Want to configure the WordPress dashboard?
In general, after installing their blog WordPress, beginner bloggers and fiery people rush to publish articles without worrying about the basic settings.
Although WordPress either directly usable without configuration, using it without performing basic configurations, it's like taking the risk of racing a car with a vehicle whose performance is unknown.
This is the sad observation that we have almost always made when visiting blogs submitted to us for free analysis.
In order to avoid making mistakes (especially for your first steps), I will show you some essential settings after creating a website in WordPress.
But before, if you have never installed WordPress discover How to Install a WordPress Blog in 7 Steps et How to search, install and activate a WordPress theme on your blog
Then back to why we are here.
General Settings
After installing WordPress, we will start by modifying the general settings. For this, you must click on the link " settings Located on the menu in the left side column of your dashboard.
While some options may be easy to understand, for others it is necessary to have some clarification.
The URL field
Some of our subscribers often ask me what is the difference between the two fields. Because it is true that the titles "Website address" and "WordPress web address" are confusing.
When you install WordPress at the root of your hosting, then there is no problem, because the two text fields have the same value. This is not the case when it comes to installing WordPress in a " wordpress "For example on your hosting which should normally be accessible at this address" example.com / wordpress ».
To make WordPress accessible from the address "example.com" and not « example.com / wordpress ", You must change the value of the" WordPress web address "field, which will point to the WordPress folder, either" http://example.com / wordpress "And mention as" web address of the site (URL) " « http://example.com / ».
You have to be careful because a bad modification of this data will make your blog simply inaccessible. Consult this page .
Also, do not use the prefix " www For these different fields. Given that " www "Is considered a subdomain, those who will access your blog as follows: “Www.example.com” and “example.com” will not have the same cookies. Some users may be disconnected from one address to another. You will also notice that the prefix " www Is used less and less.
The e-mail address in the general settings is that of the administrator. For any activity that concerns the management of your blog, it will be used to send notifications. You can change this value for a common email address for example.
Registration & default user role
Default on WordPress, users are not allowed to subscribe, but if you want to enable subscription to your blog, you need to check the “Anyone can register” box. In addition, you can define what role all new users will have on your blog. Depending on the roles, users will benefit from more privileges.
Discover also our 5 WordPress plugins to manage roles and users
Regarding the different privileges of each role:
- Administrator : Access to all the features of WordPress administration
- Editor : Peut Publish and manage pages as well as those of other users
- Author : Peut publish and manage your own articles only
- Contributor : Peut write and manage your own articles but can not publish them
- Subscriber : Peut only manage his profile
Set a time zone
If you want to run a news blog, it's always best to offer users posts that match the time of your location.
Consult and choose the time zone that corresponds to your geographic location.
Please note: : Ndo not forget to save your changes each time.
Write settings
On the writing settings, you can enable emoticons, correct errors on XHTML tags (for those who use the text editor) and above all, configure the publication of articles from a box mail.
We wrote a complete article on it: How to publish on WordPress from a mailbox.
Playback settings
With the writing settings, you will be able to determine which is the home page of the website and what is the home page of the blog. You can also determine how many articles should be posted on the blog, and in the RSS feed.
By default, the blog home displays the full content of each post. If you do not change this option for « The extract », so you'll quickly find yourself with longer pages (Which means more time to load, and poor indexing).
It is also possible that by activating the extract, certain themes do not take this setting into account. You will therefore need to use the theme option or the theme customization interface. 
Regarding SEO, WordPress default allows search engines to index the blog. However, if you plan to provide personal content, then you will need to check the option "Ask the search engine not to index this site".
If you want to know how to make your blog more private, I invite you to read the article: How to make your private WordPress blog.
Discussion feasts
This section is quite important, as it will allow you to manage comments, pingbacks and trackbacks.
In particular, you can activate notifications to websites whose address is in your content, to the administrator's address (or that of the administration, when it has been modified in the general settings), when a click has been made on a link of one of your articles or to define the conditions of accessibility to comments.
Read also our article on 10 WordPress plugins to improve the comments section
By default, replies can be added to comments up to 5 levels. Beyond, the implementation page is reached and comments will be less and less readable. You can extend this number or reduce it depending on the flexibility of your theme.
