Improve your security + impressions at the same time

Default post content

The first place to start is the Posts section of your WordPress dashboard. When viewing All Posts, scroll to the very last page. If you see the post entitled “Hello World!”, it’s time to remove or rename it. That is the post that WordPress puts on all sites to demonstrate how the blog feature works.

The next area to check is the Categories section under Posts to see if you have more than just “Uncategorized” as an option. If not, or if you wouldn’t use any of the existing categories as your default, create a new one by adding a name + clicking “Add New Category.” (WordPress will create a slug for you + the description is not required.) Next, go to Settings > Writing + set your default post category, then save the changes. Now you can go back to Posts > Categories + delete “Uncategorized.”

Default page content

Head to Pages + check that you no longer have a page titled “Sample Page.” If you do, click “Edit” to see if the content is something you use. If it is, rename the page + save a new permalink. But if the default page is full of dummy content from your WordPress installation, trash it.

{Some developers use the default sample page to include notes on the custom theme, so it’s important to check the page content first before deleting it.}

Default WordPress comments

Next head to the Comments section. Scroll to the last page of comments by clicking the double arrows pointing to the right. If you see a comment from Mr. WordPress, go ahead + delete it.

{Normally deleting the “Hello World!” post will automatically delete this default comment, but it’s worth double-checking.} 

Default plugins

By default, WordPress comes with Hello Dolly + Akismet installed but not active. If you are using Akismet to help with spam, that’s awesome! If you aren’t using it + you are likely not using Hello Dolly either, be sure to delete the inactive plugins.

Why do you want to clean up your plugins? Because they can become outdated + therefore a security risk since their files are on your server. Plus, removing unused files from your site + server can speed it up along with making your Dashboard easier to use. win-win!

Default themes

Depending on what version of WordPress you are running, you might have different default themes available. I always recommend keeping at least 1 WordPress theme installed because it is great for troubleshooting major problems. But, there is no reason for you to need 4 or more unused themes on your site.

All of the WordPress themes are named after the year they were released — twenty thirteen, twenty fourteen, twenty fifteen + twenty sixteen, for example. You can pick which one you’d like to keep around, but I’d suggest a newer option rather than the older ones.

{Don’t delete an active theme, since that will change the look of your site.}

To delete themes you aren’t using + don’t want, head to Appearance > Themes. click on the theme you’d like to delete to open a pop-up window. From there, you’ll see “Delete” in the bottom right corner.

And just like that, your site is free of all unnecessary default content! If you want to dive deeper into increasing your site’s security, check out my WordPress security ebook to turn your site dashboard into fort knox + keep the hackers + crappy circumstances from affecting you.

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