zedzdead

Anybody who has set up wordpress more than once starts to add to a list of things to do after install. Here’s just 5 things I did straight away even though it took me 10 times as long to finish off the blog post about it.

1. I changed the theme and I don’t need to tell you how to do that because there’s a whole raft of stuff about it out there.
2. I activated Akismet (spam killer).  You’ll need a WordPress API key for this, which you can get by creating an account at WordPress.  Once you have your api key, navigate to Plugins on your WordPress dashboard and if it isn’t already installed, install it and activate it with your key. At the time of writing I have 4 spam posts, which have already been blocked by Akismet, and countless others, no doubt, already deleted.  Install it now.
3. Install Google Analytics Plugin.  If you install this prior to your first post, you’ll have visitor statistics from day one.
4. Added a favicon.  I don’t know in what version a default favicon began shipping with WP, but all you need to do is find it and replace it with one of your own.  I have the .ico plugin for PhotoShop but you can get free favicon generators all over the web.
5. Microformats.  I’m a big fan of microformats, and browser support is growing.  I have an hCard on every page of the site, (hidden for now, until I find a theme I really like or until I design my own).  If you want to find out more about microformats, the wiki is a great starting place and if you’re using FF, download the Operator toolbar now, its the best microformats tool around.

That’s it.  I did all that about 6 weeks ago!  C’mon Andy get your arse into gear and write some more posts.