16 Things To Do After Starting A New WordPress Blog
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You just started a new WordPress blog, now what’s next? Read on…
- Blog Design: You can start with a freely available WordPress theme that you can find here and here, but a unique blog design is the way to go if you want your blog to stand out from the other blogs.
- Add Categories: Add the categories for your blog. Remember to keep it neat and add not more than 15-20 categories.
- Add an About Page: I have already wrote about the importance of an About page, add it and let your readers know who you are.
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Install All In One SEO Pack: Install the latest version of All In One SEO Pack WordPress plugin and optimize your new blog from the beginning itself. Remember to visit the plugin’s option page. Also check out the other WordPress Plugins that can optimize your blog for Search Engines.
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Customize Permalink Structure: Choose a good Permalink Structure and stick with it. Here are some examples of good Permalinks:
/%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%//%postname%/If you change your permalink structure after you have been linked by other sites, those links won’t work anymore. So remember to stick with the Permalink Structure you chose in the beginning - Create a FeedBurner feed for your blog: Login to and create a FeedBurner feed for your new blog
- Install the FeedBurner FeedSmith plugin: The detects all ways to access your original WordPress feeds and redirects them to your FeedBurner feed so you can track every possible subscriber
- Put a RSS button on your blog: Choose one of these RSS buttons and put it on your blog linking it to your FeedBurner feed
- Start Writing: What’s a blog without content? Start blogging!
- Install the Google Sitemaps plugin: This plugin will generate a sitemaps.org compatible sitemap of your WordPress blog which is supported by Ask.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO. Download the latest version of the plugin from here.
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Create a Robots.txt file: Once you have generated your sitemap with the Google Sitemaps plugin, create a robots.txt file and add your sitemap there like in the following example:
Sitemap: http://www.yourblog.com/sitemap.xml
User-agent: *
Disallow: /wp-content/
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /wp-includes/
Disallow: /wp-
Disallow: /feed/
Disallow: /trackback/
Disallow: /cgi-bin/
User-agent: Googlebot
Disallow: /*.php$
Disallow: /*.js$
Disallow: /*.cgi$
Disallow: /*.xhtml$
Disallow: /*.php*
Disallow: */trackback*
Disallow: /*?*
Disallow: /z/
Disallow: /wp-*
Disallow: /*.inc$
Disallow: /*.css$
Disallow: /*.txt$ - Add your Sitemap to Google Webmaster Tools: Add your new site to and then your sitemap too. Once you add your site, you will be able to find when Googlebot last successfully accessed your home page, web crawl errors, etc.
- Set preferred domain: Select your site from your Google Webmaster Tools dashboard and set your preferred domain (with or without www) by going to Tools>Set preferred domain.
- Install Akismet plugin: Download and install Akismet plugin to catch comment spam. Akismet has caught 133,660 spam comments on this blog since I first installed it.
- Add a Contact form: Install a plugin that adds a contact form to your blog so that your readers can get in touch with you. I use PXS Mail Form.
- Install Subscribe to Comments: Install the Subscribe to Comments plugin which allows commenters on your blog to check a box before commenting and get e-mail notification of further comments. This encourages readers to come back and take part in the conversation. I have also written on how to get more comments and listed some WordPress Plugins here and here that can help you.
I haven’t mentioned the Related posts plugin as it isn’t much of a use until you have lots of posts.
Have I missed anything? Let me know through comments and I will add it to the list.
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Posted on November 28th, 2007 | Category: Blogging |
Vikram Kinkar
November 29, 2007 at 3:28 am
Wow! This is a one stop guide for a new blogger to Start a blog. Great work John.The permalinks and Robots.txt tip is often ignored.
However these is one discipline every blogger should have from day one, that is backing up his or her blog. Its of utmost importance but doesn’t get highlighted enough.
I have written about backing up ones blog, as I myself lost my blog to a Blog crash.
You can find information about backing up your blog here:
http://digital-musings.com/200.....ress-blog/
Brown Baron
November 29, 2007 at 9:11 am
Great list buddy. I remember when I started I was looking for a list like this.
JohnTP
November 29, 2007 at 9:35 am
Thanks guys.
Vikram - I have not thought much about backing up my blog, but I have my WordPress theme backed up
Innovations & Interesting Ramblings
November 29, 2007 at 9:45 am
wow…good checklist john…I am going to use them…
and include a keyword checklist(appropriately) in this post for SEO benefits…
Mani Karthk
November 29, 2007 at 10:35 am
Good list John,
You didn’t miss anything but there’s a terrible mistake though.
