If you are building a WordPress website, it’s important to take care of its security, SEO, maintenance, and overall setup. A well-built WordPress website can be a powerful tool for promoting your business or personal brand online.
However, if your WordPress website is not properly secured, optimized, or maintained, it can quickly become a liability. That’s why it’s important to take the time to learn about WordPress security, SEO, and maintenance best practices before launch.
In this blog post, we have shared an important checklist for WordPress website setup & launch, SEO, maintenance, & security.
Let’s get started!
#1 WordPress setup checklist
Web hosting
One of the most important things to consider while setting up a WordPress website is choosing a reliable web hosting partner. There are many web hosting companies out there, but not all of them are created equal.
Do your research and read reviews to find a web hosting company that will provide you with the features you need at a price you can afford. Once you’ve found a good web hosting company, make sure to choose a WordPress hosting plan that meets your needs.
Website developer or website agency
A website developer or website agency can make or break your WordPress website. They have the ability to take a website from good to great, or from bad to worse. It is important to choose a website developer who you can trust and who has a good track record. A good developer will take the time to understand your needs and wants, and will create a custom website that meets those needs. A bad developer will simply create a generic website that looks like everyone else’s.
Recommended post: 7 Steps to hire the right website design agency in India
WordPress CMS
You must make sure that your website is developed using the latest version of WordPress software. This will ensure that your site is secure and up-to-date with the latest features. WordPress is constantly updating its software, so it is important to keep your site updated as well.
Website themes
Choosing an appropriate theme for your WordPress website is very important for its overall performance. With so many different themes available, it can be difficult to decide which one is right for your site.
There are a few things to consider when making your decision, such as the purpose of your site, the type of content you plan to publish, and your own personal preferences. Taking the time to find the perfect theme will pay off in the long run, so don’t rush into a decision you may later regret.
Website launch checklist
Dummy Texts
Before you launch your WordPress website, it’s important to check if there is any dummy content on your site. This can be easily done by looking for any pages or posts that are titled “Sample Page” or “Hello World.”
If you find any of these, simply delete them and replace them with your own unique and engaging content. By doing this, you’ll ensure that your website is off to a great start!
Broken links
Before launching your WordPress website, it’s a great idea to check for any broken links. This way, you can be sure that all of your content is accessible to your visitors.
Checking for broken links is easy to do and only takes a few minutes. Simply run a search on your website’s URL and look for any 404 errors. If you find any, be sure to fix them before making your site live.
Forms
Before you launch your WordPress website, it’s important to check that all the forms on your site are working correctly. This includes ensuring that there are no form validation errors present. By doing this, you can be sure that your website visitors will have a positive experience when using your forms.
Loading speed
It’s important for you to check your website for its loading speed before you launch.
Your website’s loading speed is important for a number of reasons.
First, it affects your website’s user experience. A slow website can frustrate users and lead them to leave without taking the time to explore your content.
Second, Google takes loading speed into account when ranking websites in its search results. This means that a fast website is more likely to rank higher than a slow one.
Finally, a fast website is also more likely to convert visitors into customers or subscribers.
There are a few ways to check your website’s loading speed. One is to use Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool. This tool will give you a report on your website’s performance, as well as recommendations for how to improve it.
Another option is to use a web hosting service that offers speed tests as part of its package. These tests can help you identify areas where your website needs improvement.
Recommended post: How can Indian web developers repair slow-loading websites?
Indexability
One important thing to check before launching a WordPress website is the robots.txt file. This file helps to control how search engine bots to index and crawl your site. By default, WordPress sets this file to discourage search engines from indexing your site.
However, you may want to change this setting if you want your site to be indexed and crawled by search engines. If you are not sure about the robots.txt and sitemap.xml files, you can consult your website developer and seek his assistance to configure these files for you.
WordPress security checklist
Security plugin
Before you launch your WordPress website, make sure that it has a security plugin enabled. This will help to protect your site from hackers and other malicious activity. There are a number of security plugins available for WordPress, so be sure to choose one that meets your needs.
One of the best security plugins that you can use on your WordPress website is “All in One WP Security”. This plugin can help you to restrict access to the important files of the website, change the admin URL, change the admin username, and so on. Most website developers recommend “All on One WP Security” for better protection of websites.
