To change the site title in WordPress, go to Settings, General, edit the Site Title field (and the Tagline under it), and click Save Changes. That is the whole job on nine sites out of ten. The tenth is why this question keeps getting asked: the title still looks old in the header, in the browser tab or in Google, because those three can each be controlled by something else, namely the theme’s header settings, a block theme’s Site Title block, and your SEO plugin’s title template. Below is the one setting, then the three overrides and how to tell which one you are looking at.
How do you change the site title in WordPress?
- Log in to the dashboard.
- Go to Settings, General.
- Change Site Title. Change Tagline too if it still says “Just another WordPress site”, which it does on a surprising number of live business sites.
- Click Save Changes.
WordPress.org’s Settings General guide describes the field as the name most themes display at the top of every page and in the browser title bar. It is stored as the blogname option, which is why a developer might change it with wp option update blogname "New Name" on the command line; same setting, same result.
Why does the header still show the old name?
Because the header is drawn by the theme, and themes have their own idea of what to show there.
| Theme type | Where the header title comes from | Change it in |
|---|---|---|
| Classic theme (Astra, GeneratePress, Kadence, most older themes) | Settings, General, unless a logo is set | Appearance, Customize, Site Identity: the title, tagline, logo and the “display site title” checkbox all live here |
| Block theme (Twenty Twenty-Four, Twenty Twenty-Five and other Site Editor themes) | A Site Title block in the header template, which reads Settings, General by default | Appearance, Editor, open the Header, click the Site Title block. If someone typed over it, it shows that text instead; select the block and it can be reset |
| Page builder header (Elementor, Divi, Bricks) | Whatever text or logo was placed in the builder’s header | The builder’s theme builder or header template, not WordPress settings |
The logo is the common trap: if a logo image is set, most themes hide the text title in the header entirely, so changing Settings, General changes nothing visible there. That is fine; the title still feeds the browser tab, the RSS feed, emails from the site and the SEO template.
Why does Google or the browser tab show something different?
Because that text is the SEO title, not the site title. Yoast and Rank Math build the title tag from a template such as %%title%% %%sep%% %%sitename%% (Rank Math writes the same variables with single percent signs; Yoast lists its variables here), so the site name appears after the page title, and on the home page the template may be a custom sentence someone wrote two years ago. To change what Google shows:
- Home page: the SEO title field on your static front page, or Yoast SEO, Settings, Content types, Homepage if the front page shows latest posts; in Rank Math it is Titles & Meta, Homepage.
- Every other page: the template under Yoast Settings, Content types, or Rank Math Titles & Meta, Posts and Pages; the
%%sitename%%variable pulls from Settings, General, so a new site title flows through automatically. - One specific page: its own SEO title field in the editor sidebar, which overrides the template.
The relationship between all three is explained in where the SEO title is in WordPress. After a change, Google keeps showing the old title until it recrawls; request indexing for the home page with the URL Inspection tool in Search Console to hurry it.
Does changing the site title affect SEO?
Through the title tag, yes. Because the site name sits at the end of almost every title tag on the site, a change touches every page at once. Correcting capitalisation or a typo does nothing. Renaming the business means every page’s title changes in one day, searches for the old name fade, and the new name starts from zero; keep the old name in the About page and the tagline for a while (“formerly X”) so those searches still land. What it does not change: your URLs. No redirects are needed for a title change, unlike changing the domain.
What should the site title and tagline actually say?
| Field | Use | Avoid |
|---|---|---|
| Site Title | The business name exactly as customers say it: “Adil Makhdoom”, “Northside Physio” | Keywords stuffed in: “Northside Physio Best Physiotherapist Austin TX” |
| Tagline | What you do and where, in six to ten words; some themes show it, all SEO plugins can use it | The default “Just another WordPress site”, or a slogan nobody searches for |
| SEO title template | Page title, separator, site name | Site name first on every page; it wastes the characters Google shows |
Why can I not change the site title?
- No Settings menu: your user is an Editor, not an Administrator; which WordPress role has which permissions explains the difference.
- Field greyed out or reverts: some managed hosts lock it; change it in the host panel.
- Saved, but the header shows the old name: theme header setting or logo, see the table above.
- Saved, but the tab shows the old name: SEO plugin template or a cached page; clear the cache plugin and check the SEO settings.
Site title, tagline and the SEO template are three of the settings I check first on a WordPress site because they show up in every search result the site ever gets; the WordPress design tips for beginners cover the rest of that day-one list.
Frequently asked questions
Go to Settings, General, edit the Site Title and Tagline fields and click Save Changes. Classic themes also show them under Appearance, Customize, Site Identity, where you can hide the text title behind a logo.
The theme controls the header. A logo may be hiding the text, a block theme may have custom text typed into its Site Title block, or a page builder header is showing its own text. Change it in the theme or builder header settings.
That is the SEO title. Edit the homepage title in Yoast or Rank Math settings, or the title template for other pages. Then request indexing in Search Console; Google updates after it recrawls.
The site title is the business name and appears in headers, tabs and title tags. The tagline is a short description; some themes show it under the title and SEO plugins can include it in the home page title.
It changes the site name in every page’s title tag. A spelling fix does nothing; a rename shifts rankings from the old name to the new one over time. URLs do not change, so no redirects are needed.
Appearance, Editor, open the Header template and click the Site Title block. By default it shows the name from Settings, General; if custom text was typed into the block, edit or reset it there.
