{"id":42752,"date":"2021-04-21T09:20:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-21T09:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.awardspace.com\/?p=42752"},"modified":"2024-02-28T13:20:08","modified_gmt":"2024-02-28T13:20:08","slug":"wordpress-setting-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.awardspace.com\/wordpress-tutorials\/wordpress-setting-up\/","title":{"rendered":"16 Things You Need to Do Right After You’ve Installed WordPress"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00adThere are several milestones that you\u2019ll go through on your journey to crafting your website the way you want it to be. We\u2019ve covered a lot of them in our WordPress guide<\/a>s. Still, there are things you need to do right after you install WordPress<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In this tutorial, we\u2019ll talk about website tagline, permalink structure, and favicons. We\u2019ll mention the comment section once again<\/a>, categories, of course, widgets, the sidebar, home page, your username, and Gravatars. We\u2019ll talk about plugins, themes, cache, and some more.<\/p>\n

Before we get started, let\u2019s take a minute to cover why is such a list important.<\/p>\n

When you install your WordPress, the CMS is ready for you to make whatever website you want to create. That\u2019s why some of the predefined settings will not serve you well. On top of that, some of them might even harm you in the long run, should you overlook them.<\/p>\n

Although we\u2019ve created an in-depth tutorial on how to create a website with WordPress<\/a>, there are several small yet important steps that you need to take before launching your website.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1. Set Up Your Site Title & Tagline<\/h2>\n

Your website has its domain name. And the latter is the name by which people will know your website. But, of course, you could use an abbreviation in the domain name, so there should be a way to tell people what it means.<\/p>\n

Here comes the website name. Although the name and the Tagline of your website, you should write while installing WordPress<\/a>, the hype of creating your website, might have taken over you, which is one of the reasons why you can change the name and the tagline of your WordPress website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Thus the first thing you need to do, once you\u2019ve installed the CMS is to check whether the name and the tagline of your website are correctly written.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2. Set Your Timezone, Date, and Time Format<\/h2>\n

The timezone of your website is very important as WordPress uses it to determine when to publish scheduled posts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To change the timezone of your website, go to Settings<\/strong> \u00bb General<\/strong> and look for the options Timezone, Date, and Time Format<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

While there, you can use the Date and Time format<\/strong> settings to change the way they\u2019re displayed on your website.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

3. Permalink Structure<\/h2>\n

We\u2019ve talked about permalinks before<\/a>. They are crucial for the experience that people will have on your<\/p>\n

website, and the ease they will or will not feel while being there.<\/p>\n

This is true, as the permalink is what we need to write in the browser\u2019s address bar when we want to<\/p>\n

enter a specific page on a website. By default, WordPress has kinda messy permalink settings. Good thing<\/p>\n

there is an easy way to fix them. Go to Settings<\/strong> -> Permalinks<\/strong>, and make them as short and<\/p>\n

understandable as possible. Changing your permalink structure is one of the WordPress SEO Essentials<\/a>.<\/p>\n

4. Upload a Favicon<\/p>\n

Favicons are an easy way to make your website stand out in the address bar of your website visitors. \u00a0You ought to add a favicon. Otherwise, you\u2019ll get the default browser. They are rarely flattering.<\/p>\n

Since WordPress\u2019 version is 4.3, we can easily add a favicon. To do so, we need to go to the WordPress dashboard<\/a>. Go to Appearance<\/strong> -> Customize<\/strong> ->Site Identity tab<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Once there, click on the select file button and upload the image you want to use as a site icon. The icon should be at least 512 pixels wide and tall.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

5. Choose Your Discussion Settings<\/h2>\n

Are you going to let people comment under your content?<\/p>\n

If so, how are you going to protect your website from spam?<\/p>\n

In WordPress, we can do pretty much anything, with pretty much everything. You can, for example, \u00a0disable the comment section all along<\/a>. On the other hand, you might want to have a comment section. But having one comes with the obligation of stopping the spam on your website<\/a> for you, and your visitors\u2019 sake.<\/p>\n

