Settings → General

Now that you’ve explored your dashboard, let’s make sure WordPress knows a little more about your website.

In the left-hand menu, click Settings → General. This is where you’ll find your website’s name, tagline, email address, time zone and a few other important options.

General Settings: Your Website’s Basic Information

Site Title and Tagline

Your Site Title is the name of your website or business. It may appear in your browser tab, search results and other places, depending on your theme and settings.

Your Tagline is a short description of what your website is about.

For example, Joe’s Auto Repair might use:

• Site Title: Joe’s Auto Repair
• Tagline: Honest Repairs. Dependable Service.

Enter your own website name and tagline. You can change them later, so don’t worry about finding the perfect wording right now.

Site Icon

Have you noticed the little pictures that appear beside website names in your browser tabs? Those are called site icons, or favicons.

Click Choose a Site Icon to upload one. WordPress recommends a square image at least 512 × 512 pixels.

If you don’t have a logo or icon yet, leave this alone for now. You can add one when we work on your website’s appearance.

WordPress Address and Site Address

You’ll see two fields that probably contain the same address:

• WordPress Address (URL): Where your WordPress files are installed.
• Site Address (URL): The address visitors use to reach your website.

For a typical installation, both should show your domain name beginning with https://.

Leave these addresses alone. Changing them incorrectly can prevent you from accessing your website or dashboard.

Administration Email Address

This is the email address WordPress uses to send important administrative notifications.

Make sure it’s an email address you check regularly. If you change it, WordPress will send a confirmation message to the new address. The change won’t take effect until you confirm it.

Membership and New User Default Role

You’ll see a checkbox labeled Anyone can register.

For a typical small-business website, leave this unchecked. Your customers don’t need WordPress accounts just to visit your website or send you a message.

Leave New User Default Role set to Subscriber. This is the lowest standard WordPress user role and is appropriate if you decide to allow registrations later.

Never select Administrator as the default role for public registrations.

Site Language and Time Zone

Choose the language you’ll use to manage your website.

Next, select your time zone. You can choose a city in your time zone rather than trying to figure out the correct UTC offset.

For example, someone in Florida’s Eastern Time Zone can choose New York. This allows WordPress to account for daylight saving time automatically.

Your time zone matters because WordPress uses it when scheduling posts and recording certain website activities.

Date Format, Time Format and Week Starts On

Scroll down to find the date and time formatting options.

WordPress offers several ways to display dates and times. Choose whichever format makes sense for your website. For example, you might prefer September 29, 2026 instead of 2026-09-29.

The Week Starts On setting determines which day WordPress treats as the beginning of the week. Sunday and Monday are both common choices.

These settings are largely a matter of preference. You can change them later.

Save Your Changes

When you’re finished, scroll to the bottom and click Save Changes.

That’s it! Your website now has its basic information and local time settings configured.

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