Recipe 009: Set up a WordPress site or blog that will scale
Follow this recipe only if you want to do your future self a favor today. It covers all the important bits and pieces that you will need in order to sustainably grow your business.
Last Updated / Reviewed: 09/24/2023
🚀 Goal: To set up the basic WordPress foundations that any Wordpress website should have.
🤔 Why this is important: The steps covered in this recipe will allow you to grow your business sustainably, increasing your traffic, allowing you to install more tools, recover from security issues, and keeping your site fast as it grows.
🗓️ When this is done: Only once per WordPress installation.
👨 Who does this: Your webmaster, or the person responsible for web development.
__⚠️Prerequisites or requirements: __You need to have a WordPress blog already running, and you’ll need administrator access to it.
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Step 1 - Set up an SEO-friendly Wordpress configuration
Click here to view this SOP 008: Initial WordPress setup (web version)
Outcome: Yoast is installed and configured, and your website is using the ideal permalink and homepage structure.
Special instructions: If your Wordpress blog already has indexed blog posts, skip the “Set Up Permalinks” section and instead replace that section with SOP 050: Migrating an existing WordPress website towards SEO-friendly URLs (web version).
Step 2 - Add Google Tag Manager to your Site
Click here to view this SOP 004: Add Google Tag Manager to a WordPress Site (web version)
Outcome: Google Tag Manager is installed on your website.
Step 3 - Implement a backup solution
Click here to view this SOP 053: How to backup and restore your WordPress website (web version)
Outcome: UpdraftPlus is installed on your WordPress site and periodically generating automated backups.
Special instructions: You can skip the “Creating a Manual Backup” and the “Restoring from a Backup” sections of that SOP.
Step 4 - Speed Up your Wordpress Website
Click here to view this SOP 058: How to Optimize WordPress to Speed Up your Website (web version)
Outcome: You have gone through all the steps and you have optimized every aspect of your WordPress website covered in that SOP.