Top 7 things you should do when you first set up a WordPress Site
Here are the first seven things I do with any WordPress blog site I set up.
They are all easy to do at the beginning and can make a big difference to your site. Some are harder to put right if you don’t set them up at the beginning. These are presented in no particular order since I make sure all are done before I install plugins or start posting.
1. Update Your User Profile: I say do this one is first because some of the other steps below will require you to log back in, and who can remember that crazy randomly generated bit of rubbish they call a password? Go to Dashboard | Users | Your Profile. Replace the password to something you stand a chance of remembering before you do anything else. Then, when you need to log back in(and you will for some of these settings), you can get back in without referring the email they sent you.
2. Change Your Blog Tagline:You don’t want to be branded as a newbie from the word *go*. By default, WordPress inserts *Just another WordPress Blog* as the tagline. You need to change it.You could use it to ask a question, get people interested- anything but *Just another WordPress Blog*. Dashboard | Settings | General …Be creative, this is one of the first things your visitors see.
3. Permalink Structure: When installed, WordPress will display a link structure something like this for your posts: YourDomain.com/?p=101 which means absolutely nothing to you, your visitors or Google. Get rid of it. Go to Dashboard | Settings | Permalinks I would use a custom structure that let’s me benefit from the category name (as a part of the URL) and the Post Name. It looks like this: /category%/%postname%/. This is much better as you can use keywords in both your category and post title and Google loves them!
4. Activate (Turn On) Akismet:This often ignored step can mean the difference between being overwhelmed by spam messages a day, or not. Akismet is one of the very best *anti-spam* plugins and comes preinstalled with WordPress. Use it. Just be aware though that WordPress requires an API key, something you can only get by registering on the WordPress.com site (profile only, no blogs required). Once you register, they will send an email with your API key. Insert that in the correct place in your Dashboard. (Once you activate Akismet, it will be at the top of every Dashboard page until you activate it).
5. Install Google XML Sitemaps Google XML Sitemaps generates a compliant XML-Sitemap for your site, enabling the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, Ask, MSN) to easily index your site. Every time you modify or add a post, the sitemap will modify itself unless you tell it differently (see below).This part is optional, but highly recommended! Go to Google Webmaster Central and log in with your Google Account (you do have a Google Account, right?). On the first page, there will be a link to “Verify” your site. Follow the instructions there. Once that’s done, you can then click the *Add Sitemap* link from the first page and put in the URL to your sitemap, which will be something like this (non-working) link: YouDomain.com/sitemap.xml
6. Install A Database Backup Plugin:WordPress is application that is driven by a database. All your posts, pages and links are stored in the database. If it crashes, your entire *blog* could be lost, so take a minute and install a backup plugin to protect yourself. The one I like best (and make sure is on all my blogs now) is the WP-DBManager Plugin. Once installed and activated, just go to Dashboard | Database (it’s on the bottom) and select DB Options. Select the maximum number of backups to keep on hand (mine is 10) and setup the auto-email feature. This will send a zipped copy of your database backup to your email address.
7. Activate Your Analytics:Keep track of your users and traffic, there’s a lot you can learn from who visits, how they found you and where they go from your place.I recommend Google Analytics, Other good analytic services available include Mint and StatCounter. I would always look for a plugin that automatically links to your chosen analytics site. Ultimate Google Analytics is the one I always use first.
These are the top things I do with each and every wordpress blog I set up and is the minimum.
There are lots of other tips and tricks that are required for some more than other sites.
If you need any help setting up your wordpress blog just give me a call.
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3 Responses to “Top 7 things you should do when you first set up a WordPress Site”
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great tips for newbie like me
Found this on twitter, awesome post.
Check out my instructions on the nitty gritties of actually setting one up: http://itautomationgroup.com/hosting-your-own-wordpress-site/
Link to this article is at the end. Thanks again!