Launching a WordPress site can be exciting, but it may also come with a lot of questions, such as “now what?”
Once you launch your site, it’s officially available for all the world to see, which is excellent! You can now use your WordPress site to continue working towards your goal, whether it be a blog, business, e-store, portfolio, service, or any other endeavor.
If you’ve already created a website before, you may be aware of some general things to do after launching WordPress site. If it’s your first time, or if you want to ensure that you’ve optimized your site from the get go, this article is for you.
There are a handful of vital things to do after launching WordPress site, and we’ve created this article to help you navigate the time immediately after your site has gone live. The following 10 items will help you to get your WordPress site more traffic and also keep you safe, among many other things.
Let’s get started!
1. Make sure you're visible to search engines
The first of various things to do after launching WordPress site is to ensure that Google has indexed it. You need your site to be visible to search engines like Google so that it can be discovered by those who are searching for related content.
It’s not uncommon for WordPress to set this up automatically after it's installed, so it may not really be one of the things to do after launching WordPress site, but you should always double check to make sure. This helps to avoid snags later on and that you don’t waste any time in getting your site visible to search engines.
In order to check this, you can visit your WordPress admin dashboard. Navigate to Settings > Reading, and then look for Search Engine Visibility which appears towards the bottom of the page.
Ensure that the box “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” is left unchecked.
2. Integrate your site with Google Analytics
The second on our list of things to do after launching WordPress site is to get your site set up with Google Analytics. A tracking and marketing tool that all website owners should use, Google Analytics can help you to better understand what’s happening on your website.
Wondering how to use Google Analytics? You can track your website traffic, audience behaviors, and much, much more. There are intricate details about all things related to your website: most viewed pages, number of visits per day, where visitors are located, in-depth user profiles, bounce rates, conversion rates, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
While it should be on your list of things to do after launching WordPress site, you may not see much at the beginning, but learning to use it early on can help you later.
You can use Google Analytics to measure customer engagement, optimize your site experience, measure data on multiple platforms, increase conversions, among others, so becoming familiar with it will set you up for success as your site continues to get traffic.
It’s a free tool and can be easily integrated with your WordPress site via the embed code that Google provides, or you can use a plugin like Google Analytics by MonsterInsights to set it up.
3. Activate caching
This can be detrimental and cause your bounce rate to go way up. A study about bounce rate by Google shows that when a site load time goes from 1 sec to 3 sec, it increases bounce probability by 32%. It’s a big deal.
If you’re looking for ways to increase load time, one of the first things to do after launching WordPress site is to activate caching. You can install a caching plugin for WordPress or check out the offerings from your WordPress hosting provider.
Some of the most popular caching plugins include W3 Total Cache or WP Rocket.
Caching is a bit complex in terms of how it works, but the basic idea is that it processes information that is most commonly requested, stores it in a temporary memory, and then serves it to users without having to generate it again directly from the server.
This saves time and increases your WordPress site speed, so it should definitely be one of the first things to do after launching WordPress site if you want to increase your loading speeds right out of the gate.
4. Get yourself a CDN
If you want to continue to optimize your site speed and make sure that it can be accessed seamlessly from around the world, another one of the things to do after launching WordPress site is to use a Content Delivery Network, or CDN.
A CDN stores your site information on servers around the world, allowing visitors to access it from servers that are closer to them.
Most web hosts provide a CDN, but if you don’t have the support you need or are looking for alternative options, you can look at different CDNs from third parties including MaxCDN (now StackPath), Amazon CloudFront, and CloudFlare).
5. Install a backup plugin
You also want to make sure that you keep your content safe and easy to recover if something goes wrong. The fifth item on our list of things to do after launching WordPress site is to check out the backup support from your hosting provider and install your own backup plugin for WordPress.
You always want to have your own copy of your site just in case you need to restore it for whatever reason. This is incredibly invaluable to your WordPress site!
One of the best options on the market right now is the Personal subscription for the Jetpack plugin. You can access this for under $5 per month. You’ll get daily backups, spam filtering, a 30-day backup archive, and one-click restores.
6. Improve the security of your site
Unfortunately there are numerous bad things that can happen to your WordPress site, such as a hacker attack, virus, malware, among others. If you want to protect your site from this type of thing, the next priority in things to do after launching WordPress site is to install a firewall.
One of the most respected on the market is Sucuri; its WordPress security services provide malware detection and cleanup, monitors for hacks, and much more.
Some free options include Wordfence Security or iThemes Security. Jetpack will also work here if you pick a higher plan, which is a great option if you already use it for backups.
7. Set up Google Search Console
Another must-have of your things to do after launching WordPress site is to set up Google Search Console (GSC). This will allow you to optimize your site’s SEO and give you insight into any problem areas of your site structure.
You’ll be able to learn about things like the health of your internal link structure, sitemap problems, popular keywords, indexing status of your site, external links that point to your site, crawl stats and errors, and a wide range of other things.
Start getting familiar with Google Search Console now; just like Google Analytics, it will be a lifesaver later!
8. Change your logins
It seems like an odd item on the list of things to do after launching WordPress site— your logins are brand new, so why change them?
You have to make sure that your passwords are strong enough to withstand software and bots that try to hack into sites with password attempts.
Here are some ways to make sure your login details are strong:
- Create a new profile for all editing purposes— don’t give out your own WordPress password. On your WordPress dashboard, simply navigate Users > Add New.
- Limit login attempts before site is locked down; use a plugin such as WP Limit Login.
- Use safe and complex passwords
Store your login data with LastPass.
9. Change your site's basic information
We’re nearing the end of things to do after launching WordPress site, so you’re almost ready to get out there and take the internet by storm! In order to do so, make sure that you change your site’s basic information.
Customize the site’s title, tagline, and time zone for optimal SEO. Navigate to Settings > General to change these items.
You can also confirm the email address linked to your site.
The next of things to do after launching WordPress site, and an important one, is to change your permalinks structure. This is what will appear to users as the web URL of your posts and pages.
The best option is Post name, so navigate to Settings > Permalinks, select it, and save changes.
10. Create a sitemap.xml file
Last but not least, you should create a sitemap.xml file. This file lists all of your website URLs and Google uses it to understand the organization of your site and what information can be found there. This aids Google in indexing your site.
Creating this sitemap is easy with the Google XML Sitemaps plugin.
Conclusion
Congrats! You’ve made it through all the things to do after launching WordPress site. Those are all of the 10 recommendations to start your site off on the right foot and set yourself up for success.
If you’ve got your site set up and still aren’t feeling comfortable with your WordPress theme or WordPress hosting provider, you can consider changing those as well.
There are tons of WordPress plugins and many other things to do after launching WordPress site if you so choose, but be careful and make sure that the plugin is safe and optimized for WordPress.
What questions do you have now that your WordPress site is launched? Let us know in the comments!
