How To Install WordPress: Step-by-Step Guide

Used by more than 455 million sites, WordPress is a content management system (CMS) that has existed since 2003. It allows you to create websites and blogs online. You can download the CMS from WordPress.org and install it on a server (self-hosted solution) or use a hosting platform like Hostinger, DigitalOcean, Contabo and Namecheap and to create your website or blog easily.

In this article “How To Install WordPress”, we present the steps of how to install WordPress yourself on your own server, in order to remain in control of the configuration of your website. If you choose this method, keep in mind that the installation, but also the hosting, the maintenance and the security of your website will be your responsibility.

The advantages of opting for a manual installation of WordPress are numerous. You can customize your website to your liking by choosing the theme and plugins of your choice. You have access to the source code of your pages, which is not the case in the automated version of the CMS. Another advantage: you have control over your hosting and your domain name.

Step [1]?: Choose The Right?Host

Before proceeding with the manual installation of WordPress, you first need a domain name for your site, which you can purchase from a domain name registrar. You must then choose your type of web hosting.

The different types of Web?Hosting

You can choose from these different types of web hosting?:

Shared hosting?: this is the most affordable formula with a sufficient level of resources to launch a site for your large business or small business as a blog;

VPS hosting (Virtual Private Server)?: the resources of a physical server make it possible to run several virtual servers, this solution provides more security and stability than a type of shared hosting, but it requires configuring its server A-Z;

Dedicated hosting?: you have all the resources allocated for your server, but you will have to take care of the installation and configuration of the software that powers your server.

Note that some hosts offer offers designed specifically for WordPress site. The cost is a little higher than traditional hosting but you will benefit from a more suitable, efficient and secure infrastructure.

WordPress Prerequisites For Choosing Your Web Hosting?Plan

To use its open source software safely, WordPress asks to respect the following parameters:

PHP: version 7.4 or higher, MySQL: version 5.7 or higher, HTTPS: HTTPS protocol support.

WordPress recommends using Apache or Nginx as the “most robust and functional servers for running WordPress”. The CMS also specifies that you can use some older versions of PHP (from PHP 5.6.20) and MySQL (from MySQL 5.0). As these versions are at the end of their life, they risk exposing your site to security vulnerabilities.

Step [2]?: Install WordPress Manually On Your?Server

It is recommended to manually install WordPress on your server, instead of going through an automatic installation, offered by hosting services, for several reasons?:

Control of the configuration of your site, More customization options, The latest updated version of WordPress will be used.

It is indeed essential to have an updated site with the latest version of WordPress for security reasons. If you prefer to install WordPress automatically, without going through the technical steps that we detail below, it is possible to use the pre-installed content management modules offered by certain hosts.

Download WordPress

First, download the WordPress folder to your computer and open the zipped folder to access the entire PHP files.

Create a MySQL database for WordPress

Next, you need to create a database for WordPress, which contains all the information about your site (content, setting modes, user names, etc.) on your server. To do this, connect to the site of your host and go to the section dedicated to databases. Click the Create Database button

and follow the guide.

You will be asked for the username, which you received by email, as well as the creation of a complex password to secure your site’s database.

Upload WordPress files to their?server

You must have previously installed a file manager, or FTP client (File Transfer Protocol), on your computer. The most popular and easy to use is surely FileZilla (Windows, Mac, Linux).

Once launched, you must configure the FTP client, so that it can connect to your server, by entering the following information: the host name, the identifier (or the FTP login), the password and the port. These different elements are sent to you by your hosting service when you subscribe to your plan.

In Filezilla, open the WordPress folder from your computer (left side of the FTP client) and select all the files inside. This contains the wp-admin, wp-content, wp-includes folders and other PHP files. It’s best to only upload the files in the WordPress folder and not the folder itself, otherwise you site url will be yoursite.com/wordpress.

Drag and drop your selection on your site, in the directory of your choice (in the right part of Filezilla):

Either in the folder located at the root of the directory?: depending on the hosts, it may be public_html, www or htdocs depending on the host you choose?, Or in a sub-directory?: if you want it to appear on a sub-domain of your site (ex: yoursite.com/blog). You can also select the files located on your computer (local site), right-click and select Upload.

