Top 15 Most Important Things To Do After Creating WordPress Blog For The First TimeThis is a Start-Up Guide for WordPress.
So, You’ve installed WordPress on your domain ?
What to do next ?
That’s the first question that will come to your mind after you’ve installed WordPress on your domain.
But, wait … there are still a number of important things you should do before you ever write a word.
Here are Top 15 Most Important Things To Do After Creating WordPress Blog For The First Time:
1. Delete Default Posts & Pages
2. Set Your URL to WWW
3. Membership-Registration
4. TimeZone-Date-Time
5. Discussion-Comment Settings
6. Media Settings
7. Set Up WordPress Permalinks
8. WordPress Ping List
9. Set Up Google Analytics/Statistics
10. Create Sitemap(s)
11. Install A Cache Plugin
12. Install An SEO WordPress Plugin
13. Create Regular BackUp(s)
14. Create About Us & Contact Us Pages
15. Connect To Social Networks
So, let’s start!
1. Delete Default Posts & Pages
When you install WordPress for the first time on your Domain, there will be Default or Sample stuff like Sample Post(s) and Sample Page(s). There can be even Sample Comment(s) sometimes. These Defaults or Samples are created By Default by WordPress or WordPress Theme(s) and are used just for your reference.
To delete these default posts & pages, just follow these simple steps:
– First, Login to your WordPress Dashboard
– Then, go to Posts > All Posts and Delete the default ‘Sample Post‘.
– Similarly, go to Pages > All Pages and Delete the default ‘Sample Page‘.
(Just click the Red Trash to Delete)
Here’s the Screenshot:
2. Set Your URL to WWW
Go to Settings Page, you will see your site’s URL listed twice – ‘WordPress Address (URL)‘ and ‘Site Address (URL)‘. This states that your URL is NOT the WWW version, that is, it is the NON-WWW version. It probably looks like this:
http://example.com
Before changing the WordPress Address (URL) and Site Address (URL):
Your site will work either way, but it?s better to have only one version of your site (WWW or NON-WWW). The main reason behind changing the version of the site is that it helps to prevent broken links of your site. Also, many people naturally think of web addresses as being www.yoursite.com/in/net….. and so on. So, it’s better to change your site’s address to the WWW version.
http://www.example.com
After changing the WordPress Address (URL) and Site Address (URL):
Do remember that there are TWO places to change this:
1. Settings > General > WordPress Address (URL)
AND
2. Settings > General > Site Address (URL)
3. Membership-Registration
If you are creating a WordPress site which has a Forum or allows Guest Posting, it?s always a good idea to keep your Membership/Registration Open or Enabled. Also, if you are planning to allow comments on your site, and also planning to require users/visitors to register in order to comment, then you will need to Enable Membership or Registration. If not, you can Disable it.
To Enable/Disable the WordPress Membership/Registration:
– Go to Settings > General
– Membership > Tick in checkbox ‘Anyone can register‘ to Enable & Untick to Disable
You can also set the various User Roles as Subscriber, Contributor, Author, Editor or Administrator.
4. TimeZone-Date-Time
By default, you will see your Timezone set to UTC. (Coordinated Universal Time). It is a standard by which time is regulated worldwide. Make sure you set up the timezone to your local time, that is, you can choose a city in the same timezone as you. This functionality is important to show the most accurate date on your site. It also helps with scheduling posts.
– Go to Settings > General
– Timezone > Just use the pull-down menu to find a city that is in the same time zone as you.
You can also set or change ‘Date Format‘ & ‘Time Format‘ as preferred.
5. Discussion-Comment Settings
You will need to make a decision whether you are going to allow comments on your blog or not. By default, WordPress is set up to allow comments. If you do not want to allow comments,you will need to edit this section.
Just follow the steps shown in the screenshot below.
– Go to Settings > Discussion
6. Media Settings
By default, WordPress create multiple sizes of one image that you will upload. It is not recommended to keep the default settings as some of the WordPress Themes have their own or custom settings for images.
You can follow the screenshot below and configure the Media Settings accordingly.
