Installing WordPress? Remember To Do These 10 Things

Installing WordPress is just the beginning of your website journey. Whether you are launching a personal blog, a business site, or an online store, there are several crucial steps you need to take right after installation to ensure your site runs smoothly, loads fast, and stays secure. Skipping these can lead to security vulnerabilities, poor performance, and missed SEO opportunities.

In this guide, we will walk you through the 10 essential things you must do right after installing WordPress, so your site is ready for success from day one.

Getting Started with WordPress

Getting started with WordPress might seem to be an overwhelming task for you. However, moving step by step will ease your job.

Before you practically start developing your incredible websites, follow these few steps to get your thoughts precisely translated into a magnificent web design.

• Read necessary documentation related to WordPress Installation to have a seamless installation experience.
• Get a domain and suitable hosting plan to give an identity to your site and publish your site to an online network database.
• Plan your content and site details to craft your site accordingly. Be well aware of your site requirements, the nature of the site and the potential target audience.
• Install WordPress and set it up as you want it to work for you.

10 Things to Do After Installing WordPress

Just installed WordPress? Great—now it’s time to set your website up for success.
Skipping key steps after installation can lead to poor performance, security risks, and lost traffic. Whether you’re launching a blog, business website, or online store, this post-installation checklist will guide you through 10 essential things to do after installing WordPress. From securing your site to optimizing speed and SEO, these tips will help you build a fast, secure, and high-converting WordPress website right from the start.

1. Choose the Right Hosting Provider

Your hosting provider is the foundation of your WordPress website. A poor-quality host can lead to slow loading speeds, frequent downtime, and security vulnerabilities—all of which directly affect your site’s performance, SEO rankings, and user experience.

When selecting a hosting provider, consider the following factors:

• Speed & Uptime: Look for providers with at least 99.9% uptime and fast server response times. Page speed is a critical Google ranking factor.
• Customer Support: Opt for 24/7 live support with knowledgeable WordPress experts who can assist you anytime.
• Security Features: Good hosts offer firewalls, DDoS protection, malware scanning, and automatic backups.
• Scalability: As your site grows, you should be able to upgrade easily from shared hosting to VPS or cloud hosting.
• WordPress-Specific Services: Managed WordPress hosts like SiteGround, Cloudways, or Hostinger offer automatic updates, built-in caching, and staging environments.

If you’re unsure which host suits your needs, explore our in-depth guide on How to Choose the Best WordPress Hosting in 2025. This post compares the top providers for beginners, bloggers, e-commerce, and agencies.

2. Add a Contact Form

A contact form is one of the most important elements of your website—it bridges the gap between you and your visitors. Whether it’s for customer inquiries, support requests, or business collaborations, a well-designed contact form builds trust and improves user engagement.

Here’s why you need it:

• User Convenience: Visitors can easily reach out without opening their email app.
• Spam Protection: Contact forms (with CAPTCHA or honeypots) reduce spam compared to displaying your email address directly.
• Professionalism: It gives your site a polished, complete look, showing you’re open to communication.
• Lead Generation: Forms can be customized to capture leads, newsletter sign-ups, or feedback.

Popular WordPress contact form plugins include:

• WPForms – Beginner-friendly with drag-and-drop builder.
• Contact Form 7 – Lightweight and flexible, but requires a bit more setup.
• Fluent Forms – Fast, modern, and packed with features.

Once your form is created, place it on your Contact page, in your footer, or even in blog posts if needed.

3. Set Your Timezone, Date, and Time Format

Setting your timezone and formatting preferences may seem minor, but it plays a big role in managing your WordPress site accurately and professionally—especially if you schedule posts or rely on time-sensitive plugins like booking systems or newsletters.

To update these settings:

1. Go to your WordPress Dashboard > Settings > General.
2. Scroll to Timezone and select your city or UTC offset (e.g., UTC+5:45 for Nepal).
3. Choose your preferred Date Format and Time Format to control how timestamps appear across your site—this affects comments, posts, and events.

