Before you start
- A hosting plan and a domain already pointing at it
Step 1: Install, then set the permalink structure
Settings → Permalinks → Post name. Do this before you publish anything. Changing it later changes every URL on the site, which means every link anyone has shared stops working unless you write redirects.
/%postname%/Step 2: Choose HTTPS in both address fields
Settings → General. WordPress Address and Site Address must both start with https://. Setting only one causes redirect loops that are genuinely confusing to debug.
Step 3: Delete what you are not using
Every default theme except the active one, and every plugin you are not going to keep. An inactive plugin still has code on disk and still needs patching — it is attack surface with no benefit.
Step 4: Turn on server-side caching before adding a caching plugin
On Serverlys, LiteSpeed caching is configured for you. Install LiteSpeed Cache to talk to it rather than a plugin that implements its own PHP-level cache — running two caching layers that do not know about each other produces stale pages nobody can explain.
Step 5: Fix images at upload, not afterwards
Set your theme's content width, and stop uploading photos straight from a phone camera. A 4000-pixel JPEG displayed at 800 pixels is the most common cause of a slow WordPress homepage, and no plugin fixes it as well as not doing it.
Step 6: Set up backups before you need them
Daily backups run at the server level on every Serverlys plan and restores are free. Confirm you know where to find them now, while it is a calm afternoon rather than an emergency.
The mistake people make
Publishing content before setting permalinks. Every URL changes when you fix it, and search engines have to be told about all of them individually.