Standard Setup of Must-Have Plugins

1. Akismet

Below is the complete installation and setup of Akismet plugin:

• Install Akismet plugin to the site
• Activate and enter the Akismet.com API key
• Select “Always put spam in the Spam folder for review.” on Strictness option

2. BackupBuddy

IMPORTANT! Do not setup Backupbuddy if the site is on development server. Setup BackupBuddy plugin on live sites only.

Below is the complete installation and setup of BackupBuddy plugin:

• Install and activate BackupBuddy plugin to the site
• Go to the Settings > General Settings and set ImportBuddy password
• Scroll down to Local Archive Storage Limits then set the age limit number of backups to 150 days
• Keep 4 full backups and 30 database backup
• On Schedules Settings, schedule weekly complete backup and daily database backup

3. Jetpack

Below is the complete installation and setup of Jetpack plugin:

• Log in to your site’s Dashboard (e.g. http://www.domain.com/wp-admin)
• In the left panel, click “Plugins”, then click “Add New”.
• Search for “Jetpack”
• Click the “Install Now” button.
• Wait for the installation to finish, then click the “Activate” button.
• Click the “Connect to WordPress.com” button. Login with your WordPress.com account or create an account.
• Login with your WordPress.com account (or create one) and click “Authorize Jetpack”
• Click the “Approve” button and wait for the connection process to finish.
• Select Basic plan. You will be returned to your site’s Dashboard and see the message “Your Jetpack site is ready to go!”
• Click “Activate recommended features” (optional)

JetPack Settings

4. Compress JPEG & PNG images

• Visit Plugins > Add New
• Search for ‘tinypng’ and press the ‘Install Now’ button for the plugin named ‘Compress JPEG & PNG images’ by ‘TinyPNG’
• Activate the plugin from your Plugins page
• Go to the Settings > Media page and register a new account
• Or enter the API key you got from https://tinypng.com/developers
• Go to Media > Bulk Optimization and optimize all your images

5. Yoast SEO

• Install Yoast SEO plugin
• Go to Tools and import this file to the Yoast SEO settings – https://goo.gl/NDYU8h
• Go to General > Open the configuration wizard
• Fill in the required information

I. General > Your Info

• Website Name
• Company or person

II. General > Webmaster Tools

• Google Search Console

III. Social > Accounts

• Facebook Page URL
• LinkedIn URL
• Google+ URL

*If not available ask the clients in notes or offer to create it for them

6. Google Analytics

• Access Google Analytics account
• Click Admin on main navigation.

• Click the admin dropdown then select create new account.

• Set account name, website name and website URL the click Get tracking ID button.

• Get the tracking ID.

• • Access WordPress dashboard and install Google Analytics by MonsterInsights plugin
  • Go to Insights > Settings > General.
  • Click Authenticate with your Google account button

• • Paste Google Authentication code

• Paste Google Authentication code
• Select the website

7. Search Console

• Access Google account
• Go to Google Search Console Dashboard
• Click add property.

• Select Website as property type and add the www version of the site.

• Next click the Alternate methods to verify the ownership.

• Select HTML tag on the Alternate methods and copy the content value.

• Access the wordpress site and go to Yoast SEO > Dashboard > Webmaster Tools.

• Paste the code to the Google Search Console Field then click Save changes.

• Go back to Google Search Console then click verify.

• A confirmation message must show up then click continue.

• Go back to Google Console and add the non-www version of the site.

• Click the Alternate methods tab, select HTML tag and click verify.

• On the non-www version of the site, click settings icon and select the option Site Settings.

• Select the non-www on Preferred to domain then click Save.

8. XML Submission

• Access WordPress site
• Go to Yoast SEO > XML Sitemaps > Post types
• Make sure that the XML sitemap functionality is enabled.

• Go to Yoast SEO > XML Sitemaps > General and click the XML Sitemap link.

• Get the XML Sitemap link
• Access Google Console accountm, go to Dashboard > Crawl > Sitemaps.

• Click Add/Test Sitemap button.

• Paste the XML Sitemap link then click submit.

9. WP Fastest Cache plugin

• Visit Plugins > Add New
• Search for ‘WP Fastest Cache’ and press the ‘Install Now’ button for the plugin
• Activate the plugin from your Plugins page.
• Go to the WP Fastest Cache > Settings then check all options except for ‘Don’t show the cached version for logged-in users’ and ‘Don’t show the cached version for desktop to mobile devices’
• Go to CDN settings, enable CDN Photon then select Random CDN URL

10. Wordfence Security plugin

• • Install and activate Wordfence Security plugin.
  • Go to Wordfence options in the side menu and email address to receive alerts.
  • On Basic options, uncheck Enable Live Traffic View.
  • How does Wordfence get IPs: From the drop-down menu, select “Use PHP’s built in REMOTE_ADDR…”.

• • Under Scans to include, select all options.

• • On Login Security Options, set the option same as on the screenshot

11. Monarch plugin

• • Install and activate Monarch plugin.
  • Go Monarch Settings > Social Sharing > Location, then select Inline
  • Go Monarch Settings > Social Sharing > Networks, then add Google, Facebook and Twitter
  • Go Monarch Settings > Social Sharing > Inline, scroll down to post type settings then select Post

• • Access Facebook for Developers account
  • Click Add New App on My Apps button
  • Add Website Title to Display Name field
  • Select approriate category
  • You’ll be redirected to the Dashboard of Apss
  • On Dashboard, click Choose Platform then select Website
  • Scroll down to the page then add Site URL
  • Go back to the App Dashboard then go to Settings > Basic
  • Add the domain to the App Domain field then save changes
  • Go to App Review then select Yes to make the app public
  • Go to Dashboard then get App ID and App Secret key
  • Go to wordpress site, Tools > Monarch Settings then add the
  • App ID and App Secret key

13. AMP and Yoast SEO AMP glue plugin

• Install & activate the AMP plugin and see what the AMP pages look like by adding /amp to the end of each posts.
• Install & activate Yoast SEO AMP glue plugin.
• Go to the SEO > AMP settings menu, design tab, and change the styling to fit website brand.