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In this lesson, we'll go over several of the most important WordPress configuration settings
which affect the website overall. It's a good idea to check this short list as soon as you
finish installing WordPress. In the Admin, in the Main Menu, these sitewide
options are found under Settings, divided into six different screens. We'll look at
the more significant options on each of these screens.
First, the General Settings screen. The Site Title and Tagline are important,
but pretty self-explanatory. Be sure these are both filled in with appropriate text.
If you change your mind later, they can always be changed.
These next two fields, WordPress Address and Site Address, should normally be filled in
with the same URL - the web address you'll use to access the website.
This is typically something like http://yourdomain.com, assuming that you have installed WordPress
into the root directory. If you have installed the WordPress core files
into a subdirectory named "blog", you should add /blog at the end, so that the URL for
both fields would be something like http://yourdomain.com/blog/ .
Keep in mind that in some less common setups,these two fields will need two different URLs.
We're skipping over the Writing Settings screen, since in the current version of WordPress
the settings there are of pretty minor importance. Let's look at the Reading Settings screen.
The first setting here - Front page displays - allows you to choose what will be displayed
on the front page -- the Home page - of your website.
The first option is selected by default: Front page displays your latest posts.
When this option is selected, the website's home page will feature the classic blog layout,
showing a list of the most recent blog posts, usually as short excerpts.
With the option A static page selected, the home page will show a WordPress Page - one
of the Pages you've created. The drop-down menu just below lets you choose
which Page. If you do choose the "Front page displays
a static page" option, and your website includes a blog, you'll want to make a selection from
the second drop-down menu. Here you can choose another Page you've created
as the location for the blog's own index page, where the typical list of posts appears.
However, be aware that a lot of themes have a custom home page which uses its own special
template, and this type of setup may override the settings here.
The last setting on the Reading Settings screen is for Search Engine Visibility. Be sure to
check that you have the setting you need here, because it makes a big difference. When this
box is checked, a special code will be added which instructs search engines to ignore this
site and not show it in search results. Un-checking it removes that restriction, so
that the website will begin appearing in searches. Let's move on to the Discussion Settings screen.
The settings on this screen all concern public comments, which many blogs allow. If the website
won't be inviting public comments, be sure that the first 3 checkboxes are UN-checked
-- and if possible, do this before you create any Posts or Pages. Otherwise, new Posts and
Pages will allow comments by default. If the website WILL be allowing public comments,
you'll want to go over all of the other settings on this screen and set them according to how
you want to handle comments. Now let's look at the Media Settings screen.
When you upload a graphic image, WordPress automatically creates several more versions
of the image at specific pixel dimensions. Here, you can set those dimensions. These
sizes will be available to choose from when you insert an image into a Page or Post.
However, be aware that many themes determine their own image sizes, which will override
these settings. Finally, the Permalinks Settings screen.
By default, WordPress uses URLs which have numbers and punctuation marks in them.
Permalinks is a feature which lets you give "friendly", readable URLs to your WordPress
pages, which is better for aesthetics, usability, and search engines.
On this screen you can choose which Permalink setting you'd like your pages and posts to
use. Be sure to save your changes before leaving
any of these screens. So those are some of the most important Configuration
Settings. Stay tuned to WeTeachWP.com for more quality WordPress tutorials and complete
courses.