WordPress is up and running, you can log in, and ideally, you’ll want to start building pages right away. Right after installation, you should configure the most important WordPress settings under the Settings menu—the most crucial ones being the permalink structure, the time zone, the site title, your homepage, and the checkbox for search engines. This will take you about 15 minutes, and two of those settings will be a real hassle to fix later on. I’ll walk you through the screens in the order I set them up myself when creating a new site.
General: title, language, time zone, and email address
Under Settings > General You set the foundation for your site, from the name that appears in search results to the schedule that determines when posts go live. The site title and tagline appear in browser tabs and often in Google as well. So replace the default tagline with a short, genuine description of what you do, or leave it blank. Under “Site Language,” select Dutch so that the admin interface and standard text, such as dates, appear in Dutch.
I always set the time zone to Amsterdam instead of a UTC value. With UTC+1, everything shifts by an hour as soon as daylight saving time begins, but not with Amsterdam. You only notice an incorrect time zone when a scheduled post goes live at an odd time or when the times on comments and orders are off. Be sure to set the date format, time format, and the day of the week that starts the week right away, so everything looks consistent throughout.
The administrator’s email address deserves more attention than it gets. WordPress sends notifications to this address about updates, new users, and recovery mode if something goes wrong. So be sure to use an address that you actually check, not the address of a web developer who’s long since left. If those notifications aren’t arriving, check Emails from WordPress aren't being delivered. Leave "Membership" turned off unless your site actually uses user accounts. Open registration is mostly an invitation for fake accounts.
Leave two fields on this screen alone: the WordPress Address and the Site Address. A typo in either of these will make your site and your dashboard inaccessible. Just make sure they both start with https://. If the address really needs to be different, follow Changing Your WordPress URL.
Permalinks: Select "Post Name"
The permalink structure determines what the web addresses of your pages and posts look like, and for virtually every site, Message Name the best choice. You can find it under Settings > Permalinks. The "Post Name" option creates a URL like jouwdomein.nl/naam-van-de-pagina/, which is readable for visitors and clear to search engines. The default "Simple" option generates URLs containing ?p=123, and the date-based variants can quickly make posts seem outdated.
The reason I’m mentioning this first is simple. On an empty site, you can change the structure without any consequences; on a site with traffic, all your URLs will change at once. Every link from another website and every result in Google will then point to a page that no longer exists, unless you set up a redirect for each old URL. After making your selection, click on Save changes, WordPress will handle the rewrite rules on its own. To learn how to edit the slug of a single page and what to do on an existing site, see Customizing Permalinks in WordPress.
Read: Your Homepage and Visibility in Search Engines
Under Settings > Reading You choose what visitors see on your homepage and whether search engines can index your site. By default, the homepage displays your latest posts, as if your site were a blog. For a business website, you’ll almost always want a static page as your homepage. To do this, first create a page called “Home,” and if you have a blog, also create a page called “Blog,” and select them here under “Your homepage displays.” Below that, you can set the number of posts per blog page.
The checkbox is at the bottom Search engines discourage indexing this site. During development, it can be left on intentionally so that half the site doesn’t show up in Google yet. It’s also the setting I see people forget most often. The site goes live, the checkbox stays checked, and weeks later, someone wonders why the site can’t be found. My advice is to uncheck the box on the day the site goes live and make that a standard step on your launch checklist.
Writing, Discussion, Media, and Privacy
The other screens aren’t as exciting, but by making a few thoughtful choices, you can avoid spam and GDPR-related issues. Under “Writing,” select the default category for new posts. Give the “Uncategorized” category a proper name; otherwise, it will appear in your URLs and lists.
Under Settings > Discussion You decide whether visitors can leave comments. WordPress allows this by default, and open comment fields attract spam. For most business websites, I disable comments. If you do want to allow them, set it so that comments must first be manually approved. Under “Media,” you’ll find the formats in which WordPress saves uploaded images. The default settings are fine; leave them as is unless your theme requires something different.
Under "Privacy," you can link to your privacy policy or create one based on the template provided by WordPress. If your site processes personal data—and every site with a contact form does—you’re required to have a privacy policy under the GDPR. Be sure to have someone review the draft page, as it’s just a starting point and not a ready-made text.
What We Take Care of for You Right from the Start
With Surver, part of this setup is already in place before you even log in. When you sign up for a new plan, we install WordPress via Installatron, and every site gets a free SSL certificate from Let’s Encrypt that’s automatically renewed as long as your domain points to Surver. This means your URLs can start with https:// right away. You make the choices on these screens yourself, because only you know whether you want a blog or need comments. On our Managed WordPress Hosting You can go through these screens in 15 minutes. If you want to install WordPress yourself, read Installing WordPress on Your Site.
After the system goes live, I always go over these points one more time.
- The checkbox for search engines is unchecked.
- The permalink structure is set to "Post Name.".
- The administrator's email address is correct and is receiving emails.
- Both addresses begin with https://.
Next come updates, backups, and security. If you'd rather not do that yourself, then WordPress maintenance Tell us about it. For more information on what else WordPress is used for, see What WordPress is and what it's used for. You can find your way around the management system by A tour of the WordPress dashboard.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I change the permalinks later?
That's possible, but on a high-traffic site, you'll have to change all your URLs. You'll need a 301 redirect for each old URL. Make a backup beforehand, as described in The Guide to Backup and Migration.
Why are the times on my posts incorrect?
The time zone is usually set to UTC or to a fixed offset. Under Settings > General the city of Amsterdam and save it. Scheduled posts will then appear at the right time.
Can Surver completely set up my WordPress site?
Yes. With the webmaster service You can outsource the development and design of your website to Surver. You tell us what you want, and we'll build it.
