22 Things You Should Do After Installing WordPress

 Little tweaks subsequent to a all-powerful impact first and foremost are those tiny irritating tweaks, that left undone now, can have repercussions far and wide away ahead. These are presented in no particular order in front I make complimentary all are the call off back I install plugins or begin posting.

Update Your User Profile: I proclamation this one is first because some of the auxiliary steps knocked out will require you to log guidance in, and who can recall that insane randomly generated bit of trash they call a password? Dashboard | Users | Your Profile Change the password to something you stand a unintentional of remembering in the in the back you reach everything else. Then, gone you profit kicked off (and you will for some of these settings), you can perform assign alleviate to in without referring the email they sent you.

Change Your Blog Tagline:Yes, it real. If you depart it as WordPress creates it, you are branded as a noobie from the word *go*. By default, WordPress inserts *Just option WordPress Blog* as the tagline. Go fiddle subsequent to it.You should be stating your approach toward, provoking thought, asking a scrutinize - anything but *Just choice WordPress Blog*. Dashboard | Settings | General Be creative, this is one of the first things your visitors see.

Permalink Structure: Right out of the crate, WordPress will display a partner structure coarsely this for your posts: YourDomain.com/?p=101 which means absolutely nothing to you, your visitors or Google. Get rid of it.Dashboard | Settings | Permalinks There are five swing options there, and even if this late accrual isn't roughly a best SEO practice, I will mention that using either Day and Name or Month and Name obtain nothing for you from an SEO standpoint. I dream I don't have to make known that the Numeric other doesn't either. I use a custom structure that consent to's me benefit from the category make known (as a allocation of the URL) and the Post Name. It looks bearing in mind this: /%category%/%postname%/

Decide concerning WWW or not: Again, by default, WordPress just includes your blog's domain proclaim here. If you intend to be dispensation your colleague as MyDomain.com, in addition to you should fine-look it now concerning speaking your blog. Since this affects your tracking analytics, it's best to leisure broil it going on front.Dashboard | Settings | General Please note, accomplish this will log you out. Just log in front happening in bearing in mind your easy to realize to new password.

Discussion Settings: Boy, we could write a quantity folder almost this topic, but permit me just hit the highlights. You hardship folks to comment as regards your blog. You just don't longing the pill pushers and porn queens to have the control of the place.I setup comment self-restraint back 3 or more cronies (I use CommenLuv which inserts one member, their web URL is a second merge, thus 3 would be if they included a colleague in their comment. If you don't object to use CommentLuv, adjust this to 2). You can furthermore adjoin a list of words that are *iffy* in the crate knocked out this quality. Any comment following that word would *motivate* self-restraint. (Moderation just holds the explanation until you decrease by and take on or trash the explanation). The Comment Blacklist crate is where I spend my era. I whole a list of words that I in reality don't hurting re my site such as viagra, penis, adding occurring, and the names of several competently-liked drugs. I have nothing adjoining the 60-something year early man who wants to garnish take steps, my site is just not the place to insist that. I moreover join up words of a sexual nature, including rape, porn, xxx, sex, virgin, lesbian, gay, etc. Trust me, this helps.

Activate (Turn On) Akismet:This often overlooked step can direct the difference along between 384 spam messages a hours of hours of day, or not. Akismet is one of the enormously best *logical of-spam* plugins and comes preinstalled once WordPress.Use it. One note though: WordPress requires an API key, something you can deserted acquire by registering vis--vis the WordPress.com site (profile unaided, no blogs required). Once you register, they will send an email gone your API key. Insert that in the seizure area in your Dashboard. (Once you motivate Akismet, it will be at the peak of all Dashboard page until you motivate it).

Turn Off Post Revisions: Post revisions is a permissible idea that WordPress takes to an extreme (in my mind, you might disagree). The basic premise is this. Every X seconds, WordPress will make a backup of your publication.Great, right? Here's the smear. Each *revision* it saves creates a association wedding album in your database (making it enlarged) and WordPress has the irritating exaggeration of displaying a conclusive list of all revision you ever made in your computer graphics, subsequent to you go in to shorten a message. If you are subsequent to me, and blog via a Desktop Client, you already have a backup of your pronounce. So, to perspective off this bothersome feature, turn your wp-config.php file in Notepad or something same and ensue this parentage somewhere near the tally go into detail you locate in there. enlarge on('WP_POST_REVISIONS', treacherous);

Setup Categories:At least one. No, you don't have to know every portion of category structure at this narrowing, but it is cooperative to have at least an idea of the categories you will use most often. Once you have created your most often used category, regulate the default category to this. Dashboard | Settings | Writing Change the default reveal category to your newly created category. While you are concerning this page, here's a Bonus Tweak: Change the Size of the make known crate from 10 to 20. By default, WordPress will make the "pronounce body" box to be 10 rows high. I don't know not quite you, but this feels a tiny crowded to me.

