The first thing we have to do after installing WordPress is to start deleting things. Let’s see which ones and why we should do it.
Hello Dolly Plugin
This plugin is undoubtedly a great piece of nonsense that comes by default on all WordPress installations. It has an endearing story, but it is not needed at all. So, we can delete it without any hesitation. Plugin Hello Dolly.
Delete Post “Hello world”
This post or article comes as a sample for the more novice to know where the posts are going to be displayed, and invites to edit it. The problem is that many people edit it but don’t modify the slug (which modifies the URL) or the date (from the latest version of WordPress), and it leads to confusion. It also comes with a comment from “Mr. WordPress” which is also useless.
Delete the Sample Page
As its name suggests, a sample page that serves no purpose. The best thing to do is to delete it immediately, lest it be indexed by Google while we are working on the website. It is not worth modifying it either, as we may forget to modify the slug. So, let’s get rid of it 🙂
Category “Uncategorized”
We can delete it or rename it (and change the slug), but please, let’s not leave it there, it is not positioning anything and it looks very bad to have the content categorised “uncategorized“. The best is to use a generic term like “General, News” or put another name related to your website.
Delete All Official WordPress Themes
WordPress comes by default with the latest 3, 4, 5 official themes (themes, WordPress templates). At the moment they are Twenty Thirteen, Twenty Fourteen, Twenty Fifteen or Twenty Nineteen. You won’t install all of them (you might not even use any of them) so you can quickly delete them.
The last thing
In principle this is what should be deleted by default in WordPress, but some hosts that offer the typical “one-click installs” install some unwanted extras (themes and plugins such as visual builders) usually by technical-commercial agreement (i.e. they get paid for it). Mercilessly delete everything. You should only leave the Akismet plugin and the theme you are using.
Leave a Reply