WordPress website initial setup

My notes (checklist) on stuff I do when building a new WordPress website. Inteneded for my own use, but if it helps anyone else – cool. A lot of this overlaps with my article: “Initial WordPress configuration,” and you might want to “skim” that article too, even though this is latest & greatest version. 🙂

Table Of Contents (T.O.C.):

Domain registration
DNS setup (with Cloudflare)
Email setup
Cloudflare speed, firewall, and spam protection
Hosting account setup
Install WordPress and plugins

1. Domain registration

I like and use Porkbun domain registrar (my review), and Unlimited.rs for the .RS domains (affiliate link – ’cause yachts won’t pay for themselves!).

– T.O.C. –

2. DNS setup (with Cloudflare)

I like & use Cloudflare DNS and the extra security and speed optimization it offers. It’s free.

Normal people might want to do this after they’ve configured their hosting account (step 5). You definitely need to know on which IP address your site will be hosted in order to configure DNS (and which nameservers you’ll be using if you aren’t using Cloudflare DNS).

– T.O.C. –

3. Email setup

Test and confirm that emails work properly.

– T.O.C. –

4. Cloudflare speed, firewall, and spam protection

That was security first, now speed: configure Cloudflare for WordPress.

– T.O.C. –

5. Hosting account setup

Use good WordPress hosting.

Then, follow the instructions in my article: “Hosting setup and SSL – Making a WordPress site [05],” except the .htaccess settings (i.e. skip the chapters 4.3, 4.4, and 4.5 – get back to those after you’ve installed WordPress). The most important stuff: