14 May 2010 8 Comments

WordPress Installation & Optimization Check List

Every time I install a new WordPress blog I go through the following motions of tweaking it to suit my needs. Here’s a list of WordPress optimization tasks I performing before I even install a theme.

Remove “Hello World” post.

Nothing screams “spam my Wordperss blog” more than having this still sitting in you posts list. Loose it.

Set Local Time

Go to Settings > General and set your local time zone.

Add a Ping List

Add the following Ping services to the Settings > Writing > Updates Services area:

http://rpc.pingomatic.com/

http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2

http://blogupdate.org/ping/

http://ping.feedburner.com

http://rpc.newsgator.com/

http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping

http://services.newsgator.com/ngws/xmlrpcping.aspx

Setup SEO Friendly Permalinks

Wordpress Custom Permalinks

In the Settings > Permalinks section add the following custom permalink structure:

/%postname%/

(This has been amended as per Josh’s suggestion in the comments below: including /%category%/ may slow down larger WordPress sites.

Install & Configure Plugins

Install and activate the following plugins:

  • Aksimet (you’ll need an API key)
  • Easy Contact
  • Easy Privacy Policy
  • Google XML Sitemaps
  • All in One SEO Pack
  • pageMash

Update and Add Pages

  • Update About Us page copy
  • Add Contact Us page and add [easy-contact] to the body
  • Privacy Policy – hide this from the main navigation with the PageMash plugin options.

Install Theme

Now you can install and customize your theme.

8 Responses to “WordPress Installation & Optimization Check List”

  1. Danny Batelic 16 May 2010 at 9:48 am #

    Nice touch with the ping list. I haven’t been doing that.
    Don’t forget sexy bookmarks plugin. Not only do they look cool, but a great way to get your new blog indexed in a hurry.

    Reply
  2. Frank Dickinson 16 May 2010 at 10:15 am #

    Nice run down Luke. Like Danny, I haven’t been doing the ping settings – definitely have to look into it.

    Reply
  3. Ryan T Malone 16 May 2010 at 11:29 am #

    Nice checklist Luke. Surprisingly, a lot of people miss out on these settings, and plugins. You even touched on a few that I haven’t used as much as I should, nice work!

    Reply
  4. Luke 16 May 2010 at 4:21 pm #

    Thanks Gents. Sexy bookmarks is definitely a good addition Danny.

    Reply
  5. Lotus R 11 July 2010 at 7:55 am #

    Thanks for the Ping services list. I have updated most of the plugin mentioned in your post. I am using Platinium SEO plugin for title and meta updation as this plugin automatically adds 301 redirects for permalink changes.

    Reply
  6. Josh Janssen 17 May 2011 at 1:04 pm #

    Some nice tips there, Luke.

    One small thing – At the recent WordCamp in Melbourne, a few speakers mentioned that it is not a good idea to start permalinks with category, tag, author, or postname fields. As it can drastically slow down the speed of the site. I think this is mainly an issue for people with larger WordPress sites. But something to consider nonetheless.

    Reply
    • Luke 17 May 2011 at 1:21 pm #

      Thanks for the tip Josh… I will amend!

      Reply
  7. Tim West 19 January 2012 at 5:15 am #

    Thank you so much Luke! Just building my first WP site after years of dreamweaver and then SquareSpace….I’m super excited!
    Cheers from the Great Canadian North
    Tim

    Reply

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