The nine WordPress settings I change on every new install, from permalinks and media sizes to comments and the dashboard, and why each one matters.
WordPress defaults suit personal blogs more than business sites. After launching 142 client sites this year, I follow the same checklist on every new install. These nine changes take about ten minutes and save a lot of cleanup later.
1. Permalinks set to post name
Default URLs like ?p=123 mean nothing to visitors or search engines. In Settings > Permalinks, I select "Post name" and save. That gives clean URLs like /about-us or /services/web-design.
2. Comments off by default
Comments rarely add value on a business site, so I turn them off unless the client asks for them. In Settings > Discussion, uncheck "Allow people to post comments on new articles."
If a site does need comments, I require registration and manual approval. That stops most spam without another plugin.
3. No extra image sizes
WordPress creates thumbnail, medium and large copies of every upload, and most sites never use them. In Settings > Media, I set all three to 0. Originals are left for an optimization tool to handle.
4. Excerpts in feeds
Full posts in feeds and blog indexes make for long, slow pages. In Settings > Reading, I change "For each article in a feed, show" to Summary, and I make sure the blog index shows excerpts with a Read More link so visitors can scan quickly.
5. No default tagline
In Settings > General, I delete "Just another WordPress site." The field stays blank unless the client has a tagline that actually says something.
6. A real default category
"Uncategorized" looks careless. I create a "Blog" category during setup and set it as the default in Settings > Writing, so every new post is filed somewhere sensible.
7. A published privacy policy
Most sites need a privacy policy. WordPress includes a template but doesn't publish it, so I publish the sample page, adjust it and link it in the footer. It takes about thirty seconds.
8. Visual editor off for some clients
The block editor can confuse non-technical users. For client editor accounts that need it, I go to Users > Profile and check "Disable the visual editor when writing." They get the familiar classic editor instead.
9. No welcome panel
The dashboard welcome panel is clutter for clients. I remove it with one line in functions.php:
remove_action('welcome_panel', 'wp_welcome_panel');The setup sequence
- Install WordPress
- Change permalinks to Post name
- Disable comments globally
- Set media sizes to 0
- Show excerpts in feeds and the blog index
- Remove the default tagline
- Set the default category to Blog
- Create and publish the privacy policy
- Disable the visual editor for clients
- Remove the welcome panel
Why I bother
None of these changes need a plugin or cost anything. Together they prevent ugly URLs, comment spam, storage bloat, slow blog pages, an amateur tagline, uncategorized posts, a missing privacy policy and a confusing admin area.
The checklist lives in my project management system, so every new site starts the same way. At handover, clients get a short document listing each change and why it was made. Try the list on your next install and see how much cleanup it saves.
If you want a hand with your own site, see my WordPress development services.
Category: WordPress
