List of stuff I do when making a new Drupal site

Drupal is a bit of a Do-it-Yourself thing. Not just for any fancy "extras", but a lot of settings need to be manually set as well as modules or plugins installed that are needed to run a website. From my point of view at least.

I will keep updating this list as I go and add detailed instruction where necessary

1. Setup private and tmp directories above the webroot
2. Edit /sites/default/settings.php with private path (full absolute path)  and the same for the temp path
3. Install Backup-Migrate module, make a backup, test your backup by restoring it.  Very easy: backup on a Plesk server.
4. Update procedures. The quick and dirty method. Tackle update problems by updating incrementally.
5. Install base modules:
   • Admin Toolbar
   • Token
   • Pathauto
   • Twig Tweak
   • Paragraphs
   • AdvAgg
   • Entity Clone
   • Editor advanced link
6. Install SEO Modules
   • Metatag
   • XML Sitemap
   • Google Analytics
   • Redirect
   • Search 404
7. More Modules
   • Context
   • File Field Paths
   • Image Optimize WebP
   • Rabbit Hole
   • Layout Paragraphs
   • Paragraph View Mode
   • CSS Aspect ratio
   • Views Contextual Filter OR
   • Webform
8. Configure:
   • Text editor modes and buttons
   • Image styles
   • Responsive Image Styles
   • View modes
   • Media library description field and view modes
9. ...