So, you’ve done it at last! All that hard work and research has paid off and you’ve finally managed to launch your own WordPress website. Now you have a perfect platform for your voice to be heard in the way you always wanted.

There is no time to celebrate much, however. Before you start sharing your content online, there are still some things that you have to sort out first. Without further ado, we offer you a list of things you should take care of post-launch.

1. Manage your admin and other accounts

One of the first things you should do is manage your user accounts. It is important that you change your login name from “admin” to something less obvious. Even if you want to stick to the “admin” theme when choosing your username, make sure that it can’t be easily predicted by adding numbers or random words to it.

Your next step should be creating an account for the sole purpose of writing and editing. If you so please, you can make multiple accounts and assign different roles to users who work with you, such as Editor, Author or Contributor. In this way, you will be able to manage your site more efficiently. You can easily change your admin username and create different accounts by going to wp-admin / Users / Add New.

2. Change basic information of your website

While we’re on the topic of assigning roles and changing usernames, another important thing is to give a proper identity to your website in order to get noticed by Google. The site’s title and tagline should generally be something that illustrates your website’s overall principle. You can easily set everything in wp-admin / Settings / General.

Aside from the things mentioned above, you can also set your time zone and favicon, as well as change your permalink structure. For this, make sure to use something that is simple and represents your content well. Your permalink can be customized if you go to Settings and then Permalinks. Once you’re there, you will have different options to choose from. Though if you ask us, going for Post name option in your URLs is probably your best choice.

3. Check search engine visibility of your website

If you want your site to be visible to search engines, then making sure that your content is indexed by Google is a must. Failing to check this as soon as you launch your website will mean that you won’t come up in search results, which will, in turn, make you invisible to the world. In other words, all your hard work will be in vain.

There is one setting in WordPress that you can access to take care of this. Go to wp-admin, then click on Settings. Once there, choose Reading. Right next to Search Engine Visibility option, uncheck the box named “Discourage search engines from indexing this site”, that is, if it’s not unchecked already.

4. Optimize your website SEO

Another logical step after making sure your website is visible to search engines is to optimize it properly. In a nutshell, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) means a group of processes that increase traffic to your website. However, you shouldn’t expect to have plenty of traffic right from the get-go. After all, this process requires effort, patience and a bit of strategic planning in order to bear results.

There are various online tools and utilities that can aid you in boosting your website ranking and make it stand out from others. One such tool is Yoast, a helpful SEO plugin that, when integrated into WordPress, basically does most of the work for you. All you have to do is let Yoast process your content, then follow its suggestions and apply changes. In this way, your site will surely be one step closer to ranking higher on search engines.

5. Incorporate analytics into your website

If you want to know all there is to know about your website traffic behaviour, you will have to use the help of analytic tools. In this field, there’s no other tool that can do this better than Google Analytics, and the best thing about is that it’s completely free to use. Additionally, there are thorough tutorials out there that will help you add Google Analytics into your website with ease.

Another alternate option is installing one of many available WordPress Google Analytics plugins. We suggest going for some of the top plugins in this category, like MonsterInsights or Analytify.

6. Optimize performance by activating caching

One of the things that you have to pay special attention to is your website’s speed. As much as it is harsh and inconvenient, if your visitors wait too long for your page to load, they will abandon it and most likely not come back.

Luckily, there are ways to prevent this. One of the possible solutions is to activate caching. Basically, this process stores premade HTML version of your website. So next time someone clicks on your homepage, WordPress server doesn’t need to do this, as HTML version will already be prepared. As a result, your page will load faster and your site will have better performance in general. Installing one of the many free caching plugins available will be a good solution for you.

7. Start using CDN

Another thing you can do to optimize your website performance is trying a CDN (Content Delivery Network) service. These services store your website content on different network locations worldwide. Thus, when someone visits your site, your website content will be delivered from the place closest to them. As a result, your page will load much quicker than usual. This will greatly affect both your website traffic and conversions in the long run.

8. Setup backup plugin

In this day and age, backing up your data is the most effective way to prevent malicious hacker attacks, crashing servers and other unfortunate events that can result in the loss of your valuable data.

You can always opt for remote services of backup storage such as Google Drive or Dropbox to do this for you. However, we recommend installing one of the reasonably priced backup plugins available on the web that also have a good rating. These plugins will do all the work in your stead, so you won’t have to worry about this issue at all and just focus on getting your name out there.

9. Secure your website

We really cannot stress enough how important website security is. Even though WordPress is a secure platform overall, one can never be too careful.

That’s why the most basic thing you have to do for your website’s protection is to create a strong password. The significance of having a solid password for your website is immeasurable.

Additionally, you may consider trying one of online WordPress security services, like Succuri or Wordfence, in order to provide extra safety to your website and effectively shield it from harm.

10. Set up front and blog pages

Originally, WordPress was created with an idea to be a blogging platform. This is why there is a default setting that shows the most recent blog posts on your homepage. But these days, plenty of businesses use WordPress for their website, so it’s not really practical for them to have blog posts on the front page.

This option can be easily changed in WordPress. First, you need to create a static front page by clicking on Pages section in your Dashboard and then selecting Add New. After choosing your name, click on Publish. Then, find the option that will change settings for the page you just created. For this, you should click on Settings and then select Reading. From here on, simply choose static page option from the drop-down menu and save your changes.

11. Promote your new site

Finally, after all that hard work, it’s time for some promotion of your brand new website. Spreading the word about your website’s launch on social media is the key here. Nowadays, the most effective way to do so is through popular social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and others.

Try connecting with people who have large followings, as this will be of immense help in bringing more traffic to your website. Make sure that you ask your friends and acquaintances to share the news as well. You will need all the promotion you can get to make a successful starting point for your online business or blog. So go ahead and do everything in your power in order to get your new website noticed!

Conclusion

Preparing new website entails effort, even after a successful launch. That’s why we’ve created this list to give you an idea of where to start and what should be essential for setting up your online business or blog.

Hopefully, we have managed to make things a bit easier for you. In any case, we wish you luck with your website launch and hope all your spent effort will bear fruitful results for your website!