Blog Setup & Optimization Checklist

So you’re ready to unleash your awesome blog onto the world. [Or at least, you're thinking seriously about it.] Congratulations!

Here’s a checklist of things that I offer to help you along the way. I share this list with you because I burned up a lot of time and energy figuring these things out, and then banging on the elements until I got them to work. Hopefully I can help make the process more efficient for you. This article is more of an overview of the essentials, rather than a nuts-and-bolts how-to guide (of which there are countless great resources out there).

- CHOOSE THE BEST BLOG PLATFORM: I suggest you use Wordpress. WP offers so much flexibility, and there’s such an aura of innovation around it (oceans of templates and galaxies of plugins that modify the design and extend the functionality in countless ways), so I’m confident that you’ll be as delighted with it as I am. And the good news is that you don’t have to be a tech god/dess to create a beautiful, well-designed site. If you’re a total n00b (as I was recently), I recommend reading this Wordpress article, “Installing Wordpress,” which gives a great step-by-step guide to getting up and running into the blogosphere.

- HOST IT Of course, you’ll also need a reliable web host. I recommend 1and1, which I’ve been using for many years, and I’ve had a great experience with them. Click here to set up a new 1and1 hosting account. If you do choose 1and1 as your host, here’s a great tutorial that walks you through setting up your MySQL database and getting your Wordpress blog online.

- NAMING: A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but for blogs, make sure its name clearly communicates the essence of what you have to communicate to the world. That’s a tall order, and it’ll probably change over time, but I suggest starting out with a name that is clear and to-the-point… which will help you down the road, when we get to SEO. This goes both for the blog name and the description.

- USE A BLOG TEMPLATE: This will get you up and running quickly, and will enable you to spring-board off the design and coding work of experts who want nothing more than the satisfaction of knowing that you enjoy using their designs. Once you’ve installed the template, you can then modify it as you wish (if you wish), or just use it as-is. I used the beautiful, sleek “Equilibrium” template, designed by that rockin’ London designer, Tudinh Duong of “Made By On”.

- ANALYZE IT: Google Analytics is waiting to be your good friend, if you’re not already bosom buddies (heh-heh). I highly recommend the Google Analytics for Wordpress plugin (which is certainly one of my favorite WP plugins), as it bridges your blog stats with Google Analytics, so that you can mine your data in countless ways. I need to include this caveat, though: I had a challenge getting this plugin properly configured, but was able to Google my way through. Once your blog is live and Google Analytics is properly configured, you’ll be able to monitor the overall traffic of your blog, which of your posts are the most popular, what the bounce rates are, and many other illuminating facts. [If you're included to geek hard, I recommend the Analytics App for your iPhone, which works like a charm and puts all the data of Google Analytics at your fingertips, wherever you happen to be.]

- TWEET IT: I’ll bet you’re already using Twitter. If not, you’ve certainly heard about it. Twitter helps resolve the big problem small self-publishers like us (who aren’t riding in big promotion vehicles), helps you connect with an audience of people who are interested in what you have to say, some of whom know you personally, many of whom only know you virtually. This is done by building trust, and by consistently delivering information that’s on-message with what you’re about – both through your tweets and through your blog posts. Use one of the many WP Twitter plugins to connect your blog with Twitter, so that it’s easy for people to tweet your posts, using the “Tweet This” plugin (which you can see in action at the bottom of this post), and to read your Twitter timeline embedded in your blog, using Twitter’s own widget (which you can find here, and which you can see in action on the “Twitter” icon hanging off the left of this page).

- PUBLISH GREAT CONTENT: Oh yeah… that! Remember that saying, “Content is king”? Content that inspires, that’s on-message, that speaks to the essence of the situation – people can’t get enough of that stuff. [Boring, rambling, stupid stuff, on the other hand - who has time for that shit? Not you. Not me either.] Meditate on the question of how you can serve others with your blog. What can you share that helps fulfill a need… for inspiration? for information? for community? There’s a deep, mysterious universe within you that, when expressed, feeds the hungry world. Share that.

- KEEP IT REAL: This one probably belongs in the previous section, but I think it deserves to stand alone, because it’s so important. As denizens of the 21st century media-rich world, we’ve all developed uncanny bullshit detectors. If you’re fronting, pretending to be something you’re not, or out of your depth, the world will sniff it out. And although people might be amused, they’ll almost certainly head elsewhere… quickly!

- BUILD & PUBLISH YOUR SITEMAP: Once your blog is up and running, you’ll want to make sure that the search engines know about it, and that it looks friendly and intelligible to them. That’s where the sitemap comes in. I recommend using the Google XML Sitemap plugin; it’s a snap to setup, and it enables you to publish your sitemap to Google (and the others) in one quick click.

- CREATE HUMAN-FRIENDLY URLs: Why this doesn’t happen by default on WP blogs puzzles me. By default, your WP blog posts will have URLs that look like this: www.yourblog.com/?p=449. Not very inviting to the eye. Fortunately, there’s an easy fix built inside the WP admin panel. Go to “Settings” / “Permalinks” and in “Common Settings,” click the “Month and Name” radio button. This will make your URLs look like this: www.yourblog.com/2009/04/your-groovy-article-name. Much better!

- SEO IT: We all know the importance of SEO… but if you’re like me, then you don’t how all that works, exactly. Fortunately, there are resources to help. Check out this list, “10 SEO Tips for Wordpress Websites.” Photoshelter’s SEO Cookbook, a free 30-page eBook that explains SEO in depth. In terms of actually implementing SEO, there’s a great Wordpress Plugin that I use called the “All In One SEO Pack”, which I highly recommend. [My photographer friend, John Lund, whose brother is a SEO expert, recently quipped that "The best way to get Google to think your site is relevant is to show them relevant content." Which brings us back to the central issue that valuable content will always be king.]

- KISS: Keep It Simple, Sweetheart! It takes a lot of work to be simple. Remember how radical and refreshing Google’s website was when you first saw it, ages ago? I do. Back in those days of the young web, cluttered websites, crammed full of blinking, flashing crap, was the norm. Google’s clean, minimalist design was a total game-changer… because it met our need for simplicity, while trying to navigate the growing complexity of the web. There are opportunities to bring the superpower of simplicity to all levels of your blog, from graphic design, to the site structure, to the way you write. Cut the clutter, zap the fluff, and we’ll all appreciate you for it.

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions about how to do things better than I’ve recommended, please drop some chars in the “Comments” box, and we’ll use this a forum for omni-directional dialogue. I’d love to hear from you, and I encourage commenters to communicate with each other as well.

Once you’ve launched your tricked-out, SEO-pimpin’ blog, be sure to email me an announcement. I’m eager to see what you create. Now go do it, champ! The sky is no limit!