As you may be able to see, this is the first post for my new blog – Internet Wealth Master.
Coincidentally, Darren Rowse has started a new group writing project about writing lists for blog posts.
So I thought I would write my first post by taking part. My list is about How I Set Up WordPress.
Now when I set up a blog, I have a checklist of stuff to work through which I use in an attempt to try and get it right first time.
Over the months I have found that as I refine this list, I can get a WordPress blog set up pretty quickly.
So here is the list. I’ve tried to put it into an order of importance too!
- Change Permalink Structure – This is very important for SEO. It tidies up your URL so that it is relevant to your content and easy for search engines to read. I set my permalink structure to /%postname%/ – Apparantly it appears more accessable to search engines if you do not have such a deep file structure like /%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/.
- Set WordPress Template – Next I will upload and select the WordPress template that I want to use.
- Configure Title Tag For SEO – This is more important than uploading your WordPress template, but can not be done until you selected the template you want to use. To configure the title tag, you will need to hack the header.php file of your wordpress install. You need to find the line that will probably look like this :
<em><title><?php bloginfo(‘name’); ?> <?php if ( is_single() ) { ?> » Blog Archive <?php } ?> <?php wp_title(); ?></title></em>
What I want to do is set the structure of this code to spout out something like this:
The Post Name | About 3 or 4 Keywords About My Blog
So I will change it to something like this:
<title>
<?php wp_title(""); ?>
<?php if(wp_title(" ", false)) { echo " | "; } ?>
My Blog Keywords
</title>
Substitute My Blog Keywords for the keywords of the blog.
- Set the Blog Title – This is taken care of during the install, but I like to remind myself about it incase I want to change it
- Set the Blog Tagline – I don’t always make the Blog Tagline appear on the blog, but it is something I like to check off the list so the I don’t get ‘Just Another WordPress Blog‘ appearing anywhere by accident.
- Delete the Default Page – and while I’m at it, I will get rid of the default post and comment.
- Change Default Category – I always change my default category to something that is general and topical for the blog subject. If I set up a blog about cars, then I would probably change the default category to Cars.
- Set Up Some More Categories – While I’m at it, I will set up some more categories now.
- Install Plugins – Now I like to get tooled up with my favourite plugins. These include:
- Better Feed (nice looking RSS)
- Related Posts (increased stickiness)
- Google Sitemaps (trying to make it as easy as possible for Google)
- wp-notable (social bookmarking)
- WP-ContactForm (easy contact form)
- Set Text Box Size for Writing Posts – This is just a personal thing I like to do. I generally use the web interface to manage my blogs and I find that 20 lines is the perfect size for writing my blog posts.
And that’s it.
My check list does extend to some other stuff, but what you see above is what I generally do as soon as I have completed the WordPress Install.
I’d be really keen to hear some of your opinions as I’m always on the lookout for improving my list. Please leave a comment 
Hi,
I’m a WP junkie, always loved this platform and always hunting for new plugins to feed to my friend the systems engineer. I’ll be looking at the plugins you have listed: I have installed and use the Ultimate Tag Worrior that has increased redership depth and amount of spidering. I was wondering if a google sitemap plugin would be necessary – do you use UTW ??
All the best !
Sante
Hi Sante,
I have not seen or heard of Ultimate Tag Warrior until you mentioned it. Does it work in a similar way to Technorati Tags?
Just checked out the home page of the pluging though and it turns out that the developer lives here in New Zealand! I’ll have to drop her an email sometime.
Thanks for stopping by and posting the first comment!
Dominic.
Great list! I finally changed my permalinks to postname/postid after a month or so of blogging, much better than archive/postid for sure! Our list is up if you’d like to look – http://lilduckduck.com/ducky-moments-in-time/240
Have a great day!
I haven’t made the switch to WP yet, but keep reading about it. After the last writing project I started to look into it and then for some reason just stopped…worth another look!
Hi guys remember if your hosting your wordpress with GoDaddy you have to get a Windows Account W/php and W/asp which is the default they provide you with…
Jersey girl- Switch is definately worthwhile…
Solid
Thanks for the tips! Some of this I’d already figured out on my own, but since I’ve been spending the last 3 or 4 days setting up and tweaking my new WordPress blog, I appreciate any tips I can find.
I have a wordpress blog on my website and these tools are very useful. It’s giving me more flexibility and functionality. Thanks for these tips.
Solid,
Are you running WP on a windows hosting account? If so, how do you get on with setting the permalink structure? Is it straight forward?
-Dominic.
Hi Mallory,
Here are some more WP tips that I wrote a while back.
http://www.websitehostingiq.net/setting-up-wordpress-to-start-making-money/
Hope you find them useful.
-Dominic.
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Hi Dominic,
That’s a great entry for the group writing project at ProBlogger. My entry was also about WordPress. Give it a look at http://www.thebeatlesworld.com/2006/08/17/33/ .
I will make a post about you’re entry with some additional advices.
Thanks,
Helder
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Sorry, the link on my last post was wrong! The correct one is http://www.nicetoblogyou.com/2006/08/16/the-ten-wordpress-plugins-for-super-bloggers/ .
I’m a mess with “cut and paste”…
Helder Sanches
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Thanks for the pointers. I’ve just switched to WordPress and like it so much better.
For all you WP fans, don’t forget to check out my first WP Theme : SEO Simple. You can see it here:
http://www.internetwealthmaster.com/seo-simple/
Nice checklist for WP lovers like me. BTW, I like your template too.
Thank you for the checklist.
As I read your info on setting up a blog on WP I see words like permalink and tags and I am like uh what.
I just retired and am getting into this blogging thing. I am a bit of a newbie and could use some tutoring if someone would be so inclined. crackrjack@excite.com if you feel you could help. thanks
I am a fan of the Semiologic Pro wordpress theme myself. It makes WP more SEO friendly, and ads in some powerful tools that make monetization of a blog easier.
Thanks for this list. Any reason for that permalink structure other that depth? I’ve seen people say /postid/postname and /category/postname/ are good too…
Great page. Congrats.