WordPress general settings explained
A plain-English guide to the General Settings page in WordPress, covering site title, tagline, URL, timezone, and language.
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
Beginner 5 minutes- 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
Site Title
This is your website's name — it appears in browser tabs, search engine results, and anywhere your theme displays the site title. It should match your actual business name.
Tagline
A short phrase that describes your site. Search engines sometimes display this under your site title in search results. You can leave it blank, or remove the default "Just another WordPress site" placeholder. 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 important alerts — things like new user registrations, password reset requests, and plugin notifications. It should be a real email address that someone actually reads. It's not visible to website visitors.
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 assigned to anyone who registers. If "Anyone can register" is on, this should almost always be set to Subscriber — the most restricted role. See WordPress user roles explained.
Site Language
Controls the language of your WordPress admin dashboard. This doesn't change the language of your public website — it only affects the back-end interface you see when logged in.
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 (like "America/Chicago") 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. Choose the format that matches your country and audience's expectations.
Week Starts On
Affects calendar displays within WordPress (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
Related guides
- Setting your homepage
- Permalinks & URL structure
- Comments & discussion settings
- Editing SEO titles & descriptions
- WordPress user roles explained
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