One of the ways to spend more time doing High Yield Internet Marketing activities is to systemize.

And one of the tools many of us use is WordPress. It makes sense to have a default “WordPress Installation Checklist” that you or your team can refer to each and every time you put up a new site. This way nothing is forgotten, you always have the links to download the correct plugins and there’s little ambiguity and therefore less room for mistakes.

I use Basecamp to organize progects, and within Basecamp there is the functionality to create “To-Do List Templates” that can be used over and over again.

Today I’m sharing my personal WordPress installation checklist – this is geared towards internet marketers building content-type sites. We go through each and every step on this list when installing a new site. It’ll produce a wordpress site that’s got it going on in terms on on-page optimization and is ready to grow. Add content and you’re up and running.

WORDPRESS TUTORIAL FOR INTERNET MARKETERS

• WordPress installed
• Unique theme installed (not the WordPress default theme)
• In WP Settings —> General make these changes: Site Title = Main KW, Site Description = Description including main KW. Email should be youremail@email.com. Timezone = YourTimezone.
• In Posts —> Categories, change the default “Uncategorized” category to the main KW phrase. Then do a Wonder Wheel search and find the other categories to add.
• In WP Settings —> Permalinks change it to Custom Structure, use /%category%/%postname%/
• In WP Settings —> Discussion change it so an admin must always approve a comment and that it will never email me. Do not allow pingbacks & trackbacks.
• Remove all default Blogroll links from Dashboard
• Google Analytics installed & configured w/ http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-analytics-for-wordpress/
• Mobile version enabled & configured w/ http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wptouch/
• Multiple languages enabled & configured w/ http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/global-translator/
• Akismet installed & activated (key is XXXXXX)
• All In One SEO Pack installed & configured w/ http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/
• Caching installed / enabled w/ http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-super-cache/
• Captcha for comments enabled w/ http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/si-captcha-for-wordpress/
• Related posts displaying at the bottom of individual post pages w/ http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/yet-another-related-posts-plugin/
• Facebook “Like” button installed
• Archives page built ( linked to in sidebar w/ Sitemap ) using http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/clean-archives-reloaded/
• Post Plugin Library installed @ http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/post-plugin-library/ (Does nothing by itself, it’s used for Popular Posts & Random Posts plugins)
• Popular Posts plugin installed w/ http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/popular-posts-plugin/ .  Use sidebar widget to show 5-10 popular posts.
• Random Posts plugin installed w/ http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/random-posts-plugin/ – use same settings as Popular Posts Plugin. Install sidebar widget to show 5-10 Random Posts.
• Psychic Search plugin installed & activated from: http://www.maxblogpress.com/plugins/ps/
• Install SEO Booster Lite: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/seo-booster-lite/ – add SEO Bootster widget to the sidebar, title it something like, “Recently Searched”
• Install & activate SEO friendly images @ http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/seo-image/ – in it’s setting, check both “Override” boxes to override WP defaults
• Install & activate SEO Smart Links @ http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/seo-automatic-links/
• Install & activate To Title Case: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/to-title-case/
• User sitemap built w/ http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/sitemap-generator/ . Link to the sitemap at the bottom of the sidebar.
• Google XML Sitemap installed, configured, built w/ http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-sitemap-generator/
• URL & XML Sitemap added to my Google Webmaster Tools account
• Adsense displaying w/ http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-adsense-and-ypn/ (Adsense ID xxxxxxxxxx). Set to show 2 ads per page, 1 ad per individual post, use default colors, random positioning, 15px spacing. Sizes: 200×200 250×250 300×250 336×280
• Add 160 x 600 px sidebar Adsense ad at the top of the sidebar, above everything else in default colors

Although you’re welcome to borrow this checklist from me, many folks have individual setup/plugin preferences (such as Platinum SEO vs. All In One SEO Pack).  I encourage you to personalize your own WordPress tutorial checklist to reflect your favorites!

Sometimes when we think we’re missing information, we’re really just missing a plan. This framework should get you headed in the right direction.

Let me know in the comments how you’d personalize this checklist!