The Brand your site checklist

The Brand your site checklist

The Home screen of Reign Settings opens with a checklist called “Brand your site”, with a counter such as “4 of 8 done”. It is the shortest path from a freshly activated theme to a site that looks like yours rather than like a demo.

Each row tells you the current state in plain terms, so “Your site name is showing as plain text” rather than a generic prompt, and gives you a button straight to the setting.

Work down it in order. The first four change what a visitor sees immediately.

1. Logo

Until you set one, your site name renders as plain text in the header. Uploading a logo replaces it.

Takes you to Site Identity in the Customizer, which also holds the site title and tagline.

2. Site icon

The small image in browser tabs and bookmarks. Without one, browsers show the default WordPress mark, which is the clearest sign of an unfinished site.

Square, at least 512 by 512 pixels.

3. Colors

Applies a palette across the whole theme. This is the palette-first workflow: set one palette rather than editing individual colours, and the rest of the theme follows.

See the colour system for how the palette, individual colours and dark mode relate.

4. Typography

Applies a font preset, which sets the heading and body faces and the type scale together. Faster and more consistent than choosing fonts one by one.

5. Navigation menu

Confirms your menu is assigned to the header location. A site with no menu assigned shows nothing where the navigation should be.

6. Light / dark toggle

Turns on the control that lets visitors switch between light and dark. Reign ships both modes. If you leave the toggle off, visitors stay on whichever mode you set as default.

See dark mode.

7. License

Activating turns on theme updates and the one-click plugin installs on the Extend screen. Until then the row reads “Updates and one-click installs are off”.

See activate your licence.

8. Child theme

A warning worth acting on before you edit anything. Edits made directly to theme files are lost when Reign updates. Reign Settings > Tools has a Download child theme button that gives you a safe place for custom code.

See child themes.

When the counter stops moving

The counter reflects real state, not a to-do list you tick off. If an item still shows as incomplete after you have set it, reload the screen. If it persists, open the linked setting and confirm the value actually saved, then check styles not applying for caching.