Recommended post: Why should you hire Indian website developers to secure your WordPress website?
File permissions
Configuring the right file permissions is crucial for every WordPress website. By setting the correct permissions, you can help to ensure that your site is secure and running smoothly. A WordPress developer can assist you in determining the best permissions for your important files. By taking these precautions, you can help to keep your website running safely and efficiently.
The file permissions are restricted to protect a website from hackers.
reCaptcha
reCaptcha can help to secure a WordPress website by providing a way to ensure that only humans are able to access it. By requiring a user to complete a CAPTCHA, which is a test that is designed to be difficult for computers to solve but easy for humans, reCaptcha can help to ensure that only real people are able to access your site. This can help to prevent bots and other automated programs from being able to access your site, which can help to keep it secure.
reCaptcha can help you to protect your WordPress website from spammers.
Stronger passwords
It’s important for every WordPress website to use strong passwords for a number of reasons. First, strong passwords help to keep your site secure by making it more difficult for hackers to guess or brute force their way into your account. Second, strong passwords can help prevent unauthorized access to your account if someone happens to get ahold of your login information. Finally, using strong passwords can also make it easier to recover your account if you happen to forget your password.
WordPress maintenance checklist
Website content
Your WordPress website should be updated regularly to ensure that your content is fresh and engaging for your visitors. Updating your site frequently also helps to keep your search engine rankings high, as new content is often seen as a signal of a well-maintained site. To make sure your site is always up-to-date, consider setting up a content calendar or editorial schedule to plan out your updates in advance.
Backups
It’s very important to back up your website regularly. This way, you can easily restore it if something goes wrong. By backing up your website, you ensure that all your hard work won’t be lost if something unexpected happens.
There are many WordPress plugins that your website developer can use to take backups of the website at frequent intervals.
Upgrading WordPress software
Upgrading WordPress is important for several reasons.
First, newer versions of WordPress include security fixes that older versions do not. This means that if your website is running an older version of WordPress, it may be more vulnerable to attack.
Second, newer versions of WordPress also include new features and functionality that older versions do not have. This means that if you’re not running the latest version of WordPress, you may be missing out on some great new features.
Finally, upgrading WordPress is simply good practice.
Keeping your website up-to-date with the latest version of WordPress helps to ensure that it remains secure and compatible with all the latest plugins and themes. Every professional website developer understands the importance of upgrading the WordPress CMS. Therefore, your developer would always advise you to do it regularly.
Upgrading themes & plugins
Another important thing that you can do to keep your WordPress website secure and running smoothly is to regularly update your themes and plugins. Outdated software can contain security vulnerabilities that hackers can exploit to gain access to your site, so it’s important to keep everything up-to-date. In addition, new versions of themes and plugins often include bug fixes and performance improvements.
So, don’t neglect your website’s maintenance – make sure to keep everything updated!
WordPress SEO checklist
SEO plugin
As a website owner, it is essential to install an SEO plugin to improve your site’s search engine ranking. A plugin like “Yoast SEO” can help you by optimizing your website for the right keywords and phrases. This will help attract targeted audiences to your site and improve your overall ranking.
So, before you even launch your WordPress website, make sure that you have installed an efficient SEO plugin.
Google Analytics
Meta tags
It’s important to make sure all your web pages are optimized with the appropriate meta tags before you launch your website. This will help ensure that your site is properly indexed by search engines and that visitors can find the information they need when they visit your site.
XML sitemaps
If you’re running a WordPress website, it’s important to make sure that you have an XML sitemap installed. XML sitemaps are essential for any website because they help search engines index your pages and content more effectively. Without an XML sitemap, your website may not be properly indexed by search engines, which could hurt your traffic and ranking. A professional website designer would always add an XML sitemap to the website’s prelaunch checklist.
Permalinks
Permalinks are the permanent URLs to your individual weblog posts, as well as categories and other lists of weblog postings. A permalink is what another weblogger will use to refer to your article (or section), or how you might send a link to your story in an e-mail message. The URL to each post should be permanent and never change — hence permalink.