– Go to Settings > Media
7. Set Up WordPress Permalinks
WordPress offers you the ability to create a custom URL structure for your Permalinks and Archives. The default Permalink will be plain i.e. http://example.com/p=123. This permalink is short, but it is not SEO-Friendly. To make the permalink more SEO-Friendly, you can change the permalink structure to ‘Post name‘. The post name structure will look like http://www.example.com/sample-post.
– Go to Settings > Permalinks
8. WordPress Ping List
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies some site update services. It notifies and updates only a few sites. You can notify much more services by extending the Ping Update Service.
– Go to Settings > Writing > Update Services
You can download a list of ping list from here: WordPress Ping List
9. Set Up Google Analytics/Statistics
So, you want to know about your site’s analytics or statistics? Not a problem! Google Analytics is probably the best free way to do that. The easiest way to do it is with a WordPress Plugin. We recommend this WordPress Plugin – Google Analytics Dashboard for WP. You can Register or Sign-up here for Google Analytics. You can find more instructions on the site for setting up a domain and getting your Analytics Code. Once you have Analytics Code, you will need to insert it into your theme’s header file before it will begin tracking your site.
10. Create Sitemap(s)
First of all, what is ‘Sitemap‘?
A ‘Sitemap’ is a list of pages of a website accessible to crawlers or users. It is an XML file that contains the URLs inside your blog which helps crawlers to find all of the URLs of your blog.
For faster indexing and crawling of your site, it’s essential for you to create your blog sitemap and submit it to Google Webmaster Tools and Bing Webmaster Tools. You can Sign-up for Google Webmaster Tools from here & follow the detailed instructions provided there. If you have not created your blog sitemap yet, you can easily create it using ‘Google XML Sitemaps‘. This Plugin helps to create a dynamic sitemap of WordPress blog which is compatible with Google, Bing and Yahoo Webmaster Tools.
11. Install A Cache Plugin
So, why do we need a ‘Cache Plugin‘? Caching is necessary as it can speed up your site. It helps take the load off your server and make your site faster. It also helps in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) & prevents your site from crashing during heavy load times.
You can check out these two great Cache Plugins for your WordPress Blog – W3 Total Cache & WP Super Cache.
12. Install An SEO WordPress Plugin
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an important part of any Blog or a Website. To make sure that you get more traffic from the Search Engines (Google Yahoo, Bing) to your blog, you need to have an SEO Plugin for better results.
Here are few most popular WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO & All In One SEO Pack.
13. Create Regular BackUp(s)
So, you have spent a lot of time setting up and customizing your WordPress blog/site? You wouldn’t want to lose any of this, right? Thus, you should create regular Backups.
Regular Backups are very important as they help to prevent loss of data and in case, if any problem occurs, you can restore your blog/site from the latest or last Backup and make your blog/site run again!
You can check out some WordPress BackUp Plugins – VaultPress , BackupBuddy & BackWPup
14. Create About Us & Contact Us Pages
‘About Us‘ & ‘Contact Us‘ are the two most essential pages for every blog/site.
An ‘About Us‘ page is the foundation of the site. It tells the reader about you & your website/blog. It contains some important or detailed information about your website, service or organization. You can tell the readers about your company/website – when the was the company/website founded, by whom the company/website was founded, what are the achievements and goals of company/website, and more information about the company/website in detail. The page should look appealing to the readers or viewers.
A ‘Contact Us‘ page is also an important page for every blog/site. It helps the readers/viewers to provide you with feedbacks, ask doubts or questions (if any) about your website. It helps to maintain a relationship with the readers/viewers. Apart from this, the page should also look great & it should be functional, i.e. there should not be any broken links or errors.
You can also add a Contact Form to your ‘Contact Us’ page.
Make sure you include a contact email address (A custom email address with your Domain Name would look more professional).
You can check out our ‘About Us‘ & ‘Contact Us‘ Pages.
15. Connect To Social Networks
So, the final thing is to connect your website/blog to social networks.
Linking your website to active social media accounts like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn helps a lot in driving traffic towards your site. Also, sharing your blog posts on social media platforms can help your content gain significant exposure. It also helps to build trust and relation with bloggers and readers around the world.
