How to Set Up Your WordPress Site (Basic Settings for Beginners)

Congrats on installing WordPress on your website. 🎉
But before you publish your first blog post, let’s configure your site with some essential settings. Doing this now helps avoid problems later and improves SEO and user experience.

In this guide, you will learn how to:

• Set your site title and tagline
• Choose the correct permalink structure
• Set timezone and language
• Disable unwanted features like comments (if needed)
• Make your site look clean and ready to grow

Let’s set it up the right way.

Step 1: Set Your Site Title and Tagline

1. Go to your WordPress Dashboard
2. Navigate to Settings > General

Here, you will find:

• Site Title – Your blog’s name (e.g., “WordPress Begineer”)
• Tagline – A short line explaining what your site is about (e.g., “Learn WordPress from Scratch”)

Pro Tip: Keep it short and clear, as this appears in search engine results and browser tabs.

Don’t forget to ‘Save’ after each change you have made.

Step 2: Set a Clean Permalink Structure

Permalinks control how your blog post URLs look.

1. Go to Settings > Permalinks
2. Choose Post name format

https://yourdomain.com/sample-post/

This is SEO-friendly and easy to remember.

Avoid “plain” or dates in URLs – they look messy and outdated.

Step 3: Set Timezone, Language, and Date Format

1. Go to Settings > General again
2. Scroll down to:
   • Timezone – Choose your city or country (e.g., Kolkata)
   • Date Format – Use something simple like “July 27, 2025”
   • Time Format – of your choice
   • Site Language – English (or your preferred language)

This ensures your post timestamps are correct, especially if you schedule them.

Step 4: Disable Comments (Optional)

If you don’t want comment spam on your blog:

1. Go to Settings > Discussion
2. Uncheck “Allow people to submit comments on new posts”.

Note that you can always enable it later.

Step 5: Clean Up Default Content

1. Go to Posts > All Posts and delete the “Hello World” post
2. Go to Pages → All Pages and remove any demo content
3. Empty the Trash for a fresh start

Step 6: Discourage Search Engine Visibility

1. Go to Settings > Reading
2. Check “Discourage search engines from indexing this site”.

For beginners, I recommend discouraging search engines from indexing new sites that are still under construction to prevent visibility of sites under construction.

Don’t forget to uncheck this option once your site is all set.

Quick Recap

Setting	Where to Find It	Why It Matters
Site Title & Tagline	Settings > General	Appears in Google & browser
Permalink Structure	Settings > Permalinks	SEO-friendly URLs
Timezone & Language	Settings > General	Correct post timing
Disable Comments	Settings > Discussion	Reduce spam
Delete Demo Content	Posts/Pages > Trash	Clean start
Discourage Search Engine	Settings > Reading	Prevents prematuare visibility

Final Words

Your blog is now technically live and properly set up.

Keep going – Happy blogging! 🚀

🙋 FAQs