# New Blog Setup Essentials

**URL:** <https://forum.ghost.org/t/new-blog-setup-essentials/8687>\
**Category:** Developer help\
**Created:** [August 15, 2019, 2:48pm UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/new-blog-setup-essentials/8687 "2019-08-15T14:48:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![trojan](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/trojan/32/4306_2.png) [@trojan](https://forum.ghost.org/u/trojan)\
**Post date:** [August 15, 2019, 2:48pm UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/new-blog-setup-essentials/8687/1 "2019-08-15T14:48:40Z")

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Hey everyone

I started up my blog, installed a nice theme and setup analytics ([https://programmerbytes.com/](https://programmerbytes.com/)).

I still have to setup SSL properly, as it is router through Cloudflare (flexible, not Strict) and does not have end to end encryption with LetsEncrypt (I am getting issues with the acme.sh validation stage)!

But - what are some good things to setup or learn while I am here?

I am new to all this and have set up Ghost through a VPS. I will be looking into mx/smtp servers to setup mail later on.

With Wordpress we have things like Yoast SEO and other plugins - how should I be managing things like site optimisation and search enginge visibility? Do I have to edit the metadata for each page in HTML manually or can I do it from the Ghost desktop app?

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**Author:** ![DavidDarnes](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/daviddarnes/32/3533_2.png) [@DavidDarnes](https://forum.ghost.org/u/DavidDarnes)\
**Post date:** [August 15, 2019, 3:42pm UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/new-blog-setup-essentials/8687/2 "2019-08-15T15:42:57Z")

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Hey @trojan! You’ll be pleased to find out that Ghost comes with a pretty great SEO setup out of the box. The metadata fields that you might be seeing in posts and pages are there to help you fine tune your SEO for crawler bots as well as popular social networks. Check out these links on what Ghost does for SEO:  
[https://ghost.org/docs/concepts/features/#search-engine-optimisation](https://ghost.org/docs/concepts/features/#search-engine-optimisation)

> **[XML Sitemaps for the Ghost Blogging Platform](https://ghost.org/changelog/xml-sitemaps/)**
>
> How and why we've introduced the most advanced automatic XML sitemap generation features into Ghost to improve your blog SEO and rankings.

> **[Official Ghost + Google AMP Integration](https://ghost.org/integrations/google-amp/)**
>
> Ghost has a default Google AMP integration built-in, which can be customised to suit your needs. If you prefer not to use AMP, you can also turn it off! ⚡

We don’t have plugins, but we do have a vast selection of integration options:

> **[Ghost integrations – official apps, plugins & tools](https://ghost.org/integrations/)**
>
> Ghost plugins, tools & apps to integrate withh your Ghost site for automation, analytics, marketing, support and much more! 👉

If there’s anything else that you’re interested in then you can either check out our docs [Ghost: The #1 open source headless Node.js CMS](https://ghost.org/docs/) or just ask on the forums right here! 😄

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**Author:** ![afern247](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/afern247/32/10894_2.png) [@afern247](https://forum.ghost.org/u/afern247)\
**Post date:** [August 15, 2019, 3:50pm UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/new-blog-setup-essentials/8687/3 "2019-08-15T15:50:54Z")

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Hey welcome, besides what David posted, I have on my blog some guides by me and by others that may benefit you at the begging, check it out [https://blog.arturofm.com/useful-guides-for-vps/](https://blog.arturofm.com/useful-guides-for-vps/)

Btw nice theme