You've got this- now what?

If you’ve finally taken the plunge and gotten your first self-hosted WordPress blog installed, figuring out exactly what to do next can be a bit daunting. Obviously, you want to start writing and posting as quickly as you can so you don’t just have the Hello, World post on your site, but there are a few steps you should take first to put your new WordPress blog on the road to success. Please note that while some of these tips may work on wordpress.com (free) blogs, this article is about self-hosted Wordpress.org blogs.

1. Change Your Permalinks Structure

No matter what the topic of your blog may be, one of the things you’re inevitably going to want is some traffic. Everyone knows that search engines are one of the best ways to drive traffic. Fortunately, WordPress is one of the best tools out there for getting noticed and indexed quickly by search engines. Google loves WordPress blogs, no doubt about it.

To get the most out of WordPress SEO, though, the first thing you’ll want to do is change the default URL structure of your posts. Initially, WordPress just lists the post number in the URL instead of the post title. For SEO purposes, you want your keywords in the URL whenever possible. To change the default setup to something Google will like:

• Go to Settings->Permalinks. If your blog’s content is time-sensitive (like commentary on news or your life), select Day and Name or Month and Name. It doesn’t really matter which of these you select. However, if your blog is going to provide content that’s not particularly time-sensitive (like WordPress tips or marketing advice), you should consider choosing Custom Structure and entering in: /%category%/%postname%/. This includes your category in the URL, which can give you some added SEO benefit of having more keywords in there. This method isn’t necessary for everybody, but can be very helpful if SEO is extremely important to you.

2. Install Some Plugins

Plugins are a WordPress user’s best friend. There are so many amazing and useful plugins that I couldn’t possibly list them all here, but there are a few that I immediately install on every blog I run.

• Akismet- Turn it on as soon as you can (which requires an API key from a Wordpress.com account). It’s amazing how quickly spammers will find your blog, so the sooner you get spam protection in place, the better.
• All in One SEO Pack- This plugin lets you fine-tune some aspects of WordPress SEO, letting you get even more out of the already impressive SEO benefits of WordPress. You can control important information and page name structure all the way down to the individual post level.
• Google XML Sitemap- Submitting a sitemap to Google is one of the best ways to quickly get indexed and let Google know what’s on your site. This plugin does that for you automatically, including updating Google with a new version every time you post. If you don’t have any incoming links to your site yet that Google can use to find you, this plugin can be a lifesaver.
• Google Analytics For WordPress- No matter what kind of blog you’re running, you should get a free account at Google Analytics and start keeping track of how many visitors you’re getting, where they’re coming from, and a lot more. There are a bunch of plugins like this, but basically you just need something that will easily insert your Analytics tracking code into your blog so you can use Analytics. Google Analyticator is another good option.
• Some Kind of Social Bookmarking Plugin- Make sure your readers can share your content with other people! There are a ton of these plugins available, including ShareThis, Add to Any, Sociable, Sexy Bookmarks, and many more. Check out a few different ones and see which one has the look and options you like.

3. Edit the About Page

One thing I’ve noticed after launching a number of blogs is that as soon as you start getting traffic, people will start clicking through to your About page to learn more about who’s writing the site. This is especially the case early on, when you don’t have a lot of other content they can read to get to know you. Besides talking about yourself or what the site will eventually be, I recommend giving people a way to contact you that won’t generate a ton of spam. Whatever you do, don’t put a clickable email address on the page, unless you’re interested in buying some generic drugs.

One option that works well and looks professional, but takes a bit of time to configure, is using a forms plugin like Cforms or Contact Form 7. They can be a bit confusing to set up at first, but will look great on your site and give you a lot more functionality than just receiving plain emails from readers.

4. Start Watching Your Traffic

No matter what kind of blog you’re running, get a free account at Google Analytics and start keeping track of how many visitors you’re getting, where they’re coming from, and a lot more. There are a bunch of plugins that can do this, but basically you just need something that will easily insert your Analytics tracking code into your blog so you can use Analytics. Two of my favorites are Google Analytics For WordPress and Google Analyticator.

5. Time to Get a New Theme

As exciting as the default WordPress theme is (just kidding), you should find a new theme for your blog as quickly as you can. I would really recommend doing this before you create any content, since you don’t really want to bring people to a site that looks like the WordPress default. You might be taken for a spam blogger if it looks like you have a site with content but no personality.

Depending on whether you’re willing to spend money on your blog right away, you’ll need to decide whether to use one of the thousands of free themes available (just another great benefit of WordPress) or shell out some cash for a paid theme. While there are many great free themes, paid themes have several benefits that at least make them worth considering.

For one, since not nearly as many people pay for themes, your blog will immediately have less look-alikes out there than if you’re using a free one. You’ll also likely get support from the developer if you have problems with the theme, and are more likely to get updates to the theme that reflect improvements and updates to WordPress. Most of the really great paid themes I’ve seen are less than $100, so you still wouldn’t be spending nearly as much as you would on traditional website design.

For free themes, the sheer selection can be overwhelming. Some good places to start looking are WPHacks, TopWPThemes, and one of my personal favorites, Smashing Magazine. Some professional designers also offer a few free themes in among their paid ones, like WooThemes.

There’s plenty more you can do to make your site great, but if you spend an hour or two getting these pieces in place first, you’ll be way ahead of the game. What are your first steps or shortcuts you take when setting up a WordPress blog? Any important plugins I missed? Leave a comment!