Every day I always install a fresh copy of WordPress either on client site or on development server. That’s why today I created a checklist, the 10 important things to do after installing WordPress. I need this so I won’t miss anything when I install wordpress for the first time, like the permalinks, admin account and so on. This is my personal preference and you can add your own trick in the list by using the comment below.
1. Admin username
After you installed wordpress, you’ll be given a name which is default as admin. Everyone knows admins as a user, so the first thing is to create a new account with different username (of course!) make sure it is an administrator account. Log in as the newly created one, and delete the admin account. Therefore automated script won’t be able to use the admin username.
2. Add your author
If you’re planning to run a multi-author blog you can add the author right now. If you want to display your author I made a tutorial about that too.
3. Settings
In the Settings>General change the blog name, tagline, how you may want to format the Time zones. I think the important part is the permalinks, you should decide what you will use one year from now. Do you want it like this http://yourdomain.com/?p=345 ? I would suggest to use it as /%postname%/ like the image above.
4. RSS settings and Feedburner
Leaving the default RSS settings for works, but if you have a client who wants to show a number of content per feed you might have to tweak it a little bit.
This is also a good time to burn those feeds through feedburner; this is free so why not take the opportunity? You can track subscribers and customize the feed itself.
5. Plugins
Using plugins will depend on your website features, but here is a must; XML sitemap, All in one SEO, Akismet, WordPress Database Backup. You can add other plugins depending on your requirements.
6. Analytics
You should set up your analytics to track those incoming visitors, you can use Google Analytics or Woorank.com, and Piwik.
7. Use a System Cache
Using a system cache will speed up your site and help user experience as well. You can use WP Super Cache or W3 Total Cache.
8. Securing your WP files
You might tighten up things around your WordPress files, we don’t want people browsing our wp-content and sniffing around and get hacked. There are two methods to prevent this from happening.
Method 1
Create an empty text file and save (name) it index.php. Upload this file to wp-content (wherever you placed this), wp-admin, and wp-includes. The empty file will be read when they navigate to that location and display a blank white page, rather than a list of your files.
Method 2
Add the following line to your .htaccess file that exists in the main WordPress installation directory.
Options All -Indexes
This will turn off the auto-feature to *list* files that exist in a directory without a default page.
9. Change media settings
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 sense in the real world, and we like working in the real world.
10. Theme
Make sure your theme is ready to handle the harsh traffic of your site, also make sure that it is compatible in all major browsers and it is flexible to handle your content.I would suggest that posting dummy content with images and check if it breaks or not.
Well here are the things that I do after a fresh install of WordPress, if there’s something you can add feel free to do so. I am looking forward to your list as well.
