comments with these words go directly to spam. Use for: Known spam words, competitor names being abused, offensive terms.

Avatars

Avatar Display: Show avatars in comments. Recommendation: Enable for community feel.

Maximum Rating: Filter Gravatar ratings. Recommendation: G (General) for most sites.

Default Avatar: For users without Gravatar. Recommendation: "Mystery Person" or "Blank" look most professional.

Media Settings

Location: Settings > Media

Image Sizes

Default sizes WordPress creates on upload:

Thumbnail size:

• Default: 150x150 pixels
• Crop option: Enable for uniform thumbnails
• Recommendation: Keep defaults unless theme specifies different

Medium size:

• Default: 300x300 maximum
• Recommendation: Keep defaults

Large size:

• Default: 1024x1024 maximum
• Recommendation: May increase to 1200 if theme uses larger images

Uploading Files

Organize uploads into month- and year-based folders:

• Creates wp-content/uploads/2025/01/ structure
• Recommendation: Keep enabled for large sites, easier management

Permalink Settings

Location: Settings > Permalinks

Permalinks define your URL structure - one of the most important settings for SEO.

Common Settings

Plain: ?p=123

• Ugly, not SEO-friendly
• Never use for public sites

Day and name: /2025/01/15/sample-post/

• Good for news sites
• Shows date context

Month and name: /2025/01/sample-post/

• Similar to above
• Less specific date

Numeric: /archives/123

• Clean but not descriptive
• Not ideal for SEO

Post name: /sample-post/

• Clean and SEO-friendly
• Recommended for most sites

Custom Structure: Define your own

• Mix tags like %category%/%postname%/
• Advanced control

Optimal Structure

For most sites: Post name (%postname%)

• Clean URLs
• Contains keywords
• No dates (content stays fresh)
• Easy to remember

Optional Bases

Category base: Prefix for category URLs

• Default: /category/
• Can customize or remove

Tag base: Prefix for tag URLs

• Default: /tag/
• Can customize

Warning: Don't change permalinks on established sites without setting up redirects. Broken links hurt SEO.

Privacy Settings

Location: Settings > Privacy

Privacy Policy Page

Select your privacy policy page for:

• Login and registration pages
• GDPR compliance features

Best Practice: Create a comprehensive privacy policy page and select it here.

Privacy Policy Guide

WordPress provides a guide for creating privacy policies, including:

• What data WordPress collects
• What data plugins might collect
• Suggested policy text

Plugin-Added Settings

Many plugins add their own settings sections:

Common Plugin Settings

Yoast SEO: SEO > General, Search Appearance, Social WooCommerce: WooCommerce > Settings Contact Form 7: Contact > settings Wordfence: Wordfence > All Options

Managing Plugin Settings

• Review settings when installing plugins
• Export settings before updating major versions
• Document custom configurations

Settings Best Practices

After Purchasing a Domain

1. Review all settings pages
2. Update contact email
3. Verify timezone
4. Check search engine visibility (unchecked!)
5. Review permalink structure
6. Update comment settings to your preference

Regular Settings Review

Schedule quarterly reviews of:

• User email addresses
• Comment moderation settings
• Privacy policy currency
• Plugin settings

Before Making Changes

• Document current settings
• Make one change at a time
• Test after each change
• Have rollback plan

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I change my site URL?

Yes, but carefully:

1. Backup your site first
2. Update both WordPress Address and Site Address together
3. May need database find-and-replace for internal links
4. Set up redirects from old URLs

What if I'm locked out after changing settings?

Edit wp-config.php via FTP/file manager:

define('WP_SITEURL', 'https://yourcorrecturl.com');
define('WP_HOME', 'https://yourcorrecturl.com');

Should I change permalink structure on an established site?

Only if absolutely necessary:

1. Set up 301 redirects for all old URLs
2. Update internal links
3. Submit new sitemap to Google
4. Monitor for 404 errors

How do I make WordPress faster through settings?

Settings alone won't significantly improve speed. For performance:

• Use caching plugins
• Optimize images
• Choose quality hosting
• Minimize plugins

Can I undo setting changes?

No built-in undo. Best practices:

• Screenshot settings before changing
• Note original values
• Test changes on staging first

Key Takeaways

• General settings control site identity and basic configuration
• Reading settings affect homepage display and search visibility
• Permalink structure is crucial for SEO - use "Post name" for most sites
• Discussion settings control comments and engagement
• Never check "Discourage search engines" on live public sites
• Review and document settings when acquiring a new site

Next Steps

With your settings properly configured, explore our guides on WordPress SEO Optimization to maximize your site's search visibility, or learn about Performance Optimization for faster page loads.

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Meta Description: Complete guide to WordPress settings configuration. Learn optimal settings for General, Reading, Discussion, Media, Permalinks, and Privacy for your website.

Keywords: wordpress settings, wordpress configuration, wordpress setup, site settings, wordpress permalinks