How To Start Blogging In The UK On A Shoestring

Part 1 here
Part 3 here

Now you’ve got a WordPress website up and running, some extra set-up steps are worth doing now so you are collecting user data and thinking about search engine optimisation (SEO) right from the word go. Getting the following things done will leave you free to focus fully on content and presentation, which is the fun part of blogging and why you started this in the first place.

Step 8: Set up Google Analytics

You will need a Google account to do this – most of us have Gmail, but if you don’t, then first sign up to Google. Then visit Google Analytics. Once there you’ll need to set up your account and add a “new property”. Google Analytics can be confusing both to learn and to navigate. At this point, as long as you set up a property for your site and get it linked (see next step), that will give you traffic reports and you can later analyse these and tailor them to your needs when you’re getting steady traffic coming in.

Google Analytics has an academy with many courses you can take, including a good beginner’s course. As always don’t spend longer on learning than you need to to take action. There’s no point in becoming a Google Analytics expert when you aren’t yet getting any visitors.

https://analytics.google.com/analytics/academy/

Cost: free

Step 9: Connect Google Analytics to WordPress

In WordPress go to Plugins > Add New and search for and install Google SiteKit. Authenticate with your Google account and grant all the permissions.

It may take a while before analytics confirms it is collecting data. In the beginning, your visits will be zero, but that will change over time.
Cost: free

Step 10: Set up Google Search Console

Visit Google Search Console and add a “new property”.

Google will want to verify that you own the site. The way I do this is to copy the verification key, go to my hosting panel and add a TXT record to my DNS. In Krystal (my host – see Part 1 for more info on the hosting I use), this can be found under Domains > Manage zones > Zone editor.

Krystal has a how-to article here:

https://help.krystal.uk/web-hosting/adding-google-verification-entries-in-to-dns

Cost: free

Step 11: Add your site to Uptime Robot (optional)

For years I have used a free account at UptimeRobot to let me know if a website falls over. I used this a lot in my web development days and I have a monitor in place for this website. Shared, cheap hosting is not 100% reliable, so don’t panic if it occasionally goes down – you should see it come back up again within a few minutes before you need to panic and investigate if something terrible has happened.
Cost: free

Step 12: Install and link Rank Math

At Rank Math sign up for a free account. Then in WordPress go to Plugins > Add New and search for and install Rank Math. It may complain that certain php modules are missing. In your hosting panel, you should be able to configure these (in Krystal go to Software > php version and tick any modules that are missing).

Follow the Rank Math ‘easy’ wizard and connect Rank Math to your Google account. This plugin will be used for information on search engine optimisation (SEO) going forward. Rank Math will also generate an XML site map for you automatically, which is required for the next step.
Cost: free

Step 13: Submit your sitemap to Google

Go to Google Search Console. Select the sitemaps option on the left. Click ‘add a new sitemap’ and add the following (which is generated by rank math):

https://[yourdomain]/sitemap_index.xml

Indexing happens pretty quickly. When I did this Google had indexed the Sample Page that came as part of the WordPress install within a couple of days (and before I’d deleted it).

You can see which pages are indexed in Google by typing:

Site:richandhappy.co.uk

The sitemap is checked periodically by Google so you don’t need to do anything else with this once you’ve submitted it.
Cost: free

Step 14: Legal stuff

This applies predominantly to UK residents

There are a couple of must-haves for a UK blog. Make sure you do the following:

You must have a Privacy Policy page. WordPress can generate this for you. Go to Settings > Privacy and select “Create a new Privacy Policy page”. You can tailor this page as necessary. For example, I don’t have comments or user accounts on this website so I deleted all the information about those.
You must have a Cookie Policy page. I use a plugin called Complainz which has a free version. The wizard will walk you through the setup.
Don’t write bad things about other people or companies. You should always write content that you would be happy for anyone to read. Your boss, your nan, your kids, and your worst enemy from school. Even if you tell no one about your blog to begin with, and you think it’s completely anonymous, write as if one day it won’t be. I do recommend not telling everyone about your blog in the early days as it takes away pressure to write things your friends/family will approve of and means that if your traffic grows extremely slowly in the beginning you don’t give up in six months because everyone is telling you it’s a waste of time.

Cost: free

Conclusion

That’s it! Your settings are now done hurrah!

Time now to look at your blog’s presentation and START BLOGGING!