Optimising a WordPress Installation

A fresh and clean WordPress install does work straight out of the box but it isn’t particularly efficient.  To get it working effectively you need to do a few tweaks before you start posting.  Here are a few simple optimisatons to get you started.

Permalinks

The default permalinks settings show the post/page number in the URL Having a descriptive URL is far more useful for your readers and the search engines

To change the permalinks go to:

Dashboard > Settings > Permalinks.

Choose the permalink option you want and update.  If you want a different permalink structure all the options are given in the codex.

Media Location

For some strange reason WP saves all your media by year and month. This results in a long and unnecessary URL for each file. It’s far simpler to put everything in the root media folder.

To make the changes go to:

Dashboard > Settings > Media

Uncheck the ‘sort by’ option and save your settings.

Homepage

A new install will display your latest posts on the homepage. To change the homepage to the page/post of your choice go to:

Dashboard > Settings > Reading

You can now choose which page/post you want as your homepage.

Comments

WordPress allows comments on all pages and posts as standard. To turn comments off go to:

Dashboard > Settings > Discussion

Deselect the ‘allow discussion’ check box and save.

Menus

Unless you create your own menu WordPress will display all your pages in the default menu.

To create your own menu go to:

Dashboard > Appearance > Menus

Create a new menu and save. From the list on the left select what pages you want to appear in the menu and save.

To get the menu to appear on your site use the widget top left to choose the menu to want to appear and (if your theme supports it) where you want to it to appear.

Screen Options

Your dashboard, post and pages all display a post and pages all display a number of screen options which you may or may not need.

Top right on your screen just below your login name is a ‘screen options’ tab. Click on this and turn on or off the options you don’t want displaying.

Plugins

Askimet comes preloaded and will keep your blog comments free from spam. You will need to get yourself an API key but the onscreen instructions are pretty simple to follow.

Delete Hallo Dolly.

If you want to write your one page titles and descriptions and various other tweaks you need an SEO plugin.  There are three main contenders: All-in-one-SEO, Yoast-SEO and Platinum SEO. All three will do the job and there are others, you just need to use the one you like.

If you are unlucky your theme will already have a contact form. Delete this and install a contact form plugin. There are loads to choose form. Contact Form 7 and Custom Contact Forms are popular but not easy to configure or style. The Quick Contact Form is one of the easiest to set up and style and is my favourite..

There you go, the five minute wordpress optimisation post.