Essential Set up on Freshly Installed WordPress Blog

Essential set up on WordPress  Blog

In this post you'll learn how to setup WordPress after fresh installation. so far you have learned:

• How to buy Webhosting and domain for WordPress blog
• How to create and install WordPress Blog on Bluehost hosting

Now the next thing is to set up your blog in the right manner. you can read An Exclusive WordPresss Guide For Beginners which will help you to get started and everything you need to setup a WordPress blog.

This is the list of best and essential settings I recommend to follow after installing WordPress.

Essential WordPress settings after installation

When you install WordPress, it is a stock installation with some dummy stuff like post, pages, comments, plugins etc. You need to personalize your WordPress Blog before you make it ready for public hence you need to play around your blog in order to make it eye catchy.

So the essential things or settings you should perform after WordPress installation are :

1. Delete default user "admin"

The defaults wordpress login user is admin. this default profile invites to hackers to attack on your blog because it is (username- "admin", password- "password") very common that anyone can guess.

To get rid of this, create another user with some other name and set a strong password to keep your blog safe. to do this, go to User, Add new and then give admin rights to this new user. Now delete the default user "admin".

Keep in mind that you first need to set up a new user and then delete the defaults user "admin".


2. Delete default posts and pages

Now login to your new username and password to access dashboard and go to posts, All posts and delete the default "Hello world" post. Similarly go to Pages, All pages and deleted the default "sample page".

3. Get Akismet API key

Akismet API for wordpress blog: Keep your blog safe from spamming

Akismet is a plugin that helps you to keep your comment folder clean by sending all the spam comments in the spam folder.  To make Akismet work,  activate it and  get its API key from its official site and enter it in your blog.

To install, configure and get a free Akismet API key, This post will help you.

Learn How to install WordPress Plugins

4. Set up Permalinks

Optimize WordPress Permalink for better SEO

Permalinks are the addresses for the posts and pages on your wordpress site. By default permalink activated for your post is something like

http://www.yourdomain.com/p=123. This permalink looks short and easy to remember but it’s not good at all for SEO of your website.  A post on SEO Guide has already been published and you can read it for in-depth knowledge of SEO.

Wordpress Essentials : Permalinks setting

You need to change the permalinks to make it search engine friendly. To make your permalinks search engine friendly, I would recommend you to change your permalinks to Post Name permalinks.

Go to Settings, Permalink Settings and Select the Post name and click on save. This permalink would change and make your permalink SEO friendly as it will now have some keywords and this will rank your site better in search results.

If you already running a WordPress blog and you would like to change your permalink, you should understand Why and How To change permalinks of an established blog

5. Choose a good theme
A new installation of wordpress comes with few basic pre installed themes like twenty fifteen, twenty fourteen etc. These themes are not bad by any mean but they dont have advance features and necessary customization options. Thats why you need to install a third party themes. Carefully choose a good theme as per your niche. Beautifully crafted sites get good traffic hence be careful when you choose a theme and customize it the best possible way. Either get a free WordPress theme or buy a premium theme to use on your blog but make sure that they do not have vulnerable codes.

You can also read How to Choose the Perfect Theme for your WordPress Blog?

I recommend to pick a premium themes because they are good at security without having buggy codes which make them load faster. Once you select the best theme for your blog, upload and activate it.

Read : 3 ways to install a WordPress theme

6. Change blog’s time Zone
Its good to set the timezone of your blog as per your geographic location.  Go to Settings --General.

Make sure to have you site title and tagline updated. If you schedule your blogpost, changing the time zone to your current geo time zone will ensure your blogpost will be published in your desired scheduled time.

7. Set up about and contact pages
These pages are the integral parts of a website or blog. With About Page people will know about you and the blog you are publishing and contact pages gives your audience access to contact you directly. hence these pages are necessary to set up at the very beginning.

To add a new page go to pages then Add new

8. Disable user registration
Its a good idea to have registration open for your wordpress site. This will allow guest posting but spam registrations will be a pain. But, if you are a sole writer and don't want people to register, you can disable this under settings--General

9. Wordpress discussion/comment setting

This is an another section you should be taking care of after installing wordpress. Have a look at the screenshot and put the √ mark in front of the field as shown in the screenshot.

Quick recap

Delete default user admin
Delete default posts and pages
Akismet API key
Wordpress permalink structure
Wordpress themes
Change time zone
Setup about and contact pages
Disable user registration
Wordpress discussion/comment settings

You can refer to the list provided just above to check if your newly installed wordpress blog is equipped with all essential settings. You can also bookmark this post to receive sexy updates for your wordpress blog/site. Make sure you subscribe to blogbygeeks feeds to keep receiving delicious updates on wordpress.

What next?

Once your blog is equipped with the essential settings, It's time to install plugins. Lets have a look.

• Install wordpress SEO by Yoast and here is the guide to help you get started.
• Install W3 total cache plugin which will make you site load faster. Guide to get started.

Also check out the detailed info on How to Install Google analytics for your wordpress blog


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If you have just set up a wordpress blog, you should implement things I have discussed above. Let me know how you like this post.