Setting up a WordPress website requires you to pay close attention to detail if you want your website to have a solid foundation to build on.
If you do not have WordPress installed yet, you will want to check out our previous posts about finding the best website hosting services for WordPress and how to install WordPress on your website.
If you do have WordPress installed, this post is going to cover the initial settings in WordPress.
Configuring Settings In WordPress
Once logged into WordPress, you will see a list of tabs running down the left side of the screen. Locate the settings tab and click on it.
General Settings
The general tab under settings is where you set the foundation to your website.
The first decision you will have to make is giving your website a site title. You can simply use your business name as the site title.
However, we suggest incorporating the number 1 keyword you want to rank for within your site title. The key to a great site title is to keep it short yet very descriptive.
The next tab to fill out is the tagline field. Again, try to incorporate your secondary keyword into the tagline for SEO purposes.
The next 2 tabs relate to how you want your website url to appear. We recommend typing in your full url, http://www.mywebsite.com in this field.
Additionally, if you are using A2 Hosting, you have access to free security. This means you can type in https://www.mywebsite.com to let your visitors know that your website is secure.
The rest of the tabs under the general settings are related to you or where you are located. Use the appropriate formats that suits your needs.
Reading Settings
The reading tab under settings is the next tab you will want to focus on.
The first decision to make under the reading tab is whether your websites home page will be a static page or a blog page.
If you are setting up a business website, we recommend choosing the static page option.
A static page means that you can choose any page of your website to be your home page. This option allows you to build and optimize your home page for visitors and search engine spiders.
The most important option in the reading tab is to make sure the checkbox next to search engine visibility is unchecked. If this box is checked, you are telling search engines that you do not want to show up in search results.
Permalinks Settings
The permalinks settings is how you set the foundation to your url structure.
To make it easy for visitors to remember your url and for search engine spiders to properly index your urls, we recommend choosing the “Post Name” option.
Conclusion
Setting up WordPress for the first time can seem very daunting. However, if you have made it through the steps above you can take a deep breathe.
With WordPress installed and your settings optimized properly, take some time and click around and familiarize yourself with your new admin panel.
If you have any questions, recommendations or just want to tell us how helpful this post was for you, please leave a comment below and we will be sure to respond as soon as we can.
