Everything You NEED After the 1-Click WordPress InstallSome tips and tricks for getting the best of out of WordPress. Good for beginners and seasoned users alike. We'll cover a checklist of tweaks, things to add and remove, including performance and security updates for every new installation.

...with Peter InzerilloThis Presentation: https://goo.gl/222VVO

Twitter: @inzerillo87

I lead our Support Team and WordPress Training for:

Thrive Internet Marketinghttp://thrivenetmarketing.com

What We Will Cover:INITIAL LOOK & FEEL

DELETE DEFAULTS

JETPACK

SECURITY

CACHING

SEO

MEDIA

BONUS

You installed WP on your own host

You have probably already selected a Theme

You understand how to use the WP menus

Assumptions:

You have a basic understanding of Pages, Posts, etc.

Initial Look & Feel

Settings / GeneralChange The Title, Tagline,

URL (www?), Time zone

Membership?

Explore! click Help!

Latest Posts?Static Page? (need to create a Home Page first)

Discourage Search Engines?If you want to hide site for now

Settings / Reading

Allow Comments? / Moderation

Avatars? (You can sign up for your Avatar aten.gravatar.com/)

Settings / Discussion

Default permalink structure - not very Google friendlyUse Day, Month, or Post Name options

Settings / Permalinks Structure

Set Default CategoryChange “Uncategorized” to …?

Posts / Categories

Be sure Default Category is correct, if you added several

Settings / Writing

Since WordPress 4.3, you can add a favicon from WordPress admin area

Appearance / Customize - click on ‘Site Identity’ tab

How to Add a Favicon

Site Icon (Favicon)

Delete Defaults

UsersChange Admin Account!

Create new account, log out of WP,login with new account, delete “admin” account

Remember Usernames cannot be changed!

Appearance / WidgetsRemove the default WordPress widgets?

Review site and decide which ones you need

Posts & PagesDelete “Hello World” Post, Sample Page

Delete Unused Themes?(Leave at least one 201? theme)

Delete Default Plugins? (probably OK for now)

JetPack!

Add JetPackPlugins / Add New - Install JetPack

wordpress.org/plugins/jetpack/

jetpack.me/features/You will need to create aWordPress.com account (free)

JetPack FeaturesCarousel / Tiled Galleries - mosaic layouts / full-screen photo browsing

Comments - allows users to comment using Facebook, Twitter, etc

Contact Form - FREE (avoid listing your email address on site!)

Extra Sidebar Widgets - Twitter, Facebook, Gallery, Social Media Icons...

Monitor - emails you if your site goes down

Omnisearch - enhanced search for your site

JetPack FeaturesPhoton - load images from WordPress.com CDN

Post by Email

Protect - cloud-powered brute force attack prevention tool

Publicize - share posts on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Yahoo!, and Linkedin

Related Posts - shows additional links from your site under your posts

Sharing - users can share to Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Digg, LinkedIn, Google+, Print, and Email

Site Stats - view popular metrics through a clear and attractive interface

JetPack FeaturesSitemaps - XML sitemap for search engines

Subscriptions - visitors can receive posts via email

Widget Visibility - Control which pages your widgets appear on

Data Backups - through VaultPress (subscription)

Tip: After browsing the JetPack features, Be sure to deactivate the ones you don’t intend to use.

Security

Install a Security Plugin (or two)iThemes Security - wordpress.org/plugins/better-wp-security

*My preferred choice, lots of options; quick setup.

WordFence Security - wordpress.org/plugins/wordfence/ Can disable security and just use for malware scanning.

Also consider:

Sucuri - wordpress.org/plugins/sucuri-scanner/

or at least use the basic JetPack modules

Install an Anti-Spam PluginAkismet - www.Akismet.com/get API key (free)

Or use JetPack / Akismet(Still need to activate Akismet plugin,but then you can activate thru JetPack)

Schedule Regular BackupsA few suggestions:

BackWPup - wordpress.org/plugins/backwpup/

BackUpWordPress - wordpress.org/plugins/backupwordpress/

UpDraft Plus - wordpress.org/plugins/updraftplus/

Many Others (e.g. Backup Buddy [paid])

Your HOST may also offer this service.

Tip: Be sure you can schedule, and can easily restore your site.

7 Best WordPress Backup Plugins Compared

Caching

Install a Cache PluginW3 Total Cache – wordpress.org/plugins/w3-total-cache/ * my

preferred

CloudFlare - www.cloudflare.com/plans/ (free plan available)

or at least use JetPack / Photon

Install/Setup W3 Total Cache

TIP: Try Google PageSpeed Insights - developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/

SEO

Install A SEO WordPress PluginYoast SEO - wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-seo/

Even simple setup will help your SEO score!Setup WordPress SEO by Yoast

SkyStats! wordpress.org/plugins/skystats/ - view Google Analytics, Facebook, Twitter insights on your dashboard!

