Setting a timezone in WordPress has more benefits than simply telling the correct time in your country and city. The most obvious is the WordPress functions such as current_time or get_the_time that depend on it. These are used for scheduling posts, and when set incorrectly, can lead to the dreaded missed scheduled post WordPress error. It may also break the functionality of many event planning or calendar plugins for WordPress. Furthermore, if you have multiple contractors or employees, it would make it impossible for them to click in and clock out, and managers to keep track of it all. Now that you realize the importance, let’s show you how to change the timezone in WordPress.
Why Timezone is important in WordPress?
There are many reasons why time zone is very important in WordPress. We are listing some of the most significant ones of them below –
- Post Scheduling: Setting a proper time zone is very important to accurately schedule your posts based on your publishing schedule. An incorrect time zone will result in posts getting published at an incorrect time.
- Timestamps on posts: Incorrect time zone or date will also result in the WordPress frontend showing inconsistent dates and times on posts. Accurate times can be extremely important for news media and other such websites running WordPress.
- Plugin & Theme functions: If you are using any plugins or themes that rely on the accuracy of time zones or make use of any time or date-related functionalities, setting an incorrect time zone will result in unexpected behavior.
Steps for changing your WordPress Timezone
Follow these steps to change timezone in WordPress:
- Access your WordPress Admin section.
- In the WordPress navigation menu on the left-hand side, click on Settings.
- Click on General.
- When the page opens, find the section labeled Timezone.
- From the drop-down list, choose a UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) timezone or choose a city in your timezone.
- Once you make your decision, scroll down and click on the Save Changes button.
- Optional. Change the time and date formats below.
- Congratulations! You’ve successfully changed the timezone in WordPress site-wide.
- Recommended. Go to any WordPress plugin that depends on this functionality, and refresh settings. You can also clear WordPress cache manually.
Should I use a city-based or UTC Timezone?
Selecting a city from the drop-down list is strongly recommended. That’s because WordPress will automatically check and account for Daylight Savings Time (DST). If your city isn’t on the list, simply select the nearest one. Even selecting a neighboring country that shares a timezone is a better solution. By using the UTC timezone, WordPress will notify you when the next DST time change is due. But, you’ll still have to augment or decrease the timezone number manually.
Timezone examples
| Time Zone | Offset |
|---|---|
| UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) | +00:00 |
| GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) | +00:00 |
| EST (Eastern Standard Time) | -05:00 |
| CST (Central Standard Time) | -06:00 |
| MST (Mountain Standard Time) | -07:00 |
| PST (Pacific Standard Time) | -08:00 |
| BST (British Summer Time) | +01:00 |
| CEST (Central European Summer Time) | +02:00 |
| IST (Indian Standard Time) | +05:30 |
| JST (Japan Standard Time) | +09:00 |
| AEST (Australian Eastern Standard Time) | +10:00 |
| NZST (New Zealand Standard Time) | +12:00 |