During the Wordpress installation, many people tend to skip writing down the personal and site information. Most people will quickly enter just the most necessary info that is needed to continue with the next step. Among other, that usually means choosing a username, password and entering the name of your site. Who's got the time for the details when you just want to start working with your new theme, install that cool plugin that will do this or that, and write the first article, right?

That's not that big of a problem at the start, but the truth is that many forget to update personal and site information even after months of working on their website.

We don't know about you, but we hate to see a website that doesn't have a proper title for the homepage or any of the posts and pages. Don't you think it looks unprofessional to see that authors on the site don't have images and short bios on the author archive pages or in the author boxes? If you ask us, every site should have visible links to "About Us" and "Contact" pages. It's frustrating to search for a contact information on a site just to find out there is none! Don't be one of those guys; update personal and site information on your WordPress regularly.

Doing maintenance doesn't always mean fixing functions, themes, and plugins. Sometimes you will have to take care of simple things that often get forgotten.

Update personal information

For starters, you should take care of your own account. Navigate to Users -> Your Profile and start filling the missing data. Also, don't forget to update other profiles or notify everyone to update their own profiles.

Edit user profiles

Although WordPress does not allow you to modify a username, you can still do that. We showed you a few techniques to change usernames in WordPress so change that childish one you might have been using. Even if you're not showing the username publicly, make it look professional.

Don't forget to fill in your real name and last name, choose a nickname and enter your Email Address. You should also add a link to your website if needed, and write few sentences about yourself. Yeah, we know, it's hard to write about yourself but don't leave the field empty.

Use strong passwords and change yours occasionally

Although the password is not something you will show to the public, you have to take care of it. It doesn't hurt to remind you that using strong passwords is crucial for the security of your website. Also, you should change the password from time to time – you don't want to use the same password for years. Make this part of the maintenance and change passwords on a regular basis. But please, don't use these passwords.

If you want to add an extra security step, force all users to use strong passwords. Instead of creating new accounts for temporary purposes, you can easily create temporary accounts that don't have passwords at all.

Add a profile image

To add or modify the profile image for your WordPress account, you will need to use Gravatar. This globally recognized avatar is associated with your email Address, and the picture you choose will follow you from site to site. Whether you publish an article on your own blog, write a guest post or send a comment in a forum, this picture will represent you.

Let's add the image:

1. Navigate to Users -> Your Profile and check the email address you're using
2. Open Gravatar site
3. Register to the service with the email address you're using
4. Upload the image of your choice and customize it
5. Confirm changes
6. Go back to Users -> Your Profile and check the new image

Update site information

Just like updating the personal information, you should take care of the basic info about your website. This is something many people tend to forget, so we're here to remind you.

Although you might have already filled the personal and site information, remember to update it when needed. When was the last time you checked your site's title? Do you have a valid email address entered in the settings for admin purposes? Did you set your timezone? Do you have a site icon? Let's check this out and add all the necessary info.

Update titles, taglines, and addresses

Every site needs a title and a tagline. Go to Settings – General and check the information you entered in the fields. Although you entered the info during the installation, it might have been changed by the installation of a new theme or a plugin. Maybe you changed something about your site, and now you need a better tagline. Whatever the reason, check the information and update it if necessary.

Update the admin email address

WordPress will notify you about new users, updates, and comments. That's only true if you have put a valid email address in the settings. On the same Settings page, check your email address and change it if necessary.

If you don't want to get emails about updates, you don't have to use a fake email address in the settings. See how to stop WordPress from sending emails after automatic updates.

Use the correct timezone

At first, choosing the right timezone in WordPress might sound unnecessary. But when you start scheduling posts and using 3rd party plugins that rely on your time zone, things will change. You can publish valuable posts when nobody sees them. So, make sure that you go to Settings -> General and check the timezone.

Add other languages to your site

By default, you will use WordPress in one language – the one you selected during the installation. But if you have a multilingual team, you can allow everyone to use WordPress in their own mother tongue. See how to add another language to your WordPress backend. On the other hand, you might have installed other languages already which you are not using. If so, remove the languages you're not longer using.

If you want to translate your WordPress site and show it in different languages to your visitors, we suggest installing Weglot Translate. The plugin will automatically add the icons to your site and allow for quick website translation.

Customize the theme

The majority of WordPress themes will allow you to enter the site info through the customization. To get to the options, please navigate to Appearance -> Customize.

Depending on the theme, you will get to enter a title, tagline and meta description. Fill in the author of the site and the copyright notice. In most cases, you will also be able to add a site icon.

Add a site icon

Depending on the theme you're using, adding a site icon (favicon) can be easy as uploading a picture. Most of the WordPress themes will let you add the site icon through the theme customizer. But if you don't have the option, you can still add one manually, or even use a 3rd party plugin to help you with the icon.

We already talked about this, so please see how to add a site icon to WordPress. Did you know that you can even use a different site icon just for the back end? If you're interested in customizing your site in details, see how to add a Favicon to WordPress admin.

Have a copyright notice

Although a simple copyright notice won't stop content theft, it may help in some cases. You should have one in your footer. If you have installed a WordPress theme, chances are that you still have a generic copyright notice. You should change that.

If you're still changing the year manually, don't forget to change that. An even better option is to add a dynamic copyright notice.

Add "About us" page

Every website should have an "About us" page or section. You don't have to write novels here, but at least have a few sentences about yourself, the team or the entire company. What are you going to write here depends on you, and what you do.

Do you have a big company? Is your business public or family-owned? How long have you been in business? Who's in charge? Those are just some of the questions you might want to answer on the "About us" page. If you need ideas and more info, Susan Greene had prepared a fantastic article on how to write a killer "About Us" page.

Add contact information

You might think that mentioning something like this is redundant. But wait for a second! How many times have you encountered a website that didn't have contact information? Or if it did, how long did it take you to get to the owner's email or physical address?

Unfortunately, many people tend to forget to put their contact information on their site. We have had all the different kinds of experiences. On some websites, there was no contact info of any sort. Not even email address, nor the link to the social media! The others have buried the contact page deep, so we had to search for it for several minutes. That's a big no-no. You will lose customers by not providing contact details.

Whether you want a simple WordPress page where you will show contact information, or you want to implement contact forms, pinpoint your physical address on Google Maps or even add clickable phone numbers, it's up to you. But please, make sure that your visitors can quickly get to you.

What about links to social media? Have you noticed how many websites have the social media icons that lead nowhere? Go and check your social icons and add links if you forgot to do so.

Add advertising options

If you offer any advertisements on your site, make sure that you let you visitors know that. Create a new page where you will show what you offer. Even if you don't want to show prices, at least let people know what they can get from you. Is it a sponsored post? Maybe a banner? Do you allow giveaways on your site? It's up to you, but have the information available.

As you can see from this article, taking care of your site doesn't always include technical knowledge. You don't always have to install functions, plugins, and themes nor update core files. But you should still take care of personal and site information.

Don't allow yourself to forget something. Update the info from time to time. You don't even have to put that on the schedule, but recheck your personal and site information occasionally and update the info when needed. Doing maintenance on your site is important.

Do you have anything else that you always include on your site? Did we forget something? Let us know in the comments.

The post Don’t forget to update personal and site information on your WordPress site appeared first on WP Loop.