> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://ghost.org/help/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Setting up your site
- URL: https://ghost.org/help/site-setup/
- Published: 2023-04-30T13:23:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-05-01T18:08:10.000Z
- Author: Ghost
- Tags: Getting started, Manual

After creating your publication and selecting a theme, there are a few settings that can help ensure your site is named correctly, and can be crawled and identified by external services.

## General settings

### Title & Description

Set a publication title and description from the **Settings → General → Title & description** area.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/69/0f/690faecc-18d1-42c5-a99a-83ce5fada384/content/images/2026/02/ghost-settings-title.png)

The title and description will be used across your publication, to help readers identify your site around the web.

### Timezone

You can set the timezone of your publication from the **Settings → General → Timezone** area. When a custom timezone is set, this will be used for scheduling and publishing posts. 

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/69/0f/690faecc-18d1-42c5-a99a-83ce5fada384/content/images/2026/02/ghost-settings-timezone.png)

### Publication Language

Set a custom language for your publication from the **Settings → General → Publication language** area, to automatically tell search engines what language your content is in**.**

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/69/0f/690faecc-18d1-42c5-a99a-83ce5fada384/content/images/2026/02/ghost-settings-publication-language.png)

### Meta data

In the **Settings → General → Meta data** area, you can add custom meta data content for search engines.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/69/0f/690faecc-18d1-42c5-a99a-83ce5fada384/content/images/2025/08/meta-data-settings-v6.png)

### X Card

Customize how your site address is rendered when shared across X (formerly Twitter) by customizing the data in the **Settings → General → Meta data → X card**  area. When your site address is shared across X, your custom card data will be rendered.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/69/0f/690faecc-18d1-42c5-a99a-83ce5fada384/content/images/2025/08/x-card-meta-data-settings.png)

### Facebook card

You can enter in custom structured data for Facebook in the **Settings → General → Meta data → Facebook card** area. When a custom image, title and description is added, this will be rendered in the Facebook card when shared.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/69/0f/690faecc-18d1-42c5-a99a-83ce5fada384/content/images/2025/08/facebook-card-data-settings.png)

### Social accounts

To include links to your Facebook and X profile and page, click Edit from the **Settings → General → Social accounts** area. When custom profile links are added, these will be associated with icons used across your site within your theme.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/69/0f/690faecc-18d1-42c5-a99a-83ce5fada384/content/images/2024/06/social-account-settings.png)

### Make site private

If your new publication is not yet ready for prime time, you can use private site mode with a shared password, by enabling this option from the **Settings → Membership → Access** area.

When private site mode is on, all search engine optimization features are switched off to keep your site under the radar.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/69/0f/690faecc-18d1-42c5-a99a-83ce5fada384/content/images/2026/05/ghost-private-site-mode.png)

**This is *not* secure authentication.** You shouldn't rely on this feature for protecting important private data. It's just a simple, shared password for some very basic privacy.