Fresh install of “Self hosted WordPress” is not at al ready for Blogging and there need to do some changes to make it ready to start blogging. Here I have covered all points step by step that are essential to make a WordPress blog;
- SEO optimized
- Hacking resistant ( more secure )
- Optimized for hosting
- + some other important settings
Hacking resistant
Security is a major concern for self hosted WordPress and you must be careful for security of your blog. There are some essential settings that must be used after installing WordPress.
Disable Registration
Go to settings > General settings > Keep “Anyone can register” unselected
Explanation – If you keep registration open in your WordPress, you may have to face thousands of malicious spam registrations. Some of them may inject malicious code in your WordPress. If you want real people get registered on your blog then better to add a registration form using a form plugin like Formidable Pro.
Changing username
“admin” is default username for default administrator user. Blogs with default username are targeted easily by hackers so you need to change it to something else. However it is not possible to change username in WordPress, you need to create another user with user role “Administrator” and then delete existing user with username admin;
- Go to users > Add new
- Give it user role administrator
- Now logout from user “admin” and then login with username created
- Go to users > all users > delete username admin
- On the next screen you will be asked something very important so be careful if you have already written some posts under username admin . You will be asked to “ Attribute all content to; New user” and then press “ Confirm deletion”
Install Limit Login Attempt Plugin
To prevent unauthorized logins, you need to apply a limit on login attempts on your WordPress. For this purpose, you are required a plugin that can stop attacker to login again and again. “Limit login attempt” is the ideal plugin for this need.
SEO Optimization
Delete sample WordPress content
Every fresh WordPress install contains sample post,page,comment and links. You should delete this sample content before Google index it.
Set site URL structure ( permalink )
WordPress default permalink structure is not SEO friendly. You need to change it to “ post-name”
- Go to settings > permalinks to do this
Install SEO by Yoast or All in One SEO plugin
All in One SEO plugin or SEO by Yoast both are the plugins that do on page SEO optimization for your blog quickly and automatically. Install one of these plugins and use the settings as shown in video. Watch All in One SEO customization video or Yoast SEO guide.
Install WP Robots txt plugin
This plugin generates robots.txt file automatically. After installing the plugin go to settings > Reading > add the following rules to robots.txt content;
User-agent: *
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /wp-includes/
Disallow: /wp-content/themes/
Disallow: /wp-content/plugins/
Optimizing Blog for Web Hosting
If you are not aware, WordPress might be resource hungry and might slow down your blog. It is very easy to make WordPress blog hosting friendly.
Install W3Total cache plugin
Though there are some other good caching plugins but W3Total Cache is the best one. You would be thinking what is a caching plugin and how it works. A caching plugin creates static version of your dynamic WordPress to make it faster and to reduce load on shared hosting server.
Prevent WordPress from creating multiple copies of an uploaded image
By default WordPress generate 4 copies of single uploaded image of different sizes. This will consume hosting space rapidly and uselessly. Kindly want to tell you that any web hosting company except Godaddy does not allow to upload more than 2.5 Lac files per hosting account. Though 2.5 lac is a big number but if 4 copies of a single image are generated, file count on your hosting might cross the maximum limit applied on your hosting account.
Don’t panic there is an easy patch for this;
Go to settings > Media > Set Medium and Large Size to 0 width and 0 height. If necessary set 0 for Thumbnail size, too.
If the problem still persist let me know about it by putting a comment.
Comment Settings
Install Akismat Antispam plugin
Akismat is a must have plugin to prevent spam comments in WordPress. Install and activate this plugin and then register for a free API key using your email id. Get your API key by logging into your email id. Then enter this API in your blog Akismat dashboard.
Two important settings for comments other than default settings;
- Comment must be manually approved
- Hold a comment in the queue if it contains 1 or more links
Other settings
Go to Settings > Reading > For each article in a feed, show; Summary
Settings you should avoid
Using a ping optimizer plugin
Adding your own ping list
Using SEO friendly images
And thus, you are all set to start your blogging with WordPress. In my next post of this series I will tell you how to write an article with best use of Tags, Categories, Title and content.
Note– All plugins mentioned above can be installed from WordPress Repository for free except Formidable Pro. Read here How to install a plugin
