These are all of the plugins I install and changes I make to get my WordPress installation ready for action:
- After installing WordPress, I immediately chmod everything to be read only
- Then I go to privacy and set the site to be noindex while it is under development
- Then I change the permalink settings to be /postname/
- I then install a theme (lately Elogix) and delete the other remaining themes for security reasons
- Next I install All in One SEO Pack to handle all of the SEO settings. As soon as it’s activated you go to the admin panel where you specify the title and meta description for the homepage. After that is setup, I further customize by noindexing tag pages and setting post and page names to be only /postname/ and not include the blog title as the suffix
- Next I install Bad Behavior. This plugin is a useful tool to combat comment spam as well as other malicious activity. By no means will it protect everything but it’s a robust tool for preventing basic attacks.
- For tracking I prefer to use Web Ninja Google Analytics. This program is more than a code insertion and has some really great features (especially for whitepaper or video sale sites that need event / download tracking).
- Then I install Google XML Sitemaps but don’t build the sitemap until I am ready to go live with the site
Then the next step is to build everything out (removing the Hello World and Sample Page) and then when I’m about to go live, I make the site indexable, build the sitemap in Google XML Sitemaps and register it in Webmaster Tools.