Social Media SharingA few suggestions:

Add to Any - wordpress.org/plugins/add-to-any/*Our preferred option; very simple

Shareaholic - wordpress.org/plugins/shareaholic/

Share This - wordpress.org/plugins/share-this/

JetPack / Sharing

Install Google Analytics / StatisticsGA - www.google.com/analytics/ - get an account, then add to site

with:

Yoast Analytics - wordpress.org/plugins/google-analytics-for-wordpress/

or at least use JetPack / Stats

Redirection / Monitor 404sCan create redirection rules and automatically forward all the

incoming traffic to the right pages

Also monitors 404s and automatically creates redirects for posts

wordpress.org/plugins/redirection/

Broken Link CheckerMonitors links in your posts, pages, etc.

Detects links that don't work, missing images and redirects

Notifies you either via the Dashboard or by email

wordpress.org/plugins/broken-link-checker/

Be sure and check the settings!

Add / Manage SitemapHTML Sitemap - wordpress.org/plugins/html-sitemap/

(Add to your site via [shortcode])

Exclude Pages - wordpress.org/plugins/im8-exclude-pages/(Allows you to exclude pages from Sitemap)

Media

Settings / MediaChange default media sizes?

Consider changing “Large” size if your theme content area is small

Year/Month folders?Makes a longer URL if you share image URLs directly in content.*I usually uncheck this box so Media is easier to browse via FTP.

Optimize ImagesReduce image size for faster page load!

Smushit - wordpress.org/plugins/wp-smushit/

Imsanity - wordpress.org/plugins/imsanity/

or at least use JetPack / Photon

Helpful pluginsMedia Replace - wordpress.org/plugins/enable-media-replace/

Easily replace media - very helpful for PDF files

Simple Image Sizes - wordpress.org/plugins/simple-image-sizes/Allows you to add additional image size options for inserting media

Regenerate Thumbs - wordpress.org/plugins/regenerate-thumbnails/Helpful if you change or add image sizes later

If you have a lot of images, and need to organize by “folder/category”:

Media Assistant - wordpress.org/plugins/media-library-assistant/

Media Library - wordpress.org/plugins/enhanced-media-library/

Other Stuff

Members & RolesIF you will have a Membership site, where people will need to login to view some content:

Members - wordpress.org/plugins/members/Enables role managementAllows you to hide certain pages from non-members

Theme My Login - wordpress.org/plugins/theme-my-login/Provides login screen on front-end; lots of useful features for membership sites

SearchImprove your search box results with:

Relevanssi - wordpress.org/plugins/relevanssi/

JetPack / Omnisearch

Utilitywordpress.org/plugins/bulk-page-creator/

wordpress.org/plugins/post-duplicator/

wordpress.org/plugins/tinymce-advanced/

wordpress.org/plugins/metronet-reorder-posts/

wordpress.org/plugins/black-studio-tinymce-widget/

wordpress.org/plugins/display-widgets/ or JetPack / Widget Display

wordpress.org/plugins/uber-login-logo/

wordpress.org/plugins/wp-config-file-editor/

BONUS!

More for Beginnerscodex.wordpress.org/Getting_Started_with_WordPress

codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Lessons

wordpress.tv/category/wordcamptv/

www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/

www.youtube.com/user/wpbeginner

premium.wpmudev.org/blog/

Tutorialsithemes.com/tutorial/category/wordpress-101/

webdesign.tutsplus.com/courses/a-beginners-guide-to-using-wordpress

www.wp101.com/tutorials/

www.siteground.com/tutorials/wordpress/video/

www.presscoders.com/hd-wordpress-tutorials/

www.lynda.com/WordPress-training-tutorials/330-0.html

www.creativebloq.com/web-design/wordpress-tutorials-designers-1012990

Blogs to Followwww.webworksofkc.com/blog/

kissaskreations.com/category/articles/

www.simplycreativemedia.com/blog/

www.hadeninteractive.com/blog/

thrivenetmarketing.com/blog/

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube !!

Thank You!This Presentation: https://goo.gl/222VVO

Twitter: @inzerillo87

Peter InzerilloThrive Internet Marketingthrivenetmarketing.com

For WordPressKC Meetupwww.meetup.com/wordpresskcwww.wpkansascity.org@WordPressKC facebook.com/WordPressKC