After finally installing WordPress, what do you do? What are the necessary steps you need to take in order to make sure that all your efforts in designing and conceptualizing are being rewarded properly before your install WordPress website is ready to go live?
In this article, I will highlight the most important things you will need to do after installing WordPress for either an eCommerce website or just a blog.
1. Entering the Title, Tagline and the Timezone
First thing’s first, right after installing WordPress, you must enter the important details and go over the crucial pieces of information for the users who would visit your website. Some of the elements that must be included are the Title, Tagline, and the Time Zone also.
You can access these fields from the General section and then scroll to the options you need to make changes to. Another important section that should be updated is the Profile.
2. Remove Sample Posts & Pages
One look at the Posts section and you will see sample posts, another look at the Pages section will show you sample pages of how the WordPress website looks like from afar. Before you begin making a post or add a page, delete the sample posts and pages.
3. Add a Contact Form
Adding a contact form will allow visitors to get in touch with you with queries and feedback. A contact form will require visitors to send in their details so you can get back to them with answers.
But since WordPress does not have a built-in contact form that can be used for this, but you can use a well-known plugin called WPForms. This plugin will help make the job of creating all sorts of forms much easier.
There is a free version that can be used as well. You have the option of drag and drop as well as support for responsive websites. There are lots of templates to choose from to make the process more snappy.
4. Install the Plugin(s) You Need
In the world of WordPress, you’ll be coming across lots of plugins, extensions and resources designed to extend the functionality of your WordPress website. There are thousands of third party plugins that can be installed for specific or even multiple purposes.
For starters, I would recommend that you install a security and cache plugin to keep the functionality of your WordPress website in good shape. If you have an eCommerce WordPress website, installing payment processing, checkout and price related plugins would be the logical way to go.
Some of the noteworthy plugins I would advise you to install are as under:
5. Make Backups
The importance of making backups of your WordPress powered website cannot be stressed enough. Since WordPress is prone to be attacked by hackers and become infected by malicious software, backups come in handy when you want to revert to the time your WordPress website worked perfectly.
Nowadays, managed WordPress hosting platforms such as Cloud ways offer scheduled backups so you are working without worrying of making backups yourself. But, you can install plugins as well for this purpose.
Plugins can save your WordPress data on Google Drive, Dropbox or other websites of your choosing, but choosing a managed hosting service is more reliable and adds more security to your WordPress powered website.
6. Add SEO & Analytics Tools
Whether you are starting an ecommerce store or a blog, installing SEO and Analytics tools is essential and one of the most important things to do for your brand new WordPress website. This step will help increase visibility for your WordPress website and help promote and kickstart activities into high gear.
Analytics tools will help you gauge your efforts in a more effective way. There are lots of commendable plugins, tools, and extensions that can be used for this purpose. One of the best tools and plugins for SEO and Analytics are Yoast and Google Analytics.
No matter the size of your WordPress website, analytics and SEO tools are needed to make sure you have a clear understanding and can track all sorts of insights about visitors on your website. Therefore, you can devise tactics to keep bringing them back and promote retention.
7. Changing the Default ‘Admin’ User
A common issue that is seen with new WordPress powered websites is that they get hacked or become vulnerable to malware. The reason is that new users of WordPress don’t change the default admin username to a unique one.
My advice is to not only change the username but also the password to a more complex, but a series of memorable credentials that is hard to guess. This will not only make your WordPress powered website more secure but also help protect important information of your customers if you are running an ecommerce website.
Fortunately, WordPress can be equipped with plugins and extensions to help you change your credentials. Check out this one for reference.
8. Upload Media and Add Content for your WordPress Website
This is where you finally start uploading the relevant media that accentuates your posts if you have a blog. If you are running an eCommerce website on WordPress, you could begin adding products.
However, adding products is a separate affair altogether and you would need an easy to follow and understand tutorial to do that.
Once you have uploaded the relevant pictures, videos or any other form of media for your blog posts, or your WordPress website in the form of header images and such, you can preview and post it. This will instantly create a link that can be shared with the world and start attracting a more interested audience to your blog.
The sooner you start creating and posting content on your WordPress website, the sooner you can start ranking on search engines and see oncoming traffic. The procedure is the same for adding products if you have an e-commerce WordPress website.
9. Set/Modify your WordPress Website Address
One of the last things to do is to change the default address for your WordPress website. The site address needs to speak of the kind of website you are running. If you have a blog on WordPress, the name should speak of the kind of content you are posting, or yourself.
In the case of an e-commerce website powered by WordPress, the address should include a .com extension which would make it more prominent. Domain names are important in e-commerce and your site address should be the same as your WordPress address (URL).
Do note, that your WordPress address and site address are different things. If you are installing WordPress to run a blog, the address would be something like www.example.com/blog, while the site address should be just the name of your website and then end with a .com.
10. Remove Unused Plugins & Media
Finally, the last thing to do is to remove all the unused plugins and media that you might have planned on using. Usually, there are lots of posts that are left as drafts and images with empty text, remove them all so your WordPress website is running better.
When you remove unused plugins and extensions, your WordPress website will be less prone to malicious attacks and hackers that are quite common with a popular content management system like WordPress.
Conclusion
I hope that the important things I mentioned that must be done after installing WordPress proved to be helpful for you. If you follow the tips I mentioned, you are well on your way towards seeing your WordPress website gaining a following or visitors.
If you think I missed out on something, please comment down below, I would love to know your opinion.