The settings of your comment section, you can find in your WordPress dashboard, under the Settings tab<\/strong>, and then Discussion.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Related: How to Add Facebook Comments in WordPress<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

6. Remove Sample Content<\/h2>\n

To show off its main capabilities and to let people know what it is meant for, WordPress comes with a few predefined pages, one of which, is a Privacy Policy. You might want to save that. The others you will never need.<\/p>\n

As all of this content is created for you to get to know the CMS, which you don\u2019t need, as you followed our tutorial on how to create your own website with WordPress<\/a>, you can go to the All Pages<\/strong>, page, bulk select them, and click delete. Do the same on the All Posts<\/strong> page.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t forget to remove them from the trash as well. You won\u2019t need those posts.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

7. Create a Home Page<\/h2>\n

What page do you want your website visitors to see, once they land on your website? Do you want to show the latest posts or do you prefer something different, like a business introduction?<\/p>\n

One of the most important actions, you need to take, once you\u2019ve installed your WordPress website is to define the homepage. Contrary to the expectations, creating a page, and naming it Home, won\u2019t do it.<\/p>\n

Check out the following article to find out how to set a home page in WordPress<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

8. Create a Custom Menu<\/h2>\n

Ok, this one is not something you need to do right after you\u2019ve installed WordPress. Still, we think it is one of the most basic steps we need to take when building a website. Thus, creating a custom menu is a step that found its place in this list.<\/p>\n

To add a custom menu to your website, you ought to direct yourself to Appearance<\/strong> -> Menu<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Related: How does the WordPress Menu Work<\/a><\/p>\n

Creating a custom menu, as you can guess, is among the most important actions, as it directly affects the look and feel of your website. Where the latter is glued to the user experience.<\/p>\n

You can see where this is going.<\/p>\n

Take care of your website\u2019s menu.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

9. Change Default Admin User<\/h2>\n

When you install WordPress, the user name that is used for the installation is sometimes fixed to \u201cadmin\u201d. Of course, using this user name is not recommended, as if someone decides to try and enter your website, he already has the username.<\/p>\n

We would highly recommend you not only change the default username but secure your WordPress Admin Panel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To change the user, you\u2019ll have to create a new one with administrative rights and delete the default one.<\/p>\n

This whole operation could be done in the Users<\/strong>\u00a0 -> All<\/strong> Users<\/strong> section.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

10. Get a Gravatar<\/h2>\n

While reading articles on WordPress websites all over the web, you can see that some people use their photos in the comments section, and if you are lucky enough, you might see the same person commenting on more than one website. This would probably be the moment where you ask yourself, whether this person has an account on both of these websites. The simple answer is no. He, as everybody who has a custom photo in the WordPress comment section, is using Gravatar. An acronym for Global Avatar.<\/p>\n

To experience WordPress fully, you might want to Add a Gravatar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

11. Delete Unused Default Plugins<\/h2>\n

The preinstalled content in WordPress is all over the place. Pages, posts, themes, and plugins.<\/p>\n

Pretty much whenever they could, they put a sample content so that the absolute WordPress Beginners<\/a> won\u2019t feel lost.<\/p>\n

Most often than not, we get to delete these plugins<\/a>. We don\u2019t need them.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

12. Add the Plugins That You Will Need<\/h2>\n

Once you\u2019ve removed the content that you won\u2019t need, you ought to start adding the one that you will.<\/p>\n

If you already know what functionalities you want on your website, you might as well start searching for and installing the plugins<\/a> that will let you add these features to your website.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

13. Choose Your Theme<\/h2>\n

While with plugins, you might take the approach most comfortable to you, when it comes to the themes in WordPress, you need first to choose, and install the theme that you want to use<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As the theme is the core of your website\u2019s design, it is impossible to have a WordPress website without a theme. Thus, before you proceed to delete all the preinstalled themes, you need to choose the one you will use.<\/p>\n

The design that you are about to choose depends on several different factors, among which are:<\/p>\n