I’ve launched many a blog in my day.\u00a0 So many, in fact, that I’ve got the whole procedure down to a science.\u00a0 With every launch comes the inevitable grab-bag of tweaks, hacks and plugin installations that have been refined and remastered over time.<\/p>\n
Every blog is different, they’re like snowflakes – it’s beautiful.\u00a0 But these are the tweaks that I use on every <\/em>blog I launch.\u00a0 I believe these to be universally beneficial, regardless of the site… provided said site is WordPress powered.<\/p>\n Having an RSS feed is a really important – nay, vital – component of any blog.\u00a0 Few things are as flattering as someone liking your site enough to subscribe to your posts.\u00a0 The problem is, with traditional RSS feeds you won’t know if that has happened.<\/p>\n With Feedburner<\/a>, not only can you monitor your subscribers, but you can embed social network links, a comment counter and advertising into your feed if so desired.<\/p>\n Comment spam is a plague to most bloggers and a near impossible battle to win without a spam blocker installed.\u00a0 Luckily, there are a number of plugins for WordPress users.\u00a0 I use Akismet<\/a> myself, but have heard good things about Bad Behavior<\/a> and Wp-SpamFree<\/a>.<\/p>\n For whatever reason, the wonderful folks at WordPress thought we would want our permalinks to be littered with question marks and numeric post ID’s.\u00a0 This is so very unfriendly to both search engines and<\/em> humans.\u00a0 Thankfully there is a quick fix for this problem:<\/p>\n As a website owner you want to make things as easy for Google as you possibly can.\u00a0 Installing a sitemap is like giving Google a cheat sheet for indexing your site.\u00a0 You do want Google to index your site, don’t you?<\/p>\n I use the plugin Google (XML) Sitemaps Generator<\/a>.\u00a0 With a name like that you know <\/em>it was created by a hardcore programmer.\u00a0 And don’t forget to submit your sitemap to Google<\/a> when you’re finished.<\/p>\n I am so grateful that I’ve never actually had to restore a crashed site, but you can never be too careful.\u00a0 There’s a great plugin called WordPress Database Backup<\/a> that does all the tricky work for you.\u00a0 Once a week (or daily, if preferred) this plugin compiles a backup of my blog and emails me the file.\u00a0 The future is now.<\/p>\n I’m sure everyone has their own preference when it comes to their blog’s statistics.\u00a0 Myself, I’m partial to Google Analytics<\/a>.\u00a0 If I’m feeling particularly adventurous I’ll double it up with the WP-Stats<\/a> plugin if only to get stats as they happen in real time.\u00a0 I’m sort of a stats junkie.<\/p>\n For further reading on statistic software check out this awesome article<\/a> from Outlaw Design Blog.<\/p>\nSetup a Feedburner Account<\/h4>\n
Install a Comment Spam Blocker<\/h4>\n
SEO Your Permalinks<\/h4>\n
\n
Setup a Sitemap<\/h4>\n
Automate Your Database Backups<\/h4>\n
Setup Stats<\/h4>\n
Even More SEO<\/h4>\n