There must be some content in place before you submit to webmasters. It is not a thumbrule but if you do it that way you have an advantage. Google easily picks up the “value” of your blog and detects various other things like..crawl frequency, content, keyword strength etc.
I think point 16 should go way up to number 9 or 10.
Hope it makes sense.
Cheers!
Mani
Ananth
November 29, 2007 at 10:36 am
Thats a really neat list. I have been blogging for a month now and have not done some of those things on the list.
eshwar
November 29, 2007 at 12:06 pm
Good one John. Recently i added your RSS. I thought of starting a wordpress blog and this help me in taking my blog a great start. Looking for more great posts from you…..
JohnTP
November 29, 2007 at 12:23 pm
Thanks guys
Mani- Thanks for the comment, I have edited the post
David Bradley
November 29, 2007 at 2:00 pm
John, I reckon item 9 has to be the most important, and really should be at #1. But more to the point, you shouldn’t launch a blog without having a small stock of great posts already lined up. I’d recommend that before sending the blog live to queue up at least half a dozen posts spread over a couple of weeks. That way you will have fresh spiderable content coming thick and fast at a time when the search engines will first notice you.
Also, don’t submit a Google sitemap until you have done all the optimisations and have at least half a dozen posts already online.
db
nitinpai
November 29, 2007 at 9:30 pm
John,
You forgot the adsense Plugin
David Saunders
November 30, 2007 at 3:40 am
I’ve always thought of using a WP Blog - in fact I have started and abandoned ship after a day or two.
I have been using Moveable Type for years now
MY QUESTION????
Where can I get a half decent design put together????
Best
David
Innovations & Interesting Ramblings
November 30, 2007 at 12:07 pm
John,if I use All in one SEO pack, can I still use Head Meta Description,SEO Title Tag and Ultimate Tag warrior?
Megan
November 30, 2007 at 3:33 pm
Hey great post. Great for word press beginners. Thanks for writting
MEGAN
http://www.PassportMentors.com
Xooxia
November 30, 2007 at 10:20 pm
Hey, thanks for the great information. I’d also recommend commenting on others’ blogs that have relevant content to yours. This way you create a sort of discussion back and forth (much like a forum) that can attract others to leave their two cents.
I also think the plug-ins you chose to add are great. I didn’t have the ’subscribe to comments’ plug-in installed, but I’ve just added it. Thanks again!
Joey
November 30, 2007 at 11:16 pm
Fantastic post and perfect timing for me. I am about to start another blog and this is just the information I needed. The main thing from my first blog I wish I had done was correctly set the permalink structure.
Using this post as a checklist my next blog will get started in a much better position.
Thanks.
Madhur Kapoor
November 30, 2007 at 11:41 pm
Nice list John. Wish i had one too when i started blogging.
JohnTP
November 30, 2007 at 11:46 pm
David Bradley- item 9 cant be #1 on this list, as it is better to start writing after adding categories and customizing Permalink structure for your blog.
nitinpai- Are you talking about AdSense-Deluxe? Not all bloggers use it.
David Saunders- You can either modify a freely available WordPress theme or hire a designer to do it for you.
Innovations & Interesting Ramblings- If you use use All in one SEO pack, you wont need to use Head Meta Description and SEO Title Tag. Also, the latest version of WordPress supports tagging, so you wont need to use Ultimate Tag Warrior too.
David Bradley
December 1, 2007 at 12:30 am
I was kind of speaking figuratively, just meaning that #1 you should be thinking ahead as to what you’re going to write about and maybe have a few draft posts ready to go while you sort out categories and such…
db
esvl
December 1, 2007 at 1:19 am
Great list of things to do before starting a blog. Sometimes people get so carried away they forget to do the basic stuff first.
esvl
December 1, 2007 at 1:21 am
Oh and did you know if you change your permalinks after you started your blog and it has been indexed by google that if google sees you changed it the chances of being sandboxed is almost 90%.
Just wanted to share that.
Toni Cañabate
December 2, 2007 at 6:13 am
Thanks!
MoreBlogMoney
December 2, 2007 at 2:26 pm
Thanks for this article - it’s just the research I was looking for since I’m writing something on this too.
Another plugin I would add is Digital Fingerprint to track stolen content.
Cheers
mbm
Srinivasa K. Ramanujam
December 2, 2007 at 10:54 pm
Thanks dude. Very useful article as am planning to change to my own domain soon.
W-Shadow
December 2, 2007 at 11:48 pm
I’d also add OneClick plugin installer and One Click Plugin Updater (two separate plugins) to the list.
Screenfrog
December 3, 2007 at 6:08 pm
Very nice indeed, thanks John!
