Installing WordPress is easy, the installer is a doddle to use. Once you have installed however, WordPress needs to be shown who’s boss. Listed here are the seven things you need to do the first time you login, straight after installing when you are prompted to login, (just after you print out your UN and PW) these are your must do next moves.

1. Set the time to your local time zone

You do this by clicking on:

–> Settings

http://www.<your-domain-here>/wp-admin/options-general.php

On the General Tab scroll down to the Time Zone section. Alter the pop up to correspond with how far out your time is with the server time

2. Alter your tagline to a good keyword rich slogan

While on the same page as above, in the Tagline section alter ‘Just another WordPress Blog’ to a meaningful keyword rich (but brief) slogan.

3. Alter your permalinks structure

You do this by clicking on:

–> Settings -> Permalinks

http://www.<your-domain-here>/wp-admin/options-permalink.php

Click on the radio button next to ‘Custom Structure’ and type /%postname%/ into the field, this will set up good SEO links based on your blog title.

4. Update your Ping List

You do this by clicking on:

–> Settings -> Writing

http://www.<your-domain-here>/wp-admin/options-writing.php

Your ping list is the list of services that your blog announces itself to when you make a new post, by default you have just one service specified (http://rpc.pingomatic.com/) however I suggest adding these also:

http://audiorpc.weblogs.com/

http://www.imblogs.net/ping/

http://pingoat.com/goat/RPC2/

http://pingqueue.com/rpc/

http://ping.feedburner.com

http://www.bloglines.com/ping

http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2

5. Set your comment options

You do this by clicking on:

–> Settings -> Discussion

http://www.<your-domain-here>/wp-admin/options-discussion.php

Choose your options carefully because these choices configure how you want comments to appear on your blog. These options will also give you email notifications of when a new comment is made.

6. Alter your admin username

You do this by clicking on:

–> Users -> Admin (in the Username column of the Manage Users list)

http://www.<your-domain-here>/wp-admin/users.php

The Admin username can not be altered, and if you blog under that login, your posts are credited as being authored by ‘Admin’. This isn’t ideal, so on this page you have the opportunity of entering your First Name, Last Name and Nick Name, then (once you have saved) you have the options in the pop up menu of being publicly displayed as a variation of your name or nickname. Alter this pop up menu depending on how you want to brand yourself.

7. Activate Akismet plugin

You do this by clicking on:

–> Pugins -> Akismet (click activate then follow the prompts)

http://www.<your-domain-here>/wp-admin/plugins.php

Akismet helps you fight comment spam, it is the default spam fighter plugin but a quick search will find others. Akismet requires an API key from WordPress.com the online version of WordPress. You will need to visit the link that activating Akismet prompts you to and sign up for a free account, make sure you opt for the username only option otherwise you will end up creating an online blog. You will be sent an email with your API key this is a string of numbers and letters approx 12 characters long. Copy and paste this into the Akismet configuration.

You have now completed all the initial steps to setting up a WordPress blog, no doubt you will need to adjust settings in the future but now you can get on and choose your theme and start blogging!