Continue the installation of the WordPress Site

Since your WordPress files are now present on your server, you must make the link with the database you have just created. To do this, open your browser and run the WordPress installation script by typing:

• If your site is installed at the root of WordPress: yoursite.com/wp-admin/install.php
• If your site is installed in the blog subdirectory: yousite.com/blog/wp-admin/install.php

A WordPress window will appear with the process to follow in order to create the configuration file: wp_config.php. To complete it, you will need the database information provided by your host: its name, MySQL username, user password, database host and table prefix (in case you need to manage several WordPress sites on the same database). Click the Let’s Go! located at the bottom of the insert to fill in these informations.

The requested information was provided to you by your host. Just enter them in the appropriate fields.

Once your information validated by WordPress, the CMS displays a confirmation message. To finish the manual installation of WordPress for your site, click on the button: Start installation. A new form will show up. You will need to provide:

Your Site Title?: it will appear on the pages of your site and you can modify it at any time, Your Username?: it is recommended not to name it “admin” for security reasons, A complex password, An Email Address?: this will be the main email address for the administration of your site and you can modify it in the general settings of the back office if necessary. Uncheck Ask search engines not to index this site if you want this site to appear in search engine results like Google or Bing. However, you can check this box while configuring your site. You can uncheck it later in the options of your WordPress site.

You will receive by email the connection information to your site. When all these fields completed, click on: Install WordPress.

Once WordPress installed: you can now access the admin interface of your site (the back office) by clicking on Connect, or by typing the following URL: yoursite.com/wp-login.php.

Step [3]: How To Set Up WordPress With The Correct?Settings

On your dashboard, click on the settings menu, at the bottom of the left column, to access the WordPress settings.

Save General Settings To WordPress

If some previously saved information has changed, this is where you can edit it:

• The site title,
• the slogan,
• The site address?, if you want your home page to be accessible from a different address,
• The administration email address,
• do not check Anyone can register to prevent any visitor from creating an account on your site,
• default role of any new user?: it is advisable to select the Subscriber status from the drop-down menu because it is the one with the least privilege on the site?,
• The site language,
• The time zone,
• The date and the time format for the published posts,
• the start day of the week.

If you need to add users for managing your site and assign them a role, go to the Users > Add tab.

Other settings to configure on WordPress

Other parameters need to show up, so the user could finish the installation and adjustment of your back-office: writing options, reading, comments, media, permalinks (or the structure of your site’s URLs) and the confidentiality. You’ll find them under the general settings menu.

The choice of the WordPress theme

If you download the latest version of WordPress (5.4.2), the theme chosen by default is Twenty Twenty. By going to the menu Appearance > Themes > Add a new (or Add a theme), you can test the different themes offered by the CMS among those highlighted, the most popular or the latest. The Favorites tab allows you to quickly find your favorite themes. You can also create your own theme. Click the Upload Theme button at the top of the screen to add an uploaded theme to your site.

If you prefer to choose a specific theme, between the thousands of proposals, you can use the functionality filter: it will direct you to a selection of themes that best suit your needs.

Once chosen and installed, you can customize it by specifying your choices in terms of colors, theme options, adding a background image, a menu, widgets or even by setting the home page ( depending on the theme chosen). For each modification, a preview offered in the preview window on the right of the screen. To access this page, go to: Appearance > Customize.

The Main Menu, Plugins And?Widgets

To customize your site and the theme you have just chosen, it is now necessary to create your menu: Appearance > Menus (most WordPress themes contain a menu to customize). Every item that you add to your menu, it should be essential and clear enough, so users can understand. Here are some examples of must-have pages:

Home, About, Contact,?… Do not forget to provide pages such as Terms and Conditions and the Privacy Policy, mandatory under the GDPR, which you can place in your footer. In the Manage Locations tab, assign a menu to a location in WordPress to display on your website.

Just like for themes, WordPress offers a large catalog of plugins (or plugins), which allow you to bring new features to your site, without having to code them. Go to the plugins> Add menu to access the more than 56,800 plugins available. To use an plugin, you must first install it and then activate it.

Another element that you can add to your site (depending on the theme used): widgets. They correspond to inserts that you can place in different places on your site. Some can be very useful, such as a search bar or the list of recent articles, others much less. They are to be used sparingly because adding many widgets slows down the performance of your website. They can be configured from the Appearance > Widgets menu.

Once these different steps have been completed, it is advisable to ensure the security of your website by updating it regularly.

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