How to Change Your WordPress Site Title (It’s Not Where You Think)
If you’ve searched everywhere and can’t find where to change your WordPress site title, you’re not alone. A forum user once posted about this with the title “bad site title”. They knew it was wrong, they just couldn’t figure out where to fix it.
Here’s the thing. The main setting is in one obvious place. But there are 4 tricky cases where changing it doesn’t seem to do anything, and nobody tells you about them until you’re already frustrated.
I’ll walk you through the main fix first, then the edge cases. I rechecked every step on WordPress 7.1.2 in October 2026, with Kadence (a classic theme) and Twenty Twenty-Five (a block theme).
Where is the WordPress site title setting?
The site title lives under Settings > General in your WordPress dashboard. That one setting is the name your whole site uses.
But here’s the part that confuses people. What you see on your site might not be that text. It could be a logo image with the name baked in, a header layout that hides the title, or a title format set inside your SEO plugin.
So the fix depends on where the name on your screen is coming from. Let’s start with the basic setting and work through the others. And if you’d rather remove the page title on individual pages, that’s a different setting in your theme.
How do I change the site title in Settings > General?
This is the 30-second fix that works for most sites.
Log in to your WordPress dashboard. In the left sidebar, click Settings, then General. The very first field is Site Title. Type your new title in that box.
Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save Changes. Open your site in a new tab and check the browser tab and your header.
If your title updated, you’re done. If nothing changed on the front end, one of the 4 cases below is the culprit.
What if my theme shows a logo image instead of the title?
This one trips up most beginners. You change the title in Settings > General, refresh your site, and nothing looks different. Why? Because your theme is showing a logo image, not text.
Most themes let you upload a logo that replaces the site title text in the header. The Settings > General title is still there behind the scenes (your browser tab uses it), but visitors see the logo.
On a classic theme, go to Appearance > Customize and look for Site Identity. In Kadence it lives under Header > Site Identity, and it gives you:
- Logo – upload or remove the image
- Logo Layout – Logo only, Logo & Title, or Logo, Title & Tagline
- Site Title and Tagline – the same 2 fields as Settings > General
- Site Icon – the little picture in the browser tab
If your title text isn’t showing next to the logo, check Logo Layout first. Set to Logo, Kadence hides the text title even though it’s saved. I cover the other logo controls in my Kadence header component settings reference.
If your logo has the brand name baked into the image, you have to edit the image itself. WordPress can’t change text inside a PNG or JPG. Open the logo in Canva or any image editor, fix the text, and upload it again through the same Site Identity panel.
What about block themes (Twenty Twenty-Four, etc.)?
Block themes like Twenty Twenty-Four and Twenty Twenty-Five don’t use the Customizer for this. In WordPress 7.1 there’s a dedicated screen instead.
Go to Appearance > Editor and click Identity. You get 4 fields on one screen: Site Title, Site Tagline, Site Logo and Site Icon. These are the same settings as Settings > General, so changing the title here changes it everywhere.
You can also change the title right inside your header. Go to Appearance > Editor > Patterns, open Header under the template parts, click the site title and type over it. When you click Save, WordPress tells you there is “1 site change waiting to be saved” and that “This change will affect your whole site.”
That’s the real site title changing, not just the text in the header. When I typed a new name into the block and saved, Settings > General showed the new name too.
If you want to remove the title and show only a logo, delete the Site Title block from the header. If you want a different font or color, click the block and use the Styles tab on the right. If you’re new to editing headers this way, my guide to WordPress patterns vs template parts explains why the header lives under Patterns.
How do I change the site title that appears in Google search results?
This is the sneakiest case. You change the site title, your header updates, but the browser tab or Google still shows something old.
Start by checking what your site actually sends. Open your homepage, right-click, choose View Page Source and search for <title>. Whatever sits between those tags is your real title tag.