Why it’s important:

• Accurate Scheduling: If your timezone is off, scheduled posts may publish at the wrong time.
• Consistent Branding: A uniform date format improves clarity and professionalism.
• User Clarity: If your audience is local, matching their timezone improves UX (user experience).

This simple setup ensures your WordPress backend functions smoothly and your content calendar stays on track.

4. Remove Default Content

When you first install WordPress, it comes with default content like the “Hello World!” post, a sample comment, and a placeholder page. While harmless, leaving them on your site can make it look unprofessional—and worse, it can get indexed by search engines, harming your SEO.

Why you should delete it:

• Improves credibility: Visitors may question your site’s authenticity if default content is visible.
• Enhances SEO: Google may flag duplicate or irrelevant content, which can hurt your rankings.
• Keeps things clean: A tidy dashboard makes managing your site much easier.

Here’s how to clean it up:

1. Posts: Go to Posts > All Posts, hover over “Hello World!”, and click Trash.
2. Pages: Go to Pages > All Pages, delete the sample page.
3. Comments: Remove the default comment under Comments.
4. Plugins: Delete any unused default plugins (like Hello Dolly).

After cleaning up, you’ll be working with a fresh slate, ready to build meaningful content.

5. Set Your Site Title & Tagline

Your Site Title and Tagline are key elements that define your brand identity and play a significant role in search engine optimization. They appear in browser tabs, search engine results, and social media previews, so getting them right helps users recognize your site and improves your click-through rates.

How to set them:

1. In your WordPress dashboard, navigate to Settings > General.
2. Update the Site Title to reflect your brand name or website purpose.
3. Write a concise, descriptive Tagline that summarizes what your site is about—ideally including relevant keywords without keyword stuffing.

Why it matters:

Professional appearance: Default titles like “Just another WordPress site” can look unpolished and harm trust.
Brand recognition: A clear title and tagline help visitors quickly understand your site.

SEO benefits: Search engines use these to rank and display your site in relevant searches.

6. Configure Permalink Settings

Permalinks are the URLs of your posts and pages, and setting them correctly from the start is crucial for SEO and user experience. WordPress’s default permalink structure uses numbers, which aren’t descriptive or friendly for visitors or search engines.

Why configure permalinks:

• Improved SEO: Search engines prefer URLs that clearly describe the page content with relevant keywords.
• Better User Experience: Clean, readable URLs are easier to remember, share, and link to.
• Enhanced Click-Through Rates: Descriptive URLs build trust and encourage clicks in search results.

How to configure:

1. Go to Settings > Permalinks in your WordPress dashboard.
2. Select the Post name option. This uses your post’s title in the URL (e.g., yoursite.com/how-to-install-wordpress).
3. Save changes.

If you already have a live site with indexed URLs, be cautious when changing permalinks to avoid broken links. For new sites, setting permalinks early avoids SEO complications later.

7. Install a Trusted Theme

Choosing and installing the right theme is a crucial step in shaping your website’s design, functionality, and overall user experience. A trusted, well-coded theme ensures your site looks professional, loads quickly, and is compatible with essential plugins.

What to look for in a theme:

• Responsiveness: The theme should look great on all devices—desktop, tablet, and mobile.
• Speed optimized: Lightweight themes reduce load time, improving SEO and user retention.
• Regular updates: Choose themes maintained by developers who release timely updates and security patches.
• Customization options: Look for themes that allow you to easily modify layouts, colors, fonts, and more without coding.
• Compatibility: Make sure the theme works seamlessly with popular plugins you plan to use, like WooCommerce for online stores or page builders like Elementor.

Popular trusted themes include Astra, GeneratePress, and OceanWP—each known for speed, flexibility, and great support.

Need help selecting the perfect theme? Check out our detailed review of Top WordPress Themes for 2025 to find one that fits your needs.

