Beginner Series Part 1 – How to Make Sure Your WordPress Settings are Configured Correctly

  1. The General tab 01:38
    • Many of these settings will be fine as the default, but there are a few that we want to check up on.
    • You want to make sure that your title/tagline are set correctly because these display on your site. (If you are using an SEO plugin, you have more control over this.) You don’t want your tagline to say “Just another WordPress website”. Fill it in with information and keywords about your website.
    • Next, you’ll want to check to make sure that your website address is correct. (Usually it is, otherwise you wouldn’t be able to log into your website.
    • The last WordPress settings under the general tab that you will want to check would be your site email address, the date/time format for the website, and your website time zone.
  2. The Reading tab 03:43
    • This is where you’re going to set your home page displays.
    • If you are a blog, you don’t need to change anything. It will automatically default to your latest blog post.
    • If you are any other kind of website, you’ll want to update this setting.
    • Something very important on this page is that you want to make sure that the “discourage search engines” box is unchecked. If this is checked, you will not be visible by search engines.
  3. The Permalinks settings 05:19
    • Permalinks are the way your URLs display.
    • By default, WordPress sets this to “plain”. This really isn’t good for search or for the visitors on your site.
    • Instead, you want the URL to display keywords. You can do this by clicking the setting for “post name”.

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