10 things to do after installing WordPress (crib for beginners)

A 5-minute WordPress installation is great - it's so easy to create your own blog! However, after installing WordPress, you will need to take a few more steps to get the best result from your blog.

The following information can be used as a memo or cheat sheet when installing the engine.

1. Change the admin password, and configure the authorization settings.

WordPress offers a random password that you can hardly (or want to) remember, so the first thing you need to do is replace the password with something memorable for you.

You can manage user settings through the Users panel, here you can open access to blog administration to any number of users.
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2. Edit permalinks

By default, the URLs of your posts will look something like this wp-config.ru/?p=339 . This URL structure is poorly prepared for SEO and it is completely un-usable (visitors to your blog will not be able to determine anything from it).

By changing the URL structure to something like http://wp-config.ru/sozdanie-tem/urok-7-kontent/ , you can include post keywords in it, and this is a much more informative URL for users.

Go to Settings> Permalinks

1. Under 'Common settings', select 'Custom Structure'
2. Enter % postname% / in the field
3. Or, if you prefer the category to also be included in the URL, enter % category% /% postname% /

3. Download and activate your theme.

1. Download a theme or custom design
2. Unzip and upload it to wp-content> themes
3. Activate it with Appearance> Themes (then just click on yours)

4. Change default categories and add your own

When you install Wordpress the default category is 'Uncategorized' and of course, it looks disgusting. Suppose you are going to post an article and forget to put it in a certain category - in which default category would you like to see your post in this case? I usually choose general categories for this, for example, News .

1. Go to Posts> Categories
2. Click on 'Uncategorized' to edit it - change it to ' News ' or something similar.
3. Add other categories

5. Activate Akismet

Akismet is a plugin that blocks comment spam, and this, believe me, is necessary if your blog is open for comment, without this plugin, you will receive tons of spam.

Fortunately, Akismet is already installed in Wordpress, you just need to activate it.

1. Go to the Plugins page through the admin panel and activate Akismet
2. To complete activation, Wordpress requests an API key. You can get it by registering on Wordpress.com , after registering, just go to your profile.
3. Now go to Plugins> AkismetConfiguration , and insert the key.

6. Install Google XML Sitemaps

Google XML Sitemaps generates a full-fledged XML map for your site, allowing the largest search engines (Google, Yahoo, Ask, MSN) to easily index it. Every time you edit or add a post, the site map will be updated automatically.

Here you can download the Google XML Sitemaps plugin.

Now go to Google Webmaster Central and log in with your Google account information. On the first page you will see the verification link of your site. Follow the instructions there.

After that, you can click on the “Add Sitemap” link on the first page, and paste the URL of your site into the map, it will look like this: www.yoursite.com/sitemap.xml

7. Install Wordpress Database Backup

It is always helpful to have backup. After all, an error can always happen on the server, or you yourself will do something wrong.

WordPress Database Backup will backup your WordPress blog, you can even set it up so that backup comes to you every week, so you just need to activate backup if necessary.

Here you can install the WordPress Database Backup plugin , or read the manual for automatic backup on Pro Blog Design.

8. Test your blog using trial content.

You won’t know how your blog will look like until you thoroughly test it with trial posts using all the formatting methods.

Save your time using WP Candy test posts .

Import a trial collection of posts ( Tools> Import> WordPress ) and your blog will be filled with several posts, including comments, categories and sub categories, as well as formatting, this will allow you to completely check how everything is displayed and make necessary corrections if necessary.

9. Add RSS Feed to Feedburner

First edit the RSS settings. Settings> Reading - here you can specify how many posts will be displayed in your RSS feed, and whether you need to display the post completely.

Now you need to start your feed using Feedburner . Feedburner will provide you with statistics on your RSS feeds and automatically send a request for content updates to the update tracking service sites. Thus a huge list of services will be notified of updates on your blog.

Once you have registered with Feedburner, change the RSS subscription link in your topic. Paste the following code between the head tags:

/>


10. Activate Google Analytics

Track the number of visitors to your site. I recommend Google Analytics . Also good analytical services are Mint and StatCounter .

Additionally

Here are some additional steps recommended after WordPress is installed. They are less significant than the above, but still require some attention.

A. Resize Media Images

Resize images, depending on the content area of ​​your site.

Settings> Media

B. Change the blog description

The blog description can be included in your topic, or be missing there, but most likely it will be included in the RSS feed.

Settings> General

What else?

If you perform any other actions after installing WordPress, and consider them necessary, please share.

Original: 10 Things to do After Installing WordPress
Translation: WordPress for everyone in Russian!