There are two types of settings in Sites & settings: organization settings and site settings.
Organization settings are global settings that apply to all sites you host. To access organization settings, select the Settings tab from the top-level item in the Sites & settings treeview.
Site settings are site-specific settings that apply to default, parent, or child sites. To access site settings, select the Settings tab from a default, parent, or child site in the Sites & settings treeview.