What To Do After You Set Up Your WordPress Site
When setting up a WordPress site, you need to make some changes to your settings and add a few plug-ins before you are ready to start putting the content up on your site. By making these changes to your site, you will increase your odds of having a successful website as the format will provide a better user experience, your security will be enhance and your site will be fully optimized for the search engines.
Edit Permalinks
When you first install WordPress on your domain, any post that you create will be giving a unique ID number that will show up in your website’s URL. This needs to be changed so your post title is used in the URL rather than a unique ID number. By using your post title as your permalink structure, you will ensure that you keywords appear in your site’s URL, which will have a positive effect on your site’s rankings in the search engines.
Akismet Plug-in
One of the most important plug-ins you can activate on your site is the Akismet plug-in. This plug-in is automatically installed when you load WordPress onto your server, but you need to activate it by acquiring an API key. This can be done by creating a free account at akismet.com. Your API key will act as a username and password to allow you access the service and keep your WordPress site free of spam.
The Akismet plug-in is designed to automatically check every comment, trackback, or pingback posted to your site to rid your site of any unwanted spam. Once your website starts to gain some traffic, you will notice an influx of spam comments being posted to your site. With the Akismet plug-in installed, you do not need to waste your time removing potentially harmful spam comments from your site.
Change Admin Password
Once WordPress has been installed on your server, your first action should be to change your admin password to something as secure as possible. Using a combination of numbers, letters and other characters will help you create a secure password that hackers will not be able to guess. Also, changing your username from “admin” to something else more secure will help keep your site free from hackers.
Website security should be a high priority no matter what type of website you are creating. In addition to changing your admin name and password, there are several plug-ins you can install on your site to further enhance your website’s security.
Widgets
Widgets are one of the features of WordPress that make it the most popular content management system. Activating a few widgets on your site will have a dramatic effect on your site’s layout, and allow you to add certain features such as a calendar, contact sign up form, and advertisements. Depending on the theme you are using for your website, the number and type of widgets available to you may be limited. Try downloading different themes if you are not happy with your current widget selection.
Categories
Creating categories for all of your posts is an important first step that cannot be overlooked. When you go to create your categories, you will want to think about the content structure of your website and what you will be writing about. Thinking about how you want to structure your website will help you create the perfect categories to use when classifying your posts. Using well thought out categories will make it easy for your visitors to find the content they are seeking when visiting your website.
Change the Tagline
When you install WordPress, the tagline is automatically set to, “Just another WordPress blog.” Since you do not want your visitors to think of your website as “just another WordPress blog,” you will need to change this so it accurately reflects the content of your website. Also, try to include one of your main keywords in the tagline as this is valuable SEO real estate. Having your keyword in the tagline of your website will help the search engines figure out what your website is all about.
Install an Analytics Program
Installing an analytics program such as Google Analytics is an absolute must if you want to have a successful website. This process is as simple as installing one of the many free Google Analytic plug-ins readily available to ensure your Google Analytics code is installed properly on all of your pages.
With an analytics program in place, you will be able to track all of your website’s visitors to see where you can make improvements to your site in order to increase your conversion rate.
While you may be tempted to start posting your content as soon as you install WordPress on your server, your site stands a better chance of succeeding if you complete the tasks listed in this article before working on your own content.
Richard H. blogger, writer, hobby photographer. He enjoys life as much as he can, biggest happiness for him is when he helps other. Currently working for Samuelson Hause & Samuelson as content contributor.
