First Changes to My New WordPress Installation

by SEO Mofo on Jan 2nd, 2010

in WordPress

First month of changes to new Thesis WordPress installation

The content below used to be on the page called “Updates.” I no longer need to keep track of changes to my site, so I’m moving this to a regular post under the WordPress category. This page simply lists all the changes I made to my site during the first month after I installed Thesis/WordPress. It might give you some ideas for what to do after a fresh WP install.

Nov. 28, 2009

  • Updated a few posts with new formatting styles.

Nov. 27, 2009

Nov. 26, 2009

Nov. 23, 2009

  • Added custom default Gravatar image.

Nov. 21, 2009

  • Added social network links and widgets after the content of each post.

Nov. 20, 2009

Nov. 19, 2009

  • Spent most of the day trying to ignore the constant stream of complaints about the new Twitter RT feature.
  • Started writing a rant about stupid people.

Nov. 17, 2009

  • Changed home page <meta name="description" /> content (back to my ASCII art version).
  • Configured Comment Link Manager to whitelist a few comment authors.
  • Enabled nested comments.

Nov. 16, 2009

Nov. 14, 2009

  • Installed the Comment Link Manager plugin, which requires comment authors to have 10 approved comments before their links become active.
  • Installed the PS Disable Auto Formatting plugin, which prevents WordPress from adding/deleting <p> and <br />.
  • Modified my Twitter icon again. This time I made it into a sprite to reduce page size and speed up the hover effect.
  • Started adding content to my About page.

Nov. 13, 2009

  • Installed the TweetMeme WordPress plugin.
  • Modified a Twitter icon to use for “Follow Me” link.

Nov. 12, 2009

  • Updated to WordPress 2.8.6.
  • Set up the MyBrand feature on Feed Burner. Feed URL is now http://feeds.seomofo.com.
  • Installed the FeedBurner FeedSmith plugin.
  • Added Subscribe links to right-hand column.
  • Enabled the Google XML Sitemap plugin.
  • 301 redirected all date archive URLs to the home page. Here’s the mod_rewrite code I added to .htaccess: 
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/[0-9]+/ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.seomofo.com/ [R=301,L]


Nov. 11, 2009

  • Battled the DNS monster some more today and finally defeated that beast. Site should be up and running now.
  • Removed the smiley face image [ WordPress Stats smiley ] that’s inserted by WP Stats. 
    /* KILL THE WP STATS SMILEY IN FOOTER */
img#wpstats{display:none;}


  • Added Updates tab to top navigation.

Nov. 10, 2009

  • I spent most of today battling the semi-functional DNS dashboards on 3 different hosting sites. Site will be down until DNS propagates. Probably could have avoided down time if I were patient, but I’m not…so to the 20 people who visit my site today: I apologize.

Nov. 9, 2009

  • In preparation for setting up my blog feed at feeds.seomofo.com, I’ve started to move my site from its cheap hosting over to my VPS hosting.

Nov. 4, 2009

  • Wrote a post called Best Way to Research Google Patents.
  • Removed the Thesis default header and added my own.
  • Added some sweet, sweet shadow effects to my new header logo and some <h2> headings.
  • Here is the code I added to the custom_functions.php file: 
    // Remove the Thesis header
remove_action('thesis_hook_header', 'thesis_default_header');<br /><br />// Define my own header
function mofo_header() {
?>
		<div id="logo_mofo">
			<div id="domain_mofo"><a href="/"><em>SEO</em></a><span> </span>mofo<span id="dot_mofo">.</span>com</div>
			<div id="slogan_mofo">The <span>&uarr;</span> <b>SEO</b> links to my home page!</div>
		</div>
<?php	
}<br /><br />// Add my header
add_action('thesis_hook_header', 'mofo_header');


Nov. 3, 2009

  • Wrote a post called Thesis Phi-Column Layout. In it, I marked up phi with <var></var> tags, despite the fact that φ represents an irrational constant. Does that make me a bad person?
  • Changed a bunch of formatting in custom.css file.

Nov. 2, 2009

  • Added favicon code to <head> section.
  • Changed Twitter widget settings to show last 3 tweets.
  • Installed the Syntax Highlighter Evolved plugin.
  • Changed Thesis default formatting for the “current” tabs so that it shows a pointer when you mouse over it (instead of the text cursor). Here’s the CSS I added to custom.css: 
    ul.menu li.current a:hover{cursor:pointer;}


  • Edited .htaccess file to redirect /blog to /.
  • I’ve also temporarily deactivated my XML Sitemap plugin and the ping-o-matic feature until I’m ready for the new URLs to be crawled.
  • Installed the Subscribe to Comments plugin.

Oct. 30, 2009

Oct. 29, 2009

Oct. 25, 2009

  • Wrote a crapost about a typo/bug I discovered in the Thesis font formatting options, but then Thesis 1.6 was released and the typo/bug disappeared.