Welcome back, class! You’ve installed WordPress. Wonderful. But a fresh install is a bit like a new classroom on the first day of term: the desks are there, yet nothing is arranged the way you want. Spend fifteen minutes on the settings below and you’ll avoid headaches for years.
Professor’s note: Menu names here reflect WordPress at the time of writing. If a label looks slightly different on your screen, the setting is usually in the same neighbourhood.
The General Housekeeping
1. Site Title and Tagline
In Settings → General, set a clear Site Title. Many themes display the tagline, and some SEO setups use it, so replace any placeholder text with a short description of your site, or leave it blank if your theme doesn’t show it.
2. Administration Email Address
Also in General settings. Use an address you actually check, because WordPress sends important notices there, including password reset and update messages.
3. Timezone, Date and Time Format
Choose a city rather than a UTC offset so daylight saving changes are handled automatically. Scheduled posts rely on this being correct. Pick a date format your readers will recognise.
4. Membership and New User Default Role
Unless you run a membership site, make sure Anyone can register is unticked. If you do allow registration, keep the default role as Subscriber, the role with the fewest permissions. The standard roles are Administrator, Editor, Author, Contributor and Subscriber.
URLs and Search Engines
5. Permalinks: Choose “Post name”
In Settings → Permalinks, select Post name. Your URLs become readable, like /day-one-settings/, instead of a string of numbers. Do this early: changing permalinks on an established site means setting up redirects.
6. Check “Search engine visibility”
In Settings → Reading, there’s a box labelled Discourage search engines from indexing this site. Some hosts tick it while you build. That’s fine during development, but it must be unticked when you launch.
Warning: Forgetting to untick “Discourage search engines” is one of the most common launch-day mistakes. Put a reminder in your calendar for launch day right now.
7. Your Homepage Displays
Also under Reading settings (on classic themes) you can choose between showing your latest posts or a static page. Business sites usually prefer a static homepage with a separate Blog page. On block themes, you’ll manage this through templates in Appearance → Editor as well.
Comments and Discussion
8. Decide Whether You Want Comments
In Settings → Discussion, decide whether new posts allow comments. If you want conversation, keep them on; if not, turning them off saves moderation time.
9. Hold Comments for Moderation
If comments are on, consider ticking Comment must be manually approved, or at least requiring a previously approved comment. Pair this with an anti-spam plugin such as Akismet; see our plugin recommendations.
10. Avatars
Discussion settings also control avatars. WordPress uses Gravatar by default. Pick a default avatar style you like, or disable avatars if they don’t suit your design.
Content Clean-Up
11. Delete the Sample Content
Every new install includes a “Hello world!” post, a “Sample Page” and a sample comment. Delete them. Leaving them live looks unfinished to visitors, and they can end up in search results.
12. Create a Privacy Policy Page
Go to Settings → Privacy. WordPress can generate a draft privacy policy page with helpful suggestions. Review and edit it for your situation (it’s a starting point, not legal advice), then publish it.
13. Media Upload Organisation
In Settings → Media, you can choose whether uploads are organised into month- and year-based folders. Most people leave this on. You can also review the default image sizes WordPress generates.
Profile and Maintenance
14. Your User Profile and Display Name
In Users → Profile, set a nickname and choose how your name is displayed publicly. This stops your login username appearing as the author name on posts, which looks friendlier and gives away one less clue about your login.
15. Remove Unused Themes and Plugins, Then Update
Visit Dashboard → Updates and bring everything up to date. Then delete themes and plugins you won’t use. Keeping one default theme installed as a fallback is sensible. Less code means fewer things to update and fewer potential security holes.
Tip: While you’re in the Plugins and Themes screens, consider enabling automatic updates for trusted items. Just make sure you have backups in place first; our tools page covers backup options.
Bonus Credit: A Site Icon
Your site icon (favicon) appears in browser tabs and bookmarks. On block themes you can set it via the Site Logo block or site settings; on classic themes it lives in Appearance → Customize → Site Identity. A crisp square image, at least 512 × 512 pixels, works well.
Where to Go Next
With the basics set, you’re ready to think about design, content and plugins. If you’d like a guided path, our Start Here page lays out the next lessons in order, and the full course goes deeper on each topic.
Homework
Work through this list on your own site with a checklist beside you. When you’re done, open your homepage in a private browser window and look at it as a first-time visitor would. Anything still say “Sample” or “Just another WordPress site”? Fix it!
