How to change the name of a WordPress site

In WordPress, the site title is the name of the WordPress site. It is displayed in several places including:

• The browser tab or window
• The header of the site (depending on your theme)
• Search engine results
• Email notifications

The site tagline is closely related to the title. It consists of a short phrase that describes the site. Like the title, the tagline is shown in various places depending on the theme. For example, many themes show the tagline under the title in the page header.

Settings

To change the title or tagline:

1. Sign into your WordPress site with an admin account.
2. Go to Settings > General.
3. Edit the Site Name and Tagline fields.
4. Click Save Changes on the bottom of the page.

If you use an SEO plugin, you may need to change the SEO title as well.

SEO plugins

There are various WordPress plugins that help you with Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which is the process of increasing visibility of your website in search engines. Among other things, these plugins let you set the SEO title for each page including the home page.

An SEO title is a version of the title that has been optimized for search engines. It typically incorporates the base title but may also include keywords and other information to improve visibility and click-through rates. In HTML, the SEO title becomes the <title> tag element of the page.

Whenever you update the site title, you should also check your SEO plugin. The plugin might automatically incorporate the site title, or it might have a custom value depending on your configuration. You will want to make sure your site title and the SEO titles are in sync. In particular check the SEO title of your home page.

Yoast SEO: From the side menu, go to Yoast SEO > Settings > General > Site basics. Enter the title in the Website name field. This is the SEO title and must be specified separately from the WordPress site title.

Alternate ways to change the title

For convenience, WordPress allows you to change the site title from multiple locations. This means you can update it directly within the Customizer or editor, without needing to leave and navigate to the Settings page.

Customizer

From the side-menu, select Appearance > Customize, and then click Site Identity. Note: you will not see this option if you are using a block-based theme such as Raft. You can use the Editor instead.

Editor

If you are using a block theme, you will not have a Customize option in your Appearance menu. Instead, you can open the editor and change the title directly in your header template. This has the same effect as changing the title through the site settings.

1. Go to Appearance > Editor
2. Click Patterns
3. Click Header
4. Open a header file
5. Click the Site Title block where your title is shown
6. Make a change and save

Depending on your theme, your header content may be organized differently. Look for a file under Patterns or Templates that contain your header content.

Change through PHP

Call the update_option function with ‘blogname’ as the parameter:

update_option('blogname', 'Your New Site Title');

update_option('blogname', 'Your New Site Title');

Reference

• update_option() – Function | Developer.WordPress.org
• How to edit the SEO title and meta description of your homepage • Yoast –

See also

• How to fix duplicate title tags when using Raft and Yoast SEO
• How to set a custom icon for your WordPress site