In this lesson I will show you some settings tips that I recommend doing before you do anything!
Remove Any Unnecessary Plugins
A plugin is a piece of software that can be added to a WordPress website to extend the functionality of your site. When you first install WordPress you will have some unnecessary plugins automatically installed. Plugins are fantastic for adding different abilities to your site, but too many plugins can cause issues, cause conflicts between other plugins and slow down your site. You want to make sure that you only have ACTIVE plugins installed that you absolutely need and use on a daily basis for your website.
Remove The Following Plugins –
- Hello Dolly – This plugin comes standard with any new WordPress installation though its actual purpose is useless. It adds lyrics to songs at the top of your screen.
- MOJO Marketplace – This will automatically be installed when you do the WordPress one-click installation. This is unnecessary since you will be using my FREE theme or one of the premium themes that I offer.
How To Uninstall A Plugin –
- Navigate to the left side of the dashboard, hover over Appearance>Plugins.
- If the plugin you want to remove is activated, click on “Deactivate.”
- Select all the plugins you want to delete by clicking delete, in order to delete your plugin they must be “Deactivated”.
Select Your Permalink Structure
The next step is to change the permalink structure. The permalink is what identifies how the URLs coming from the site are saved and used.
Navigate to the left side of the dashboard, hover over SETTINGS and click on PERMALINK.
I recommend the “Post Name” option. You can choose any of those options but I would recommend NOT using a date in your URL structure since it can damage your SEO and you can’t update it and repost it. Let’s say you have a tutorial that becomes outdated and would like to update it with new content, you can’t do that if your post URL has a date on it.
Update Your General Settings
Navigate to the left side of the dashboard, and go to Settings > General.
- Site Title – What is your site title? Blog name? That does here!
- Tagline – Using a few words, explain what your site is about. This will be your tagline/slogan
- WordPress Address (URL) & Site Address (URL) – DO NOT TOUCH THIS, LEAVE IT ALONE!
- Email Address – Male sure you have entered a valid email address. This address is used by WordPress to send messages regarding the administration and maintenance of your WordPress site. If you allow comment approval this is the email the notifications will be sent to you have a new comment
- Membership – Check this checkbox if you want anyone to be able to register an account on your site. (I don’t recommend this)
- New User Default Role – This pull-down box allows you to select the default Role that is assigned to new users. This Default Role will be assigned to newly registered members or users added via the Administration > Users > Users Screen. Valid choices are Administrator, Editor, Author, Contributor, or Subscriber. (not needed if “Membership” is not selected”
- Time Zone – Select the correct time zone for your website. From the pulldown box, choose a city in the same time zone as you.
- Date Format – Choose the desired date format.
- Time Format – Choose the desired time format.
- Week Starts On – Choose the day you want the week to start on.
- Site Language – This is the WordPress Dashboard language.
Click Save When Done! You can always update these settings, just don’t touch the URL fields.
Make Sure Your Reading Settings Are Set Properly
Navigate to Settings > Reading and make sure this setting is set correctly.
The options in the Settings Reading Screen are few in number, but still important. You can decide if you want posts or a “static” Page displayed as your blog’s front (main) page, AKA landing page. You can also adjust how many posts are displayed on a single page.
- Front Page Displays – Use this setting to determine if your posts or a “static” Page displays as your blog’s front (main) page or will your latest post be displayed.
- Your Latest Posts – Check this radio button so your latest posts are displayed on the blog’s front page.
- A Static Page – Do you want your readers to land on a certain page (landing page) or do you want them to see your blog post first?
- Front Page – In the drop-down box, select the actual Page that you want displayed as your front page.
- Posts Page – In the drop-down box, select the name of the Page that will now contain your Posts. Typically it would be a “blog” or “Article” page you have created.
- Blog Pages Show At Most – [X] posts – Enter the number of posts to be displayed, per page, on your site.
- Syndication Feeds Show The Most Recent – [X] posts – Enter the number of posts people will see when they see your site’s feeds ex. domain.com/feed
- Full Text – Click this button to include the full content of each post on your front page or category pages.
- Summary – Click this button to include a summary of the post and your readers will have to click “read more…” to see the actual post. (I recommend this since it will help with site load times)
Now on to lesson 4