These are the things I have amended/installed on my wordpress blog.

I hope people find it useful.  Please leave a comment if you find this useful or not, or if you want to do something and are not sure how to do it.

1 – Change Permalink Structure

The Permalinka are located on the left sidebar under the settings tab

You page will normally as http://site.com/?p=56  This is not good for SEO, you really need your page to show with your full page title like this http://www.hiroadams.com/privacy-policy/

To do this make the following changes under custom structure

/%category%/%postname%/

2 – Set up Authors

When WordPress is setup it creates an admin account. It is not a good idea to have the default admin account, people like to hack sites, and everyone knows admin exist, they can even spam your email account.  So create a user for your self who has full admin rights.  You can also setup any other users/authors for your wordpress blog under this setting.  Once completed  log out and log in with your new user account.  Once logged you can delete the admin account.

These are the roles available in WordPress

3 – Fix Security Issues

Remove The Admin Account:

Delete this account.  Since it is created by default it is susceptible to attack and spam.  If it does not exits you are far safer.

Disable Remote Publishing:

This is under settings>writing

Disable Post Via Email:

You are not likely to be posting by e-mail just yet, so disable this for now.

4 – Set up Discussion Settings

This can be found under Settings>Discussion

5 – Update Your Ping List

Settings>Writing>Update Services

This is my actual list that I use

http://xsincome.com/?p=434

http://api.feedster.com/ping

http://api.moreover.com/RPC2

http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2

http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping

http://bblog.com/ping.php

http://bitacoras.net/ping/

http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC

http://blogbot.dk/io/xml-rpc.php

http://blogdb.jp/xmlrpc/

http://blogmatcher.com/u.php

http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc

http://coreblog.org/ping/

http://mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatt

http://ping.blo.gs/

http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/

http://ping.cocolog-nifty.com/xmlrpc

http://ping.feedburner.com

http://ping.rootblog.com/rpc.php

http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php

http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php

http://ping.weblogs.se/

http://pinger.blogflux.com/rpc

http://rcs.datashed.net/RPC2

http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/

http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/

http://rpc.pingomatic.com/

http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping

http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2

http://thingamablog.sourceforge.net/ping.php

http://topicexchange.com/RPC2

http://www.a2b.cc/setloc/bp.a2b

http://www.bitacoles.net/ping.php

http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2

http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates

http://www.blogroots.com/tb_populi.blog?id=1

http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php

http://www.blogsnow.com/ping

http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi

http://www.lasermemory.com/lsrpc/

http://www.mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatter/ping.php

http://www.newsisfree.com/xmlrpctest.php

http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php

http://www.snipsnap.org/RPC2

http://www.weblogues.com/RPC/

http://xmlrpc.blogg.de/

http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/

6 – Set up Google Feedburner

7 – Upload and Activate your Theme

For now it is better to just use WordPresses’s inbuilt theme finder as follows to install and activate a new theme.  when you are more settled down you can find a premium theme or have a custom one built for you.

So here is how to do it.  Select Theme from the righthand side bar.

Click on Add new

Click on search

Select an appropriate theme for you blog

Activate your theme by clicking on the activate button

8 – Set up Analytics

Here’s how

Sign up for Google Analytics on google’s website

http://www.google.com/analytics/

If you have a gmail account you can use the same login details.  Once logged in click the Add website Profile link

Type in your web address and click finish

You will now have an analytics account ID for your website which looks like this

XX-XXXXXXXX-X

Now you will need to install the Google Analyticator plugin  version 6.1 by Ronald Heft.  This is coverd in the plugin section below.

9 – Edit the About Page

Well at this is simple.  Just write a little bit about yourself.  If you need any ideas, see what other people are writing about themselves.

10 – Install and Activate the Following Plugins

Plugin 1 – Akismet

You will need to obtain an Akistmet API key before you can fully activate this antispam  tool

Once you have the key activate the plugin and enter your key.  This can be found under Plugins>Akismet Configuration

Plugin 2 – Permalink Redirect

Plugin 3 – All in one SEO Pack

Plugin 4 – WordPress Automatic Upgrade
Plugin 5 – Google Analytics for WordPress

To install Ronald Heft’s Google Analyticator select the plugins page and click on add new.

type Google Analyticator into the search box

Click the install button on the right handside of the screen

Once the plugin has benn installed and activated it will attempt to connect to your google analytics account , you will need to grant permission for this.  This will place a summary of traffice to your website in your WordPress dashboard.

Plugin 6 – WP Super Cache
Plugin 7 – Google XML Sitemaps
Plugin 8 – No Self Pings

Plugin 9 – MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer
Plugin 10 – Feedburner Feedsmith
Plugin 11 – WP DB Backup