18 Most Important Things You Need to Do After Installing WordPress

Installing WordPress is just the first step to launching your website. There are still many important settings and optimizations you need to do before your site is ready to go live.

In this comprehensive guide, we will walk through the 18 most critical actions to take after installing WordPress. Following these best practices will ensure your site is set up for success.

1. Add a Contact Form

A contact form allows visitors to easily get in touch with you from your site. This builds engagement and helps convert visitors into leads and customers.

The best WordPress contact form plugin is WPForms. It‘s easy to use yet powerful. With drag and drop form building and smart form templates, you can create beautiful contact forms in minutes.

WPForms is free to download from WordPress.org. Simply install and activate it. Then click "Add New" in the WPForms menu to create your first form.

Select the "Simple Contact Form" template. This gives you fields for name, email, subject, and message. You can customize it by adding or removing fields as needed.

Once you save the form, you can add it to any page or post using the WPForms block. Make sure your contact page has a prominent contact form so visitors can easily reach you.

2. Update Site Title, Tagline, and Timezone

The Site Title and Tagline show up in your browser tab and search engine results. Make sure they properly reflect your brand and site purpose.

Go to Settings > General to update them. The Site Title should be short and descriptive. Use your brand name if you have one.

The Tagline gives a 1-2 sentence overview of what your site is about. For example "Tips and resources for pet owners".

This section is also where you set your Timezone. Pick the city closest to you so dates and times match your location.

3. Configure SEO Settings

Optimizing your site for search engines will help people find your content in Google and Bing. This brings targeted traffic to your site.

The best SEO plugin for WordPress is Yoast SEO. It makes search optimization simple with guided setup of important SEO features.

Once installed, Yoast will walk you through crucial settings like meta titles and descriptions for your pages and posts. These are what people see in search results.

Yoast also helps you optimize images by autogenerating alt text. It gives you detailed SEO analysis of your content so you can improve your pages.

Take time to go through each configuration section in Yoast to dial in your SEO and get found.

4. Install Google Analytics

Understanding your website traffic and audience is crucial. Google Analytics gives you powerful insights into who visits your site and what they do.

The best Google Analytics plugin is MonsterInsights. It seamlessly integrates with WordPress and Google Analytics.

MonsterInsights makes it easy to connect your Analytics account. Once connected, you get beautiful reports right in your WordPress dashboard.

The reports let you see your website traffic, top pages and posts, traffic sources, location of visitors and more. This data helps guide your content and growth strategy.

5. Set Up Caching

Site speed has a big impact on user experience and your conversions. Slow load times lead to high bounce rates.

Caching stores static copies of your pages so they load instantly for visitors instead of rendering dynamically on each request.

WP Rocket is the best caching plugin for WordPress. It can make your site load up to 10x faster with just a few clicks.

All you need to do is install WP Rocket and activate the options you want like CSS, JavaScript and HTML caching. No special configuration required.

WP Rocket will then automatically cache pages as visitors request them. Your server load will decrease and site speed will improve.

6. Enable Automated Backups

Backups protect you from losing your site due to server crashes, hackers, or accidental deletion. Regular automated backups are essential.

We recommend UpdraftPlus, the most popular backup plugin with over 3 million active installs. It‘s easy to set up yet full-featured.

Once installed, UpdraftPlus gives you options to backup to local storage, cloud services like Google Drive, and remote storage. Set a backup frequency that fits your needs.

UpdraftPlus also lets you schedule backups and control which files are backed up. With proper backups, you can restore your site with a single click should disaster strike.

7. Tighten Security Settings

Security threats are an unfortunate reality on the web. Take steps to lock down your site and prevent vulnerabilities.

Start with your WordPress login. Use a long complex password with numbers, capitals, symbols. Avoid common words. Change it periodically.

Limit login attempts to prevent brute force attacks. Use a plugin like iThemes Security or All In One WP Security to set login limits, add two-factor authentication, and mask your login URL.

Disable file editing in WordPress. Limit available user roles. Use SFTP or SSH for file transfers, not FTP. Update WordPress and plugins regularly to get security patches.

Also ask your host about web application firewalls (WAF). These monitor and block suspicious requests to your site for maximum protection.

8. Setup Anti-Spam Protection

Comment spam is an annoyance and security risk for any blog. The best anti-spam plugin is Akismet, made by Automattic, the company behind WordPress.

Akismet checks all comments against a global database of spam. It will block over 99% of spam without touching legitimate comments.

To use it, get an Akismet API key by signing up for an Akismet plan or using their limited free plan. Enter the API key in your plugin settings.

You can configure Akismet to silently hold spam comments for moderation or discard them. It will also validate comments left by registered users.

Akismet keeps your site virtually spam-free without having to manually moderate each comment or set up complex filters. It‘s a must-have plugin.

9. Remove Unused Themes

When testing different WordPress themes, some themes get left activated but unused. These unused themes still get updated and can pose a security risk.

