How to change Site Title in WordPress
Looks like you have just installed WordPress and are wondering how to change the site title.
Site Title is one half of the title of your site and plays an important role in both SEO and branding.
It is important to know while installing WordPress you might have come across this step where it asks you to enter s Site Title before starting the process.
And we have seen many bloggers add random titles in the beginning and then opt to change the title later.
It is always suggested that you add a correct title from the start as Site Title falls under the Essential WordPress settings and hence has to be configured properly.
While we are one the topic of WordPress essential settings, it is important to know that we have a free checklist that has 47+ settings to help you get started on the right foot and you can download it by subscribing below.
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WordPress being a user friendly CMS makes it easy for you to set the Site Title with just a few clicks. And in this article, we will be sharing how can you do it in a few ways. Below are some of the topic we have covered.
Note- If you are starting out and looking for someone to set up your WordPress blog then feel free to check our WordPress installation and Blog Set up service.
What is Site Title in WordPress
As the name suggests, Site Title is the name of your WordPress site and it constitutes one half of the SEO title of your site’s homepage if you are displaying recent posts on the front page instead of a custom page.
Before we get to understand this better, it is important to know that the Site Title can be seen on prominent places on your blog such as
- The browser tab, if you are using recent posts page as homepage.
- On the WordPress dashboard admin panel
- Main navigation and footer (if the theme allows)
On top of this every SEO plugin uses Site Title to prefix the title of the page to create the SEO title.
Before we move forward, I just want to let you know that if you are starting out then all these various titles might sound a little confusing. And to make it easy for you to understand each we have created the below section.
You need to carefully read it once and you will be able to spot the differences easily.
- Page Title– In WordPress when you create a page or a post the first thing you have to do is add the title. This is the plain and simple title of your post that you can see in the post archive, on top of the page or post and in the post list in your WordPress dashboard.
- SEO Title– SEO Title of a page or a post is the one that is created specifically for search engines to understand the contents of the page and at the same time for users to click.
This title can be seen on the browser tab and on the search engines results page.
Most bloggers generally use a SEO plugin like Yoast or Rank Math to help with the optimization process. These plugins use the title of the page or the post and prefix it with the Site Title to create the SEO title.
- Site Title– As mentioned before, Site Title is the 50% of the SEO title of your WordPress site and if you are displaying recent posts on homepage. The other half of the complete title is the tagline and in some cases we have seen people not using it.
And in this scenario, Site Title becomes the title of the homepage of your website.
In the above screenshot, you can see that the Title of the site is Blogging Unplugged Demo- Simple Blogging Tutorials.
And here Blogging Unplugged Demo is the Site Title and Simple Blogging Tutorials is the tagline.
Before we move forward, it is important to know that if you have a custom page as the home page then title of the page will be used as Title of the front page or home page.
Also, it is important to know Site Title is found in the <header> tag wrapped inside the <h1> tag even when disabled.
And this makes it really important for you to change it to something brandable if it is just random text as it will give a signal to search engines about your brand and the contents of your site.
Note- In case you are thinking if you need a custom home page or not then let me tell you if you have a just started a blog on WordPress then recent posts on the front page will work just fine. If you have created a website then you will need a customized page as the home page.
How to change Site Title in WordPress
Now that you understand what exactly is Site Title in WordPress and its purpose, it is important to keep in mind that Site Title is visible in critical locations and hence cannot be missed by the visitors.
And that is why it is recommended you change it at the earliest.
WordPress being a user friendly CMS allows you to change it in a few different ways such as
As mentioned above, in this tutorial we will be covering all of these methods in this tutorial and you can navigate to any part by clicking on it.
How to change Site Title from your WordPress dashboard
Changing the site title through your WordPress admin is pretty straight forward and for this, the first thing you have to do is login to your WordPress dashboard.
And then navigate to Settings and click General.
On doing this, it will show you all the WordPress General Settings and the first option allows you to set the Site Title.
Here you need to enter the site title that you want and then save the changes you have made.
How to change Site Title using WordPress customization menu
To change the Site Title from the Customization menu, the first step is to login to your WordPress admin and then head over to Appearance and click Customize.
On clicking Customize, it will show you the customization menu where you will see all the settings using which you can change the layout of your site.
Alternatively, if you are viewing some page or post on your site then you can click Customize on the WordPress admin bar and it will show you the same menu as above.
Once you are on the customization menu, you will have to locate Site Identity.
And clicking it will show you the option to change the Site Title.
Here you will have to add this Site Title in the box below Site Title and once done click Publish.
Before we move forward, it is important to know that the Customization menu and Site Identity might contain a bit more option on your blog or website depending on the theme you are using.
However, the process to change or add it will remain the same.
See- What’s the difference between a blog and a website
How to change Site Title using Elementor
Elementor is a page builder plugin that lets you design pages and websites from scratch easily without having to worry about code.
This means if you are someone looking to design a custom site for yourself and have no experience with design and development then this plugin is for you.
In the last major Elementor update, Site Identity settings were introduced in the plugin and this led users to easily change the Site Title, tagline, logo and favicon when create sites with Elementor.
When you are inside the Elementor editor creating pages or your site and want to change the Site Title then you can easily do it by clicking the Hamburger icon on top left once inside the Elementor editor.
There the first option you will see is the Site Settings
On clicking Site Settings, you need to scroll down a bit where you will come across Site Identity under Settings.
When you click Site Identity, it will show you the option to enter the Site Title in the box under Site Name.
Once done you need to click Update to save the changes you have made.
And that’s it you have successfully changes the Site Title in WordPress using Elementor.
How to display Site Title in WordPress
Now that you know how to change the Site Title, its time we discuss how you can show it on your site.
Just like adding a Site Title, displaying it is pretty simple and for this, the first step is to login to your WordPress dashboard and navigate to Appearance and click Customize.
Doing this will take you to the customization menu where the first option you will see is Site Identity.
When you click Site Identity, it will show you an option that says “Display Site Title and tagline”.
Here you need to select this option and it will display the Site Title and Tagline.
Once done click Publish to save the changes you have made.
Before we move forward, it is important to keep in mind that there are certain themes like Kadence that allow you to do a lot more than just add Site Title and display it.
As you can see in the screenshot above, it allows you select a layout, change font, colors and more.
We use Kadence on this site and highly recommend using it. The theme is built for performance and is very easy to customize.
How to hide Site Title in WordPress
Disabling Site Title in WordPress is pretty similar what we have discussed above.
And for this you need to visit Site Identity in the Theme Customization menu in WordPress.
Once there you need to uncheck the Display Site Title and Tagline option.
Doing this will disable the Site Title in WordPress and the last thing you have to do here is click Publish and save the changes you have made.
And that’s it you have successfully disabled Site Title in WordPress.
Other essential settings tutorial
Having said that,
I hope you will find this tutorial helpful and are able to change the Site Title of your WordPress site.
In case you have any queries then feel free to reach out via the comments and we will be happy to help. Also, don’t forget to share this article with your friends on social media.
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