Ten minutes on these now saves problems later.
1. Permalinks
Settings → Permalinks → choose Post name. Your URLs become yourdomain.co.uk/about-us/ instead of ?p=123. Change this before you publish much; changing it later breaks existing links.
2. Site address and HTTPS
Settings → General → both addresses start https:// and use the www or non-www version you want. www or no www? Choosing and enforcing one version
3. Timezone and date format
Settings → General → set the timezone to London (or your city) so scheduled posts publish when you expect.
4. Search engine visibility
Settings → Reading → while the site is being built, Discourage search engines stops it being indexed half-finished. Untick it when you launch; forgetting is a common reason new sites never appear in search.
5. Comments
Settings → Discussion → if you don’t want comments, untick Allow people to submit comments on new posts. Unmoderated comments attract spam.
6. Remove what you don’t use
- Plugins: delete (don’t just deactivate) unused plugins, including sample ones.
- Themes: keep your active theme and one recent default theme as a fallback; delete the rest.
Inactive plugins and themes still need updates and can still be exploited.
7. Your user
Users → Profile → set a nickname and choose it under Display name publicly as, so your login username isn’t shown on posts.
8. Email, backups, security
Choosing somewhere to host WordPress? Traxio’s WordPress hosting includes one-click installs, LiteSpeed caching and free SSL, with your first 30 days free.