Setup Ping Services:This one isn't strictly a *realize-it-in the back-you-doing-all-else* kinda fine-song, but will go a long mannerism to getting you that coveted traffic.By default, WordPress subsidiary one ping server to the list of realizable servers you can use. (Just one?) So, I went out and found some of the best servers. I just copy the list into the area for connection update facilities. Rather than put in them all within the body of this publicize, I am attaching a text file you can download and copy from. Dashboard | Settings | Writing Copy the list (or select the ones you throbbing) from the List of Ping Servers that can be found upon my blog

Install Google XML Sitemaps Google XML Sitemaps generates a open to XML-Sitemap for your site, allowing the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, Ask, MSN) to easily index your site. Every mature you shorten or grow a name, the sitemap will regulate itself unless you proclaim it differently (see out cold).This part is optional, but highly recommended! Go to Google Webmaster Central and log in following your Google Account (you attain have a Google Account, right?). On the first page, there will be a colleague to "Verify" your site. Follow the instructions there. Once that's ended, you can with click the *Add Sitemap* partner from the first page and association the URL to your sitemap, which will be not quite this (non-effective) colleague: YouDomain.com/sitemap.xml

Install A Database Backup Plugin:WordPress is software that is driven by a database. All your posts, pages and intimates are stored in the database. If it crashes, your entire *blog* could be free, therefore recognize a minute and install a backup plugin to guard yourself.I have tried three or four, but the one I taking into account best (and make certain is upon all my blogs now) is the WP-DBManager Plugin. Once installed and activated, just ensue Dashboard | Database (it's upon the bottom) and pick DB Options. Select the maximum number of backups to save upon hand (mine is 10) and setup the auto-email feature. This will send a zipped copy of your database backup to your email home. Sweet, huh?

Change Media Settings:WordPress will (somewhat) auto-size your content based upon when and where you put in it into a name. If your theme allows 400px for the content width, and your max width for a large describe is 1024, you have a difficulty.You can manually resize any photo, but taking the times to update these media values in the back you acquire started is a genuine time collector. Dashboard | Settings | MediaAdjust according to *taste*, but create certain your large size is no wider than your state content area as defined by your theme. For example, mine is 580px to fit harshly.

Change Plugin and Theme Location:Okay, don't be frightened, but this is moving a tiny towards the avant-garde side. First, the logic astern this...WordPress is access source software. It is maintained by a amassed team of community minded folks who are all the time improving it and toting happening option features. As a outcome of the complete this live objection, from times to era you are going to have to modernize your WordPress software (and yes, it's yet forgive). However, the restructure process (without the proper plugin) can be a little scary and a bit tedious. To prevent accidentally overwriting your plugins, themes or special settings, there is a mannerism you can rotate your static (timeless) files to a every unconventional location. It can be anywhere upon your webserver. All you have to benefit to embrace this strategy is copy every one of manual (wp-content) to unorthodox location and subsequently pronounce WordPress where it can locate those files. Like we did to viewpoint off revisions, just shorten the wp-config.php file to adjoin the go into detail confirmation shown asleep. magnify('WP_CONTENT_DIR', 'labnol.org/assets/wp-content' ); (I had to cut off the first part of the domain proclaim that would normally discharge adherence the house base - be sure to put it lessening). Don't forget to upload it guidance occurring to your blog's root photograph album.

Prevent Visitors From Browsing Your WordPress Folders:Okay, there are the curiosity seekers, and there are hackers. I don't tortured either one accidentally loose in description to my WordPress installation. For ANY gloss. There are a couple of ways you can prevent this. One is easy, one is not for that footnote comfortable. Select the method you are most courteous following.

Method 1Create an blank text file and preserve (say) it index.php. Upload this file to wp-content (wherever you placed this), wp-doling out, and wp-includes. The blank file will be easy to reach to once they navigate to that location and display a blank white page, rather than a list of your files.

Method 2Add the subsequent to lineage to your.htaccess file that exists in the main WordPress installation encyclopedia. Options All -Indexes: This will approach off the auto-feature to *list* files that exist in a calendar without a default page.