Strong interweaving (over 5) will make the reading page of an article long, heavy to load and detrimental to SEO, this is where you will need to activate the pagination of comments and their order.
The most important section is certainly the management of spam comments. Although a famous Plugin excels in the material (Akismet), you can still define some basic rules for comments.
For example:
- Define that you wish to validate each comment (task becomes heavy when you have near 2000 comments pending)
- Automate the publication of comments, when an author already has a validated comment
- Automate the queuing of all comments containing " not " Number of links. This is because in most cases, spam comments contain links to unsavory sources.
- Automate the queuing of all comments having for example, words Win "," rich »
- Automate addition to the blacklist (undesirable) of all comments having terms, a specific IP address, a web address
Regarding the management of avatars, you can activate or not the avatars, you can also define which type to adopt for the users who do not have an avatar.
Media settings
By default, WordPress uses predefined dimensions, which may not correspond to the dimensions recommended by your theme WordPress . It is therefore imperative to know the dimensions suggested by the theme.
See also our guide on How to optimize your images and improve your SEO
For this, nothing more simple, when you add a new image in the media library, you can see the dimensions suggested by the theme.
You can choose which image sizes to use for the article or on the featured image.
Settings of permalinks
By default, WordPress uses a default configuration that does not really favor a better SEO of the content. So you can choose the model that permalinks which suits you (except the first).
Discover more How to create custom Permalinks on WordPress
The most used form is certainly "Title of the publication", for the simple reason that it is not long and offers the strict necessary for SEO.
That's it for this tutorial on WordPress Dashboard Defaults.
Discover also some premium WordPress plugins
You can use other WordPress plugins to give a modern appearance and to optimize the handling of your blog or website.
We offer you here some premium WordPress plugins that will help you do that.
1. Social Share & Locker Pro
Social Share & Locker Pro extension is a WordPress Plugin premium which was designed to help your website be more visible on social networks. In just a few clicks, you can either define the position of your social icons, or lock your content by requiring sharing on one of the social networks offered by you.
You have 10 predefined themes and this should cover the most common wishes. All of these themes are Retina and work wonderfully.
See also 9 WordPress plugins to activate the connection via social networks
Also, with Social Share & Locker Pro, you will be able to display the full name of social networks or just the icon. It will depend on your design, the available space, or your wishes.
Download | Demo | Web hosting
2. Ultimate Membership Pro
Ultimate Membership Pro is a WordPress Plugin very popular premium, which sets up an exclusive multi-level access system on your website. This system is configured according to the different types of plans of your users (free or paid).
Its main features are: nunlimited subscription levels (free / paid), content protection, multiple levels of content restriction, support for ppayment slogans: PayPal, Authorize.net, Stripe, 2CheckOut, BrainTree, Payza, bank transfer, afree / paid trial period, the support of Visual Composer, etc ...
Download | Demo | Web hosting
3. All Around
All Around is a WordPress Plugin, as its well-rounded name suggests. It gives you a clean, responsive design, a number of predefined style options, and touch support.
This WordPress slider is a perfect all-in-one multipurpose solution for any website. If this is your first WordPress plugin and slider plugin, it could also be the last you need.
See also our article on How to make money with your blog when you have low traffic
Its features are:on fully responsive page, 6 predefined styles, le support videos, the dvertical or horizontal scrolling, the psupport for multiple sliders on one page, et more.
Download | Demo | Web hosting
Recommended Resources
Find out about other recommended resources to help you build and manage your website.
- 10 WordPress plugins to create an affiliate program on your website
- 10 WordPress plugins to create menus
- 10 WordPress plugins to create a photo gallery
- 5 WooCommerce plugins to manage customer relations on a website
Conclusion
Here ! That's all for this tutorial on how to configure your WordPress dashboard. If you have suggestions or remarks, leave them in our section Comments.
However, you will also be able to consult our resources, if you need more elements to carry out your projects of creation of Internet sites, by consulting our guide on the WordPress blog creation.
If you liked this article then feel free to share this article with your friends on your favorite social networks.
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