It seems pretty cool when someone shows their website, and it drives us crazy or motivates or even encourage us to do the same. But it's not that easy as it seems and especially for the beginner's, the starting phase appears to be the hardest part as they are never prepared for the same. It is tough to remember everything while setting up the website and that's where the "Checklist" come into the picture. It helps the users and the developers while saving them from suffering via a long, tiring hour of surfing.
One can say that the very first query which pops up in your mind, this checklist will provide the answer to that very query. The most vital or significant part is the development part. As it consists of several settings and changes that one needs to make during the development process, so that one never misses out anything essential; ensure that your website includes of all the critical safety and security measures to prevent it from the hackers or exposing any vital information. So, we will discuss even the smallest possibility or the factor required for the development here.
So, from where can one start? No matter what someone is an expert or just a starter/beginner, the checklist will undoubtedly be beneficial to everyone in this tricky phase of development. So, kindly follow the list as described below: -
• Remove Default Content: One has to confirm that all the default contents like posts, comments, etc. are removed as their will be no test data remains while starting the process.
• Update Menu: One can add the menu under the appearances> Menu Section, according to the Sitemap.
• Use Dash for URLs: One should always keep in mind using "-" in his/her URLs instead of "_."
• Add Blog Categories: You can add it, Under Post> Categories and appropriate blog categories.
• Use ALT Text: You have to add alt text to all the website images. One can use the search friendly image plugin which helps in enhancing the overall performance.
• Add Tags & Media: You can insert the files, posts, and tags after adding the blog categories.
• Create a Sitemap: After that, it's imperative to create a valid sitemap of the website. You can do this in word or even excel format and add all your pages in it. It will help in describing your product and business.
• Make a Plugin List:
 SeedProd Coming Soon
 BackUpWordPress
 Broken Link Checker
 WP-Optimize
 WP-PageNavi
• Create Social Profiles: Facebook Fan Page, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, which will help a lot in promoting in today's digital world.
• Check for Content Overflow: Make sure that there is no post with pictures that exceed the content layout limit or is too big for the content column. It can downgrade the overall quality of the product.
• Highlight Author's Comments: Ensure that the author comment is separately highlighted so that one can differentiate it from the others.
• Remove Lorem Ipsum: Lastly, make sure you remove all the Loren Ipsum text on the website.
• Change Blog Category: You can change the blog category under Posts> Categories. You can rename the 'Uncategorized' section to set up a default category for Posts.
• Style Sticky Post: One can style the sticky posts well and make sure they function well.
• Add Social Icons: You can insert media icons/links for Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc. which will help in connecting the user socially among the others. You may use AddThis, ShareThis or Share Bar Plugins to provide maximum available resources for the user.
• Add Comment Closed Message: The comments display form is replaced with a 'Comments Off' message or something similar that will help the user to add or share his/her valuable views easily.
• Use Breadcrumb: For easy navigation, use Breadcrumbs It's a part of WordPress SEO by Yoast Plugin which makes the job of the user a lot easier.
• Use Gravatars: Check that the User Avatars or Gravatars are correctly displayed.
• Test Search Page: Please check if the search page is accessible to users. You can check by navigating to ?s=Test , so that in case if it's not working, you can rectify it at your end only.
• Create 404 Page: Ensures that the 404 page is created and customized. Though most themes have a default page for content that can't be found, one should consider setting up a custom 404 error page, so that the user gets to know about the same.
• Link Logo: Link the company logo to the Homepage through which the user should always be aware of the company.
• Use & Test Pagination: Test the pagination using WP-PageNavi plugin.
• Add Favicon: Add custom Favicon using Custom Favicon plugin.
Yup, that's all. Congratulations for completing the trickiest phase of creating a website. Although a bit lengthy, but we all want a checklist list this which will prove to be helpful to everyone.
WordPress Development Checklist For 2018