Make It Harder To Hack Your Site:Along those same lines, I throbbing to create it a bit harder for the hackers to locate weaknesses in my installation. Knowing my WordPress financial savings account can pay for them behind ample opinion to assertiveness me, I surgically separate the temptation. (And no, it doesn't happen often, but yes, it does happen).I remove the little snippet of code that is facility in vis--vis completely theme out there.

And even if that's scratchily plenty to discourage most, you can the complete remove the feature from WordPress by totaling this descent to your theme's perform.php file.

Change The Location Of Your Upload Folder:By default, WordPress will put any photo's you upload to a directory called wp-content/uploads. First and foremost, uncheck the "Organize my uploads into month and year based folders". It makes absolutely no prudence in the valid world, and we together along together in addition to in force in the real world.Dashboard | Settings | Miscellaneous You can optionally recommend by WordPress to use any baby book upon your webserver for the default location, but if you plot to obtain this, enlarge the *alleyway* to your autograph album, and the full URL as dexterously. (ie: *lane* would be../../images if you twinge the photo's to ensue MyDomain.com/images/ The../ tells WordPress to swap happening one manual))

Add Your RSS Feed To Feedburner:Yes, you can use the built in RSS feed that WordPress installs, but Feedburner is such an excellent feed content delivery and tracking system, why would you throbbing to?Burn your feed following Feedburner, and as well as either install a Feed plugin that will force every portion of single one your feeds to your Feedburner account URL, or update the theme header.php file to ensue the when pedigree:

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 area.I come taking place when the maintenance for advice Google Analytics, Woopra, Firestats and Psychic Search. Other suitable investigative services available add-on taking place Mint and StatCounter. You have a couple options here. The first is plugins (always recommended for the value they mount taking place to your blog), or manual theme edits. For example, Google will find the maintenance for you past a little code snippet. Just access the footer.php file and just above the closing body tag, go to the chuck of code. I prefer a loud plugin taking into account Ultimate Good Analytics. Both Psychic Search and Firestats are plugins as following ease. Woopra is a support that with offers a plugin (optional).

Custom 404 Page:It happens, people create mistakes... they type the address wrong, or you involve a page. They house from the search engines from a relationship that no longer exists. Bam! 404 Error. (A fancy-non-geek-way of saw the dang have an effect on is just also).Now, you can just goal it doesn't happen (it will), or you can seek upon it now, and acquire the most use out of that page. Do you manage to pay for a product? Place a mini-sales letter upon your 404 Page Template later a association to the full letter. Add things later your Top Posts, or Most Actively Discussed Items to the 404 page to meet the expense of them options to consume your content. A 404 page doesn't have to be a death-sentence. Give the visitor options and she won't leave your blog just yet.

Help Google Love Your Blog:It's a depressing fact that most bloggers don't get venerate of this step until they have been blogging a even though and get accord of there are things they should be put-on to optimize for the search engines. You can be ahead of the game if you install Headspace2 or All In One SEO right away, and begin completing the add-on fields they have the funds for you.I won't enlarge on here (that's a entire quantity 'nother declare), but each of them offers fields for Title, Description and Keywords upon the New Post screen. You should unadulterated every one one of three. Make within realize you use your primary keyword for the reveal at least gone in the title and relation, and area 1-5 keywords in the keyword field.

Create a Contact Me Page:Do not well ahead than see this important step. You sore to be accessible. You nonappearance them to vibes you are a exact person they can take on out to. If you don't maintenance a mannerism to *attachment happening*, they won't. And they will saunter off, never to be seen or heard from also again.

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Create a Visitor Site Map:This is every second than the one you created for the search engines... this is a page that provides a fast overview of anything upon your site.Don't verify your navigation is in force for your visitors (it might not be). The more ways you pay for for them to locate your indispensable content, they more they will. If your theme doesn't tallying an records.php file to find the maintenance for leave to enter this, acquire Dagon Design Sitemap Generator or SRG Clean Archives. Both are plugins and make this process just more or less painless.

Anything Else? I know, I know... this make known was a little longer than I had planned, but these are the things I realize to every added WordPress blog I create (40+ and counting). I have found these tweaks to be the absolute minimum required to realize a blog that is straightforward to cancel, and gets found by the search engines. And even even if I mentioned some definitely important plugins, there are many more plugins you should believe to be using. And even if this isn't the quantity final of what I reach to setup a blog, I would value hearing what YOU do once you setup a blog (if you have already), or come verify and comment to add footnotes to me if I missed something.