WordPress Checklist

Inspired by

• https://github.com/SteadfastCollective/wordpress-going-live-checklist
• https://github.com/douglasanro/wordpress-live-site-checklist
• https://github.com/janikvonrotz/wordpress-checklist
• https://github.com/douglasanro/wordpress-seo-checklist
• https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/checklist-11-things-to-do-before-launching-a-wordpress-site/
• https://capsicummediaworks.com/killer-wordpress-checklist/
• https://premium.wpmudev.org/blog/ultimate-wordpress-security-checklist/
• https://makeawebsitehub.com/wordpress-website-checklist/
• https://wpengine.com/es/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/WP-EBK-PreLaunchCheck-Torque-v05-PUB.pdf

Backend

• Use latest WordPress version
• Change admin username
• Set correct admin's email
• Enable two-factor authentication
• Limit login attempts
• Delete unused plugins (Hello Dolly, etc.)
• Delete unused themes
• Disable pingbacks and trackbacks
• Delete all Lorem Ipsum posts, pages and comments
• Delete empty pages without content
• Update admin's last name and first name
• Add favicon
• Enable site to be crawled (Settings -> Reading)
• Configure the permalinks settings
• Use SEO friendly urls
• Disable WP_DEBUG
• Place define( 'DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT', true ) in the wp-config.php file
• Delete wp-config-sample.php file
• Delete readme.txt file
• Delete xmlrpc.php file (https://www.iplocation.net/defend-wordpress-from-ddos)
• Check 404 page HTTP status
• Test search page (https://domain.tld/?s=query)
• Check loading speed
• Check robots.txt file
• Prevent directory access
• Delete install & upgrade files (/wp-admin/install.php, /wp-admin/upgrade.php)
• Ensure file permissions are correct
• Hide login error messages
• Check broken links
• Add "Privacy Policy" and "Terms and Conditions" pages
• Ensure you've set WordPress secret authentication keys
• Check RSS feeds
• Implement cookie warning

Plugins

Akismet

• Get free license

WordPress SEO by Yoast

• Generate XML sitemap
  • Remove tags from sitemap
  • Don't index image attachment pages
  • Send sitemap to search engines
• Provide Open Graph meta tags
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
• Test Facebook sharing
• Test Twitter sharing
• Test VK sharing

Broken Link Checker

WP Super Cache

Contact Form 7

• Check all forms are working correctly

Mistape

BackWPup

• Create a backup

Wordfence Security – Firewall & Malware Scan

Server

• Install Let's Encrypt certificate
• Check SSL certificate health daily
• Test redirect from HTTP to HTTPS
• Test redirect from www to non-www domain
• Is external monitoring enabled?
• Are Yandex.Disk backups enabled?
• Are Amazon backups enabled?

Services

• Add Google Analytics
• Add Google Webmasters
• Add sitemap to Google Webmasters
• Set up non-www https as the preferred domain
• Add Yandex.Metrika
• Add Yandex.Webmaster
• Add sitemap to Yandex.Webmaster
• Add ManageWP
• Try subscribing to a newsletter (with MailChimp widget, etc.)