5 Things to Do After Installing WordPress in SiteGround

SiteGround was previously recommended by the official WordPress.org community (though it no longer holds that endorsement). To install WordPress on your domain using SiteGround’s Site Tools, navigate to the “WordPress > Install & Manage” section. Here, you can choose between installing WordPress with the WordPress Starter add-on (which includes the SiteGround Central plugin) or opting for a basic setup. Regardless of the option you select, WordPress and SiteGround will automatically include several pre-installed items in your setup. Upon logging into the WordPress admin panel for the first time, it’s a good practice to remove any unnecessary additions and customize the setup to suit your preferences.

Cleaning Up WordPress Installation on SiteGround

Keep in mind that you don’t need to delete or modify everything listed below – it depends on your specific needs and how you plan to use your site. However, we’ve included all the essential elements you should review to ensure your site is ready before going live.

1. Check SSL and HTTPS

By default, SiteGround will add SSL to your site after installing WordPress. However, you can check this under “Security > SSL Manager” section in Site Tools. If SSL is not installed, you can get a free Let’s Encrypt SSL for your site.

Even SSL is installed on your site, SiteGround will not add HTTPS to your site URL in WordPress admin dashboard. Go to “Settings > General” and change the “WordPress Address (URL)” and “Site Address (URL)” options to start with https:// instead of http://. Scroll down to bottom of the page and click “Save Changes” button. You will be logged out and login again to start working on your dashboard.

2. Delete Dummy and Unnecessary Content

SiteGround and WordPress both will add a lot of dummy content and follow the below steps to delete them from your site.

• Posts – go to “Posts > All Posts” section, select “WordPress Resources at SiteGround” item. Click on “Bulk actions” dropdown and select “Move to Trash” option. finally, click Apply” button to delete the dummy. If you want to permanently delete it, click the “Trash” button.

• Pages – I noticed SiteGround added “Contact Us” and “WPForms Preview” pages though I did not select WPForms plugin through the Starter setup. You can check any dummy pages are added in your installation and simply delete them if not needed.
• Comments – deleting dummy post will automatically delete the dummy comment added in that post. Otherwise, go to “Comments” section and delete if any other dummy comments are added.
• Themes – go to “Appearance > Themes” section and delete the themes that you do not want to use.
• Plugins – delete WordPress Importer, SiteGround Central and any other unnecessary plugins you have selected through Starter setup. Do not delete Speed Optimizer and Security Optimizer plugins unless you want to install alternate caching and security plugin for your site.

3. Setup Speed Optimizer

Before you start creating content, it is important to setup Speed Optimizer plugin. Not all settings are enabled by default, navigate through sub-menu items in “Speed Optimizer > Dashboard” section and enable required options.

Most importantly, you should enable image compression level and WebP options before start uploading images on your site under “Speed optimizer > Media” section. If you have already uploaded images, then it is possible to compress/convert them in bulk.

4. Setup Security Optimizer Plugin

Similar to Speed Optimizer, you should setup Security Optimizer plugin for changing custom login URL, disable feeds, and other options. Though these options will not affect your site’s content, it is a good idea to protect your site starting from the moment when WordPress is installed.

5. Other Common WordPress Changes

Here are some of the things you should change before publishing posts:

• Change permalink under “Settings > Permalinks” section to define the URL structure for you site.
• Assign a site name, tagline under “Appearance > Customizer > Site identity” (for non-block based themes) and “Themes > Editor” (block themes) section.
• Upload site icon under “Settings > General” section.
• Create a privacy page under “Settings > Privacy” section.
• Assign a home page under “Settings > Reading” section.

Check out the complete checklist for a new WordPress site launch.

Final Words

Once you have finished the above stuffs, your site is kind of ready and you can start building the content. If you imported demo content from your theme, make sure to delete all dummy content the same way as explained above. Once you are ready and published few posts, go to “Settings > Reading” and disable search engine visibility option. Now, search engines can crawl your Sitemap and index the pages to show in search results.