Andrew
December 9, 2007 at 11:52 am
I’ll use this list next time I’m setting up a new blog using WordPress.
Steven
December 14, 2007 at 12:52 pm
What about adding a blog editing software product like Writer or Ecto? That should be one, right?
NasirJumani
December 14, 2007 at 11:38 pm
Excellent post!
I was searching for an article like this for some days but found it accidentally while stumbling and settled up my blog as directed.
Greetz! :~)
Nate
January 1, 2008 at 2:00 am
HI John,
Thanks a lot for these really useful tips. I just created a blog about a month ago and I literally had zero experience building websites and had no idea what the heck SEO was. Your blog has been really helpful and I love your content. THANK YOU!
Nate
Podman
January 4, 2008 at 10:40 am
Hi John,
Your 16 tips are excellent. I thought that I was doing everything I was supposed to do since I started http://www.thepoddepot.com over a month ago. Now, I am frantically rushing to add your tips on my website.
Thanks for the wonderful tips.
Daniel Harrison
January 10, 2008 at 6:49 pm
Great tips, very similar to a post I wrote for new wordpress blogs. I would add that you should create an archive of all older posts, such as the clean archives plugin.
http://www.geekwithlaptop.com/.....-archives/
Arnel
January 17, 2008 at 7:51 pm
Great tips for newbies like me! thanks!
Nyrvan
January 23, 2008 at 6:39 pm
Thank you, I will apply it …
Helmi Yuliati_Ningsih
February 13, 2008 at 11:50 pm
Dear John ..
Your Tips about after starting a new blog is very usefull for me. I’ve made my first wordpress blog ten minutes ago. Let me to post your article in my blog. I want to share that. Thanks.
US Freestuff
February 15, 2008 at 8:34 pm
Big thanks for tips
Mali
February 23, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Thanks, Pritty much on the right track but Hey great Work
Mali
Eating Design
John B
March 6, 2008 at 11:37 pm
Hi John,
Great tips! Just so you know, Number 12, Google Webmaster Tools, comes up with a 404. Keep up the great work!
Steve
March 9, 2008 at 7:15 am
Thanks for making this list. As others have said, I think the content is the most important. Who cares about a site with no content, after all.
I also think the planning aspect is important, particularly before submitting the site to search engines.
Business For Photographers
March 12, 2008 at 2:06 am
Many thanks for this list. I’ve been running websites since the internet began but I have just started my first blog. There are many things on your list that I did not even think about till I read them here.
Many thanks!
– Dave
hip hop news
April 9, 2008 at 12:21 pm
Thanks for these tips, I just signed up to FeedBurner.
Dave
April 10, 2008 at 9:31 am
Awesome list. I feel much better having done most - but not all - of these. I am wary of SEO packs since I have heard stories of Google penalizing sites that do too much SEO. Do you know of any such downside to installing the SEO pack?
http://moneybloggr.com/
VASUKi
April 18, 2008 at 6:33 pm
Hey Mr John..
I have one small IT Blog, which isn’t not improved very much. I didn’t had time to improve it due to Exams..
But now I’m totally free in time and I got nice, simple, bloggers’ friendly steps to improve it.
Thank you and have a great day..
VASUKi
April 18, 2008 at 6:36 pm
By the way, you left one step..
It will be better if we add digg it widget plug in to the blog.
Moin
April 26, 2008 at 7:15 am
Nice read, John
radyo hosting
May 16, 2008 at 4:08 am
nice read joh Big thanks for tips
radyo dinle
June 2, 2008 at 1:10 pm
thx for this article
Joe
June 13, 2008 at 11:59 pm
Especially the robots.txt was a great help! Now all my robots.txt´s are equipped with your lines. Thanks for it!
see Brent write
July 4, 2008 at 4:14 am
Thank you!
Concise, valuable, informative. You’ve just been del.icio.ussed
Kayla
July 15, 2008 at 9:42 am
Very nice article.
Paloika (tech magazine)
July 19, 2008 at 11:35 pm
Don’t forget the All in one seo pack for Wordpress, that will get you on Google quickly
Arshad
August 9, 2008 at 12:19 pm
what is the method of google adsense and what is the my work of in google adsense
Internet Marketing
August 21, 2008 at 10:52 am
Your blog is very informative. However it is pretty hard task but your post and
experienced serve and teach me how to handle and make it more simple and manageable.
Thanks for the tips… Best regards.
PC Repair Brighton
September 4, 2008 at 1:09 am
Useful list, i’m new to wordpress so this is just what I’m looking for