WordPress Second Week: Priority Hardening & Stabilization

You survived the launch window. Now you lock things down, add minimal visibility, and set a sustainable baseline.

Phase Objectives

1. Reduce exposed surface.

2. Gain minimal monitoring signals.

3. Remove residue that may hurt performance.

4. Prepare a content pipeline.

1. Accounts & Roles Review

• Remove temporary launch users.
• Trim excess administrators.
• Enforce password updates for weak credentials.

2. Endpoints and XML-RPC

• Disable XML-RPC if no mobile/app integrations required.
• Limit sensitive REST endpoints (security plugin or WAF rules).

3. Consistent Backups

• Schedule daily incremental + weekly full.
• Test a partial restore (e.g. wp_options table) to prove validity.

4. Minimal Monitoring

• Enable error logging (controlled WP_DEBUG_LOG).
• Simple alert: cron greps for “Fatal error” and emails if found.

5. Tactical Cleanup

• Remove unused themes (keep one fallback).
• Delete inactive plugins.
• Review media library for orphaned duplicates.

6. Sustainable Performance

• Run new Lighthouse for home + a single post template.
• Compare versus early baseline (target variance < 5%).
• Adjust font preload only if it measurably improves LCP.

7. Additional Dashboard Hardening

• Limit login attempts.
• Shorten session lifetime.
• Restrict wp-admin by country/IP if justified.

8. Content Minimum Pipeline

• Define next 3 pieces (title + purpose + CTA).
• Tag drafts with a common prefix (e.g. draft-*).

9. SEO & Discoverability

• Check Search Console (coverage + errors).
• Verify sitemap accessible.
• Confirm canonical + hreflang OK on new items.

10. Prepare Phase 3 (Continuous Optimization)

• Document first-fortnight lessons.
• List pending risks with due dates.

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**Expected outcome:** Harder to compromise, stable performance curve, and clear forward content queue.