What You Need to Do After You’ve Installed WordPress

I remember installing WordPress for the first time and just staring at the dashboard, genuinely unsure what to click first. I ended up publishing three posts before I even changed my permalink structure, which is exactly the kind of thing you want to fix before Google indexes anything.

Here’s the bottom line: the steps you take right after installing WordPress set the foundation for everything you build on top of it, from SEO to site speed to how professional your blog actually looks. In this post, I’m walking through exactly what to do first, in order, so you’re not backtracking to fix basic setup issues later.

Why the Steps Right After Installing WordPress Matter

The setup steps you complete right after installing WordPress matter because several of them, like your permalink structure and SSL setup, are far harder to change cleanly once you’ve already published content. Skipping these early means going back later to fix broken links, missing security or SEO issues that could have been avoided from day one.

This matters because search engines and readers both form early impressions of your site’s structure, and getting the foundation right the first time directly increases the odds your early posts are indexed and structured correctly from the start.

What to Do Immediately After Installing WordPress

There are eight essential steps to work through right after installing WordPress, and doing them in order saves you from having to fix avoidable issues later. Before you start: you’ll need admin access to your WordPress dashboard and your hosting login on hand.

1. Delete the default content, including the “Hello World” sample post, the default page, and any placeholder comments
2. Set your permalink structure in Settings, choosing a clean, keyword-friendly format such as post name, before you publish anything
3. Enable SSL and confirm HTTPS is active across your entire site, since this affects both security and search rankings
4. Choose and install your WordPress theme, keeping page speed in mind alongside design
5. Install essential plugins covering SEO, security, caching and contact forms
6. Create your key pages, including About, Contact and a Start Here page for new readers
7. Connect Google Search Console and Analytics so you can track indexing and traffic from the very beginning
8. Set up automated backups through your host or a backup plugin, before you have content worth losing

Which Plugins Do You Actually Need First?

New WordPress sites need four core plugin categories covered before anything else: SEO, security, caching and forms. Everything beyond these four can generally wait until your site is live and you’ve identified a specific gap.

Choosing a WordPress Theme and Template That Fits

Your WordPress theme sets the foundation for every page template you build afterwards, so it’s worth choosing one that’s both fast and flexible rather than the flashiest option available. A lightweight theme built on a proper framework, paired with a page builder if needed, will generally outperform a heavier, feature-loaded theme on both speed and long-term flexibility.

Since this decision affects nearly every page you’ll create afterwards, it’s worth testing your shortlisted theme on a single page before committing your full site design to it, so any speed or compatibility issues surface early.

None of these steps take long individually, it’s skipping them that causes the real headache later. Work through the list in order, and your blog will have a proper foundation before your first post even goes live.