Been sometime since I last updated here. I was quite stuck with some university exams but I am back now. So what was the last post about? Yes, installing wordpress in a more secure way. So now it is time to move inside WordPress. Today, we will talk about the first 3 things I generally do after installing wordpress.
Change the default admin login
When you install wordpress, you are given a default username “admin” and your password is emailed to you. If you really want to make the job of potential hackers and easy one, then leave it like it is.
When someone will want to infiltrate your blog, the first thing he will have to guess is your username and then, your password. Leaving your username as “admin” by default is like telling the thief:
Would it not have been better to let the thief scratch his head to find it himself? So you know what to do now.
- Go to http://www.yourblog.net/wp-admin/user-new.php
- Add a new user and set the permission as administrator
- Sign out!
- Sign in using the new login username and password
- Delete the “admin” account from http://www.yourblog.net/wp-admin/user-new.php
Setting Up WordPress SEO Friendly URLS
WordPress by default uses the ugly, seo distorted, bad, annoying, awful, frightful, grisly, gross, grotesque, horrid, loathsome, monstrous, repugnant, and…Ok I stop it here. WordPress uses a bad url format in simple words.
So you need to choose the right one for your blog. Steps? As usual, follow me!
- Go to http://www.yourblog.net/wp-admin/options-permalink.php
- Choose the url option as shown below, that is “Custom Structure” and enter the field value as shown.
- Save it of course!
I prefer this shorter and clean url for SEO reasons. However if you have a daily updated News Blog with lots of articles per day, then you can choose the “Month and name” option. The Month plus Date one is the last option I’ll choose.
Activate Akismet in WordPress
Believe me or not but I once installed a new wordpress blog for one of my personal project and within a few hours only I was spammed! I don’t know where the spammers got the url of a brand new website which was not even indexed in Google at that time, but they were there.
So always activate Akismet as the first plugin of your blog. You will need a WordPress API key to use Akismet. Go to http://www.wordpress.com and register an account to have your’s. You do not need to register a blog at WordPress.com, simply go for an account.
So these are the 3 basic and first things I do upon installing any new WordPress blog. Next? Well you need to choose a theme and some useful plugins now. Hopefully I will talk about it in my upcoming posts tomorrow and in the coming days. Stay tuned.
This article was contributed by Kurt Tewin
Kurt is a webmaster, blogger, and PHP developer who lives on the Paradise island of Mauritius and who has a crazy obsession for everything Wordpress and Blogging. He founded Icy Tips to share some of his tips with the community. He is also the owner of IC a famous multi-niche daily updated community blog and the C.E.O of Icy Evolution Ltd.
Kurt has written 24 awesome articles for us at Icy Tips
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I think the SEO friendly links is a must as changing that later on could create problems for the webmaster as you will need some redirect plugin.
The default login is a must and that should be done right after installing WP. The default could land you in trouble.
Askimet plugin is not a must as there are far better plugins, but it does help.
You pointed out all the important steps. Hope it will help new comers