Poor Potsherd

Books, Christianity, Parenting, Homeschooking, Classical Education and what have you

  • Home
  • About
    • About this Website
    • What We Believe
  • Blog
  • Index of Books and Posts
  • Resources and Links
  • My Blog Project

Step 9 of Building a Website: WordPress Settings–Getting Ready to Blog

WordPress has settings that affect how your blog posts look and how readers can comment. You can change many of these later and some are not needed right now, but you want to start blogging as soon as you can. So let’s get some of this set up, so you can start posting and building content on your website as soon as practical.

Allowing Readers to Subscribe

On the Settings/General tab, allow anyone to register to your site because you want a list of readers and their emails. Make sure the default role is “Subscriber” otherwise you may find people you don’t know posting on your site.

Set the time zone by finding a city in the list that matches your timezone. The other items, such as time and date format are self explanatory and set according to taste.

WordPress General Settings

 

Setting Up Easy-to-Index and Read URLs

Next on your Settings/Permalinks tab, set the Common Settings to “Post Name.”  What this does is when you title a post and publish it, the URL will show the title of the post (with dashes between words) instead of a number or weird characters. You have other options such as adding the month and the name or day and name, but the recommendation I have been given is to just use the title. This will help Google index your posts and it helps your readers know what the post is about.

WordPress Permalinks Settings

 

Note that these are called “permalinks” for a reason. This is how the link to your blog posts and pages will be permanently set. You can change the title of the post, but the permalink will remain the same. You don’t want to change your permalinks unless you redirect your readers because if people store a link to the page or post, you want it always to work.

Keep Default Writing Settings

You don’t have to set anything on the Settings/Writing tab just yet. The “Default Post Category” can be left as “Uncategorized” for now and the Default Post Format can be left as “Standard.” There is a setting to “Post via Email” on this tab, but we aren’t going to use that yet, either.

Since we are still working on the site, we won’t set the “Update Services” yet. This lets the internet know when you post something, and you aren’t quite ready to post yet. We will configure that later.

WordPress Writing Settings

Next: Getting Ready for Comments

Also: I realize that my screenshots are just awful. I am going to look into getting improving quality this weekend.

Share this:

  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: Building Your Website June 26, 2015 By Poor Potsherd Leave a Comment

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

What is a Poor Potsherd?

A potsherd, of course, is a piece of broken pottery and is used as a simile in the Bible.
It is also found in this hopeful poem by G. M. Hopkins.
Read more....

Link to That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire and of the comfort of the Resurrection

Site Terms

  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Advertising Notice

Copyright © 2025 · Poor Potsherd · WordPress · Log in