8. Monitor Analytics of your Site

Tracking your website’s performance with analytics is essential to understand your visitors, measure growth, and make informed decisions to improve your site’s effectiveness. Right after installing WordPress, setting up analytics helps you gather valuable data from day one.

Why monitor analytics:

• Know your audience: Discover who visits your site, their location, interests, and behavior.
• Measure traffic sources: Understand whether visitors come from search engines, social media, or referrals.
• Track popular content: Identify which pages and posts get the most attention to replicate their success.
• Monitor conversions: If you run an online store or lead generation site, track how many visitors complete desired actions.
• Improve SEO: Analytics data guides your optimization efforts by highlighting strengths and weaknesses.

How to get started:

• Set up Google Analytics by creating an account and linking it to your WordPress site. You can do this manually or with plugins like MonsterInsights or Site Kit by Google.
• Use the analytics dashboard to regularly review visitor metrics and behavior.
• Set up Google Search Console alongside Google Analytics for deeper SEO insights and site health monitoring.

9. Strategize Your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Plan

Creating a solid SEO strategy from the start is vital to increase your WordPress site’s visibility on search engines like Google and attract organic traffic. SEO involves optimizing your content, website structure, and technical settings to rank higher and reach your target audience effectively.

Key SEO steps to implement early:

• Keyword Research: Identify the terms and phrases your audience is searching for. Use tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, or SEMrush to find relevant keywords.
• Install an SEO Plugin: Plugins like Yoast SEO or Rank Math simplify optimizing your pages and posts by providing on-page SEO guidance, XML sitemaps, and meta tag management.
• Optimize Titles and Meta Descriptions: Craft clear, keyword-rich titles and descriptions to improve click-through rates from search results.
• Improve Site Speed: Fast-loading pages rank better and offer a better user experience. Use caching plugins and optimize images.
• Mobile Optimization: Ensure your site is responsive and mobile-friendly, as Google prioritizes mobile-first indexing.
• Create Quality Content: Focus on providing valuable, well-structured, and original content that answers your audience’s questions.

Start your SEO journey by following our comprehensive WordPress SEO Guide for Beginners, which covers all these essentials and more.

10. Set Up Backups and Security

Protecting your WordPress site from data loss and cyber threats is crucial for long-term success. Setting up regular backups and robust security measures right after installation ensures your website stays safe and recoverable in case of hacking, server failure, or accidental errors.

Why backups and security matter:

• Data Protection: Regular backups let you restore your site quickly if anything goes wrong.
• Prevent Hacks: Security plugins and best practices help guard against malware, brute-force attacks, and unauthorized access.
• Peace of Mind: Knowing your site is protected allows you to focus on content and growth without constant worry.

How to get started:

• Use backup plugins like UpdraftPlus, BackupBuddy, or your hosting provider’s backup service to schedule automatic backups stored off-site (e.g., Dropbox or Google Drive).
• Install security plugins such as Wordfence, Sucuri, or iThemes Security to monitor threats and enforce strong login protection.
• Keep WordPress core, themes, and plugins updated to patch vulnerabilities.
• Use strong passwords and enable two-factor authentication (2FA) for admin accounts.

For an in-depth guide, visit our post on How to Secure Your WordPress Site and Set Up Backups.

FAQs

Conclusion

Installing WordPress is just the beginning—but what you do next determines the future of your website. By taking the time to complete these 10 essential steps, you’ll build a strong foundation for performance, security, SEO, and growth. From setting up a trusted theme and contact form to optimizing your permalink structure and configuring backups, each step is crucial in making your WordPress site professional and reliable.

Whether you’re creating a blog, a business site, or an online store, following this checklist will save you from common beginner mistakes and help you launch with confidence.

Ready to take your site even further? Explore our guide on How to Start a WordPress Blog in 2025 – Complete Beginner’s Guide to continue building smarter.