10 Things To Do after Installing WordPress
WordPress is popular and common platform among bloggers. Installation of WordPress is also quick and simple (thanks to Fantastico which is generally included by all hosting providers). Finishing installation doesn’t completes your work but that’s te beginning, there’s much work still to be done. So, Here I am leaving you with 10 things you should do after installing wordpress blog.
1. Registration : Register yourself at wordpress.com to get your API key which is required to activate famous Anti-spam comment’s plugin called Akismet. Plugin comes pre-installed with WordPress but you have configure and activate to combat spam.
2. Change structure of permalinks : By default, wordpress permalink setting is ../?p=123 but it is recommended to have search engine friendly URL structure. I would suggest to have custom ../% category% /% postname%. Both options are available under settings tab of your WordPress admin panel.
3. Implement a System Cache : In order to improve performance of your blog (more speed for less resources), you should install cache plugin. It caches your pages in order to increase the response speed and minimize the server load. You can choose from three popular ones namely WP- Super Cache or W3 Total Cache. I am using W3 Total Cache on Blogsolute.
4. Create Sitemap : This is one of the most essential step since Sitemap is something which helps Search engines to crawl your site content more easily. It can be created easily with Google XML site map plugin.
5. Change Feed direction to Feedburner : This has to be done in all links of feed present on your blog design (especially in single.php, sidebar.php and footer.php) I would recommend using FeedSmith plugin to reduce manual effort.
6. Add tracking code : It is necessary to to track performance of your site. For this you can add Google Analytics, Statcounter or any other. Personally, I use both on this site.
7. Add your site on Webmasters’ tools : I too was unaware about it. But, Google Webmasters’ tools have all functions that lets you sign your sitemap (point 4) for fast indexing and gives you search statistics and errors related to your site. It’s worth calling it webmaster tools.
8. Create robots.txt : Through Webmasters tool, I came to knew it’s importance. You can analyze (if you already have) or you can generate right from there by selecting options.
9. Design : First impression on any visitor of your blog is design. Just take care that the design contains important elements such as a search engine, an icon of subscription (Feed), a navigation menu and it is easy to read. You can have look to some selected by browsing sites to find free WP themes.
10. Start Content posting : Start posting by telling the world what you are going to write about on blog and you an write about your self too. To start conversation with visitors add contact page to your blog. Some themes have these inbuilt feature or you may use some plugin to do that.
Also, don’t forget to create about page because visitor will need to know more about you.
Surely, the time will need other tools, plugins or themes, but I think these are the 10 most essential tasks. Happy Blogging!
[alert-note] 10 Essential Things Your Blog Shoud Have [/alert-note]