Without an SEO plugin, WordPress builds it for you: on the homepage it’s your site title followed by your tagline (if you have one), and on other pages it’s the page name followed by your site title. If that tag already shows the new name, your site is fine and Google just hasn’t caught up yet. I explain how long that takes in why your old logo is still showing in Google, and the same applies to the name.
With an SEO plugin, the plugin builds the title tag from a title template. The templates normally pull your site title from Settings > General automatically. But if someone typed the old name straight into a template, it will stick. Here’s where to look in each one:
Yoast SEO. Go to Yoast SEO > Settings. The title templates for your homepage and content types are in that same settings area, where the “Site title” variable stands in for your Settings > General name. Site basics also has a separate Website name field. That one feeds the structured data Google can use for the site name it shows in results, so update it too.
Rank Math. Go to Rank Math > Titles & Meta. The Homepage tab holds the homepage title template, and Global Meta holds the separator character. The Website Name field is in the Local SEO tab, not Global Meta.
SEO Simple Pack. Go to SEO PACK > General settings. The “Site title (For confirmation)” box is greyed out on purpose: it just shows your Settings > General value, so there’s nothing to change there. Check the title formats further down instead. I tested this plugin in my SEO Simple Pack review.
All in One SEO. Go to All in One SEO > Search Appearance > Global Settings. Under Home Page, the Site Title field is the homepage title template.
Not sure which SEO plugin to keep? I compared Rank Math vs Yoast for beginners, and tested 6 of them side by side in the best free WordPress SEO plugins.
Site title vs tagline – what’s the difference?
These 2 fields sit right next to each other in Settings > General, and people mix them up constantly.
The Site Title is your site’s name. “The WP Ninja”, “Jane’s Kitchen Blog”, “Acme Plumbing”. It’s what shows in the browser tab and usually the main header text.
The Tagline is a short description that sits under or near the title. It’s meant to be a 5-10 word pitch.
| Field | Purpose | Example | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| Site Title | Your site’s name | The WP Ninja | 1-5 words |
| Tagline | Short description | WordPress tips that won’t break your site | 5-10 words |
New installs since WordPress 6.1 start with an empty tagline. Older sites often still have the old default, “Just another WordPress site”. Check yours, because on many themes it shows in the header, and without an SEO plugin it’s added to your homepage title tag (“Your Site – Just another WordPress site”).
The tagline doesn’t become your meta description, though. WordPress doesn’t output a meta description at all on its own, so that’s your SEO plugin’s job. I cover how to write one in how to write a meta description that gets clicks.
My rule: if you keep a tagline, make it a real one. If you don’t want one, leave the field empty.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I change the site title and tagline in WordPress?
The easiest way I know is Settings > General in your dashboard. Type your new title and tagline into the first 2 fields, then scroll down and click Save Changes. On a block theme, Appearance > Editor > Identity changes the same 2 settings.
Where are the General Settings in WordPress to change the title?
Click Settings near the bottom of the left-hand admin menu, then General. The Site Title and Tagline fields are the first 2 on the page.
How does changing my WordPress site title affect SEO?
Your site title shows up in your title tags and in the name Google may show next to your pages, so it matters. I keep mine to the brand name, and use the page titles themselves for keywords.
Why is my WordPress site title not changing after I save it?
When this happens to me, it’s almost always a cache. I clear my caching plugin (and the host’s cache if there is one), then reload the page. I walk through every cache layer in why your WordPress changes aren’t showing on the live site.
Closing thoughts
The short answer: change your site title in Settings > General, click save, done. That fixes it for most people.
But if you hit one of the 4 tricky cases (a logo image, a block theme, an SEO plugin title template, or a mix-up with the tagline), now you know where to look. The hardest part is figuring out which one is the culprit, and View Page Source is your best friend for that.
One last tip. Whenever you change your site title, check 3 places afterward: the browser tab, the header of your live site, and the <title> tag in View Page Source. If all 3 match what you typed, your site is right, and Google will catch up on its own schedule.
