WordPress general settings explained
A plain-English guide to the General Settings page in WordPress, covering site title, tagline, URL, timezone, and language.
- Time
- 5 minutes
- Difficulty
- Beginner
- You’ll need
- Administrator access
The General Settings page is where WordPress stores the most fundamental information about your site — your site name, address, timezone, and a few other basics. Most of these you'll set once and rarely need to change again.
Quick summary
Go to Settings → General to update your site title, tagline, admin email, timezone, date format, and language. Always click Save Changes at the bottom when done.
What you'll need
- Administrator access to your WordPress site
How to open General Settings
Log in to WordPress and go to your dashboard.
Click Settings in the left sidebar, then click General.
What each setting does
Recent versions of WordPress (6.5 and later) also show a Site Icon field here, just below the tagline. That's your favicon: see Changing your logo, site title & favicon.
Site Title
This is your website's name. Most themes show it at the top of every page, and WordPress uses it in the browser tab title and as the name of your site's feeds. Because the tab title often ends up in search results, it can appear there too. It should match your actual business name.
Tagline
A short phrase that describes your site. On your homepage, WordPress normally adds the tagline to the browser tab title, so it can also show up in search results. You can leave it blank: new sites now start with an empty tagline. Older sites may still have the old default, "Just another WordPress site", which you should replace or remove. Keep it to one short sentence if you use it.
WordPress Address (URL) and Site Address (URL)
These two fields tell WordPress where it lives. In most cases, they'll be identical (both set to your main domain, like https://yoursite.com).
Don't change these unless you know what you're doing
Changing either URL field incorrectly can lock you out of your dashboard entirely. If you need to move your site to a different domain, contact us — this is not something to change casually.
Administration Email Address
This is the email address where WordPress sends site administration notices — things like new user registrations, comments waiting for moderation, site updates, and alerts when the site hits a critical error or a plugin or theme has a problem. It should be a real email address that someone actually reads. It's not visible to website visitors, and it's separate from the email address you log in with.
Membership
The checkbox labeled "Anyone can register" controls whether visitors can create their own accounts on your site. For most business sites, this should be unchecked to prevent unsolicited account creation. If you run a members-only area or online community, you may want it enabled.
New User Default Role
This sets the role automatically given to anyone who registers, and the role WordPress preselects when you add a user yourself. If "Anyone can register" is on, this should almost always be set to Subscriber — the most restricted role. Since WordPress 7.0, Administrator and Editor are no longer offered here. See WordPress user roles explained.
Site Language
Sets the language WordPress uses for its own built-in text. That includes the dashboard (each user can choose a different dashboard language in their profile) and the words your theme and plugins show visitors, such as buttons and dates, where a translation exists. It doesn't translate the pages and posts you've written.
Timezone
Set this correctly — it affects when content publishes
Your timezone setting controls when scheduled posts go live and when timestamps appear on content. If it's set to the wrong timezone, posts may publish at unexpected times.
Set this to your actual timezone. You can choose either a city in your timezone (for example, Chicago, listed under America) or a UTC offset. City names are more reliable because they automatically account for daylight saving time.
Date Format and Time Format
These control how dates and times are displayed on your site — for example, in blog post publish dates and comments. They don't change how dates appear in the dashboard. Choose the format that matches your country and audience's expectations.
Week Starts On
Sets which day WordPress calendars start on (like the date picker when scheduling content). Set to whatever day your work week starts.
Saving your changes
Always click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the page. Nothing saves until you do this.
Common questions
My site title is wrong in Google search results — how do I fix it?
Update the Site Title here first. Then check your SEO plugin (like Yoast or Rank Math) — it may be overriding the title with its own setting. Google has to recrawl your page before it notices the change. See Editing SEO titles & descriptions for guidance.
Can I have a different site title and SEO title?
Yes. Your WordPress Site Title is used by your theme. Your SEO plugin lets you write a separate title specifically for search engine results. The SEO title becomes the page's title tag, which is one of the sources Google uses for your page's headline in search results. Google can also choose different text.
What is a tagline used for?
Some themes display it under your logo or in the header. Search engines may use it in results. If you don't want it to appear, check your theme settings for an option to hide it, or leave the field blank.
I changed the admin email — why didn't it update immediately?
WordPress sends a confirmation link to the new email address before switching. Check your new email's inbox and click the confirmation link to complete the change. Until then, the old address stays active.
Related guides
- Setting your homepage
- Permalinks & URL structure
- Comments & discussion settings
- Editing SEO titles & descriptions
- WordPress user roles explained
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