Go to Appearance > Themes and look for any themes you are not actively using. Hover over them and click Delete to remove them.

Keep at least one default theme like Twenty Twenty as a fallback in case issues arise with your main theme. But delete any other inactive themes.

This simplifies your theme list and eliminates old themes that may have vulnerabilities or bloat your WordPress install.

10. Configure Discussion Settings

The WordPress discussion settings control how comments work on your site. Visit Settings > Discussion to configure them.

Enable comments globally or disable them if you don‘t need commenting. Moderate all comments if you want to manually approve them first.

Under Email me whenever, check boxes for notifications you want like for follow-up comments. Under Before a comment appears, enable comment moderation or require registered usernames.

Under Avatars, upload your own default avatar and disable Gravatars if desired. Adjust other options to match your preferences.

Proper comment settings encourage engagement while limiting spam and maintaining the tone you want for discussions.

11. Delete Sample Content

WordPress installs with sample content used to showcase different post types. This includes 1 post, 1 page, 1 comment, etc.

Having sample content can confuse first-time users into thinking it is needed. The best practice is to delete all the sample content.

Go to Posts > All Posts and move the "Hello World" post to trash. Go to Pages > All Pages and trash the "Sample Page".

Finally, go to Comments and delete the comment left by "Mr. WordPress". Now all sample content is removed.

Should you ever need samples again, you can simply reinstall WordPress or use a plugin like WP Reset to regenerate sample content.

12. Set Default Post Category

Every new post in WordPress needs to be assigned to at least one category. The default category is "Uncategorized".

Uncategorized archives are rarely used. It‘s better to set a category that fits your content as the default for new posts.

First, create a new category like "Blog" or "News". Then go to Settings > Writing and choose your new category under "Default Post Category".

Now when you publish new posts and forget to set a category, they will still be organized properly. No more cluttering the Uncategorized archive.

You can delete Uncategorized too if desired. Just leave one default category set to avoid issues.

13. Setup Your Homepage and Blog

By default, WordPress shows blog posts on your homepage. Often you‘ll want a static "front page" set as your site homepage instead.

Go to Settings > Reading and under "Front page displays", choose "A static page". Then set your new homepage to any page you want.

You can also set a separate blog page for your posts archive. Add a "Blog" page and select it under "Posts page" in Reading settings.

Now your homepage can have any layout and content you want while blog posts live on their own customizable page.

This simple tweak opens up homepage design options and separates your main site from blog content.

14. Configure Your Gravatar

Gravatar is a global avatar service that lets you have one profile avatar across multiple sites. It integrates with WordPress for user images.

First, go to Gravatar.com and sign up using the same email as your WordPress account. Upload your avatar image and save your profile.

Now when you comment or post on sites using Gravatar, your avatar will show up automatically.

You can customize options like avatar ratings and default images if your profile has no image set. Use Gravatar to maintain a consistent profile image.

15. Update Your User Profile

Your user profile contains basic info about you as the site owner and admin. Fill it out properly.

Go to Users > Your Profile. Add your name, a short bio, your website URL, and other contact info.

This acts as your author bio and gives context to users. The website field links your name to your domain which helps SEO.

For the profile photo, use the same Gravatar image you set up earlier. Upload it again here if needed.

A complete user profile lends credibility and gives users an idea of who you are as the site owner. Take a minute to flesh it out.

16. Upload a Favicon

A favicon is the small icon that appears next to your site name in browser tabs. It aids branding and recognition.

Most themes make it easy to add a favicon. Go to Appearance > Customize and look for the Site Identity section.

Here you will see a favicon upload option. Upload an icon file in .ico, .png, or .gif format. It should be 16×16 to 32×32 pixels.

Some themes may also let you upload an Apple Touch Icon which is used for bookmarks on iOS devices. Add your icons.

With a custom favicon, people can more easily distinguish your tabs from others. It‘s a simple yet effective site branding element.

17. Configure Email Settings

WordPress needs to send emails for notifications, password resets, comments, contact forms, and more.

Go to Settings > General and under "Email address" enter the email you want these automated emails to come from.

Many site owners create a branded email like [email protected]. You can use any email address you want.

Under "Email sending methods", choose either SMTP or mail() depending on your server environment and needs. Test the email to confirm it works.

Set this up properly so important emails get delivered correctly. If issues arise, contact your host for troubleshooting help.

18. Customize Your Theme

The final step is personalizing your theme to fit your brand and needs.

Start with site navigation. Go to Appearance > Menus to add any pages you want displayed in the header or footer menus.

Reorganize and rename menu items as needed. Disable any menu areas you won‘t use. Save the menu to display it.

Next, add widgets like search, social icons, custom menus, etc. The right sidebar is a common widget area. Add ones that interest your audience.

Finally, dig into theme customization options. Adjust site layout, colors, fonts, and other styling to create your ideal design.

Take time to tweak your theme so the site properly conveys your brand. A customized design leads to greater user engagement.