WordPress is most popular as a blogging platform, but you can think of it as a website content management system as well. But no matter which way you use it, there are some things you should do to make the most of it.

Akismet is one of the most important to install if you plan on allowing comments. It is present in many default installations - all you need to do is get a WordPress API key and use it to configure Akismet.

There are other options - some prefer Spam Karma or other solutions. But I absolutely recommend having one solution or another included so that your blog does not become overrun with spam. You will have to check for false positives, but over time that will be far easier than cleaning out the spam.

You should also change the title tags default. I like to use Optimal Title for this. With the plugin activated, you can change the PHP in your header to make the most of it.

You should also try adding meta descriptions and keywords. A quick way is to look use the php the_title(); command where you would usually place the meta tags. You can search out various meta plugins at wp-plugins.net to find the one that best suits your needs.

Do not forget to take advantage of your permalinks. The simplest format is to use the /%postname%/ structure, but you can also use the Post slug if you would like to have more control over the name of the link than just naming it after the post.

They may not get much use, but I like to make it easy for readers to save my posts to the main social bookmarking websites. I use wp-notable for this.

You should also encourage Technorati to find your website. First you can do this by claiming your blog at Technorati. With that done, it makes sense to use a plugin such as Simple Tags to generate your Technorati Tags with ease.

I like to let people subscribe to my comments. I’ve discussed this in the past if you would like more information on it. Using that and the DoFollow plugin can help to make it more interesting for people to comment.

Finally, you will want to ping various services every time you post. WordPress does this automatically; all you have to do is add the services you want pinged. You can find various lists for this online, but I have a rather long one:

http://1470.net/api/ping
http://api.feedster.com/ping
http://api.feedster.com/ping.php
http://api.moreover.com/ping
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
http://bblog.com/ping.php
http://bitacoras.net/ping
http://blogdb.jp/xmlrpc
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC
http://blogmatcher.com/u.php
http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc
http://coreblog.org/ping/
http://mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatt
https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZFinance.woa/wa/pingPodcast
http://ping.amagle.com/
http://ping.bitacoras.com
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/
http://ping.blogmura.jp/rpc/
http://ping.blo.gs/
http://ping.cocolog-nifty.com/xmlrpc
http://pinger.blogflux.com/rpc/
http://ping.exblog.jp/xmlrpc
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.myblog.jp
http://pingoat.com/goat/RPC2
http://pingqueue.com/rpc/
http://ping.blogg.de/
http://ping.rootblog.com/rpc.php
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://ping.weblogs.se/
http://rcs.datashed.net/RPC2/
http://rpc.blogbuzzmachine.com/RPC2
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
http://rpc.britblog.com/
http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/
http://rpc.newsgator.com/
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://rpc.tailrank.com/feedburner/RPC2
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://rpc.wpkeys.com/
http://services.newsgator.com/ngws/xmlrpcping.aspx
http://signup.alerts.msn.com/alerts-PREP/submitPingExtended.doz
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://trackback.bakeinu.jp/bakeping.php
http://www.a2b.cc/setloc/bp.a2b
http://www.bitacoles.net/ping.php
http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
http://www.blogoole.com/ping/
http://www.blogoon.net/ping/
http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
http://www.blogroots.com/tb_populi.blog?id=1
http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php
http://www.blogsnow.com/ping
http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi
http://www.lasermemory.com/lsrpc/
http://www.imblogs.net/ping/
http://www.mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatter/ping.php
http://www.newsisfree.com/RPCCloud
http://www.newsisfree.com/xmlrpctest.php
http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php
http://www.rssfwd.com/xmlrpc/api
http://www.snipsnap.org/RPC2
http://www.weblogues.com/RPC/
http://xmlrpc.blogg.de
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2

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