When you publish a new post to your WordPress website, does it show the wrong name as the author? Do you get something that looks more like a username than your actual name? This is something you can certainly change and it’s a pretty easy change to make.

Why Should You Use Your Full Name on Your WordPress Website?

Sometimes, you will read a blog and realize somebody is using a username on their blog posts. Not only is this dangerous as it puts your username out there or hackers and others looking to cause your site harm, but it’s also very tacky. It doesn’t show a real person as the author and it doesn’t help you build credibility or authority as an author.

Choosing a real name instead of a username will look far more professional and will actually help the search engines. It’s easier for Google and other search engines to identify the content and give credit to the right author. It will also help to establish your personal brand and people will become more familiar with you.

When the post goes live to Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other social sites, it will make it easier for readers to find and follow you. This can help build a more personal relationship and make your brand stronger.

How to Easily Change your Name in WordPress

Changing or adding your name to WordPress and telling WordPress to use it on your blog posts is very easy. Start by going to the Users section of your dashboard and click in “Your Profile.”

Now, you will need to scroll down to the section showing the username, first name, last name and nickname. You can set the first name, last name and nickname to anything you want. Once you have set these names to whatever you would like, you will be able to adjust the setting called “Display name publicly as.”

Whatever you select for this setting will be the display name with your blog posts.

What if You have Multiple Authors on your Blog?

If you run a blog with more than one author, the process of making sure each author has the correct name displaying with their posts is very similar to the process above. The biggest difference is you will go into the Users menu and select the “All Users” menu to find each user.

From here, you can select whichever user you want to edit with the edit selection under their user name. This will take you to their profile page where you can adjust the name settings to whatever you like and change the “Display name publicly as” setting.

When you have more than one author on your blog it’s important to make sure they have the correct name assigned to their posts. Visitors may want to search your site for all the posts they have created by typing their name into the search box. If the name is correct, they will be able to easily find all of the posts by the specific author instead of searching through all the other posts to find them.

Along with making it easier to find the posts by each author, changing this setting to give you a real name for each author means there will be no username exposed for hackers to steal and try to use to gain access to your website.

It’s important to use a real name for all of the authors on your WordPress website. It will give you a better chance of building a personal brand and it will make your site look far more professional.