10 Essential Things To Do After Installing WordPress

There are few basic settings and configurations to do after installing WordPress to ensure reliability, and top of the line performance.

1. Change The Title, Tagline and Time zone

   • To change these, go to your Settings in your dashboard and choose General.
   • Change both your site title and tagline to something that relates to your site. Now scroll down the page to update your timezone.
   • Scroll down the page click on save changes.

2. Delete the Default WP Admin Account

   By default WordPress Creates ‘Admin’ as a username for your Blog. Hackers know this and has half the equation to try to get your password. To avoid this, use a different admin username.

   • Login using your admin user account. Once logged in goto Users > Add New
   • Once that new account is created, log out of your “admin” user account and log back in using your new user account that you just created.
   • Once logged in under the new user account, go to to all User list. Pass the mouse over use “admin” and click on “delete” link.
   • Once you have completed the step of deleting your own “admin” account all the posts previously posted under “admin” will be associated with your new account and you are no longer using the default username.

3. Delete default Posts and page:

   WordPress install comes with default post and pages. Click on Posts from left menu. Hover over the sample post and select Delete. You can delete the sample Page in the same way via Admin -> Pages.

4. Rename Uncategorized Category

   WordPress install comes with 1 default category named Uncategorized. Unlike the post and the comment this category cannot be deleted. When an editor forgets to select a category, WordPress automatically selects Uncategorized category for that article before it is published. When you have blog posts listed as “Uncategorized,” It makes you seem careless, resulting a symbolic black mark against your blog’s reputation.
   To rename the uncategorized category Click on the tab Posts > Categories. Bring your mouse over to Uncategorized and an Edit option will appear. Click Quick edit and change your category name and slug to Other.

5. Set up WordPress Permalink

   By default, WordPress offers permalinks like this:https://wh615253.ispot.cc/wordpressluv_clone/?p=123. This type of permalink is not search engine friendly and not very user friendly. More descriptive URL with keywords may boost your rankings.Other than this, permalinks will give a brief idea of what your post or page is about without looking at the content and can affect a reader’s decision whether or not to click links to your site. You can change the structure of your permalinks at any time, however doing this changes the URL of your pages. You should set your permalink when setting up your blog for the first time.

   You can find various permalink settings under WordPress dashboard > Settings > Permalink.

6. Activate Akismet

   Akismet comes with WordPress which eliminates comment and Trackback spams without your interaction.

   • To activate that, you need API key from Akismet It is free you can get it from Akismet.com/get.
   • Click the Plugins link on the left navigation menu of the Dashboard to load the Plugins page.
   • Click the Activate link below the Akismet plugin name and description. A yellow box appears at the top of the page, saying Akismet is almost ready. Go to Akismet Configuration and enter API key to activate it.

7. Update your Profile

   From your wordpress admin left menu, click on Users and update your profile.

8. Install new theme

   Give unique look to your blog. Change default style to any of the best WordPress theme that suits your blog. There are plenty of free and premium themes available.
   Elegant Themes – Elegant Themes looks great, is easy to use and as plenty of options to make your site uniquely you. It is also a bit cheaper than most premium themes. Browse more themes from StudioPress.com
   These steps will help you install and select a WordPress theme for your blog..

9. Delete Unused Themes and Plugins

   After you have installed your WordPress theme and Plugins, Delete all unused Themes and Plugins. It will improve your WordPress Performance, security purpose as well as to reduce the server load. Hacker might discover an exploit those unused themes and plugins.

   Delete Unused Themes

   • From your WordPress dashboard go to Appearance > Themes. Here you can see available themes. This include active theme and other unused themes. You can’t delete an active theme. Pass the mouse over unused themes and click on theme details button. Click on it.
     
   • In the preview screen, click Delete button in the right bottom corner of it. Now your theme is successfully removed.

   Delete Unused Plugins

   • From your WordPress dashboard go to Plugins.
   • 

10. Install the Essential Plugins

    It is important to install some plugins for better performance of your website. Thousands of plugins are available in the wordpress plugin directory. You can search and see if there is a plugin that fits your need. Refer the article: How to install a WordPress Plugin. Here is a list of 27+ best plugins for a successful wordPress blog.

11. Start Scheduling Regular Backups

    It is important to take regular backup of your site. It helps to recover your site in case of server crash or when you need a new host. There are so many free and premium backup plugins available that creates backup of your website and keep your site safe and secure.

12. Add Contact me page

    Use plugin Contact Form 7 to add contact page to your site.