You’ve installed WordPress, what’s next?

You’ve heard how good WordPress is in terms of scalability and customization, and you decided to give it a try. Installing a basic copy of WordPress shouldn’t take too long; but if you are looking for more stability, trading, search engine optimization, etc, here are a few of my recommendations – Things you should do after installing WordPress.

1. Get WordPress.com API key, activate Akismet

   

   Where: Settings -> Akismet Configuration

   In short, Akismet is a plugin (included with WordPress) that will be smarter remove all unnecessary comments and tracking spam. For Akismet to work, you will need a WordPress.com API Key. This key is free, but you will need to request one and apply it on the Akismet plugin.

   Register with WordPress, get Akismet key.

2. Implement Permalinks

   

   Where: Settings -> Permalinks

   Referring to the image above, the ‘Default’ is what each of your blog post’s URLs should look like. ‘? =’ And numeric blog post IDs don’t mean anything to search engines, so it’s better to change them to something more readable. Personally I would suggest Custom Structure and insert ‘/%postname%/‘. This is how your blog post URL should look like:

3. Burn your food with Feedburner

   

   Feedburner combines all the different feed types into one, so your subscribers can subscribe to one no matter what it is. Feedburner also comes with a chiklet, which allows you to display subscriber metrics as well as drive subscriptions.

   Sign up with Feedburner

4. Read/Subscribe to WLTC

   

   weblogtoolscollection.com (WLTC) is the place you should keep an eye on if you are particular about your WordPress blog. These people have the latest updates on topic, additional, advice and WordPress News. There is probably no better place to get everything about WordPress on one site.

   Visit WLTC | Follow WLTC

5. Plugins – Related Content

   Related content plugins play an important role in helping you as a blogger, showcase what your readers should also be reading beyond the article they are writing. You may not need it right now, but it will come in handy when you have a lot of blog posts. A plugin worth mentioning.

   Download the WordPress Related Contents plugin

6. Plugin – Google XML Sitemap

   This plugin will generate an XML-compliant sitemap of your WordPress blog’s Sitemap. It supports all WordPress generated pages as well as custom pages. Every time you edit or create a post, your sitemap is updated and all major search engines support the sitemap protocol, like ASK.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO, will be notified of the update.

   Download Google XML Sitemap

7. Add blog to Google Webmaster Tools

   Google Webmasters is a free Google service that allows you to:

   • Manage, view website statistics
   • Bot crawling activities
   • Diagnostic website
   • Submit Sitemap
   • Google Indexing Tracking

   In short, it allows you to manage the ‘health’ of your blog.

   Go to Google Webmaster Tools

8. More about / Contact page

   This allows your readers to understand more about the people behind the article. It helps to increase the trust worthy of a website.