How to Install WordPress – Complete Guide WordPress Installation Tutorial

How to Install WordPress on your server? I think most of us already know WordPress is the best platform for blogging and it is excellent for Content Management System (CMS) compare to others like Joomla, Drupal, etc. Most of the successful bloggers in this world have created about millions per year by using this platform. This is very amazing figure!

Do you want to be one of them?

If yes, let’s learn first how to create your WordPress site!

A Little About WordPress

Almost 43% websites in the world are powered by WordPress.

Why WordPress become so popular compare to others?

WordPress is an open source licensed under GPL license which everyone can use to edit or modify for free. It is flexible. If you are website programer, you can change your WordPress site to anything. But, if you are not website programmer, it is enough for you to direct use by using Themes and Plugins.

Before you learn how to install wordpress, you must know what you must prepare for it.

Things To Do Before Install WordPress

First of all, you must get a domain and hosting.

What is a domain? What is hosting?

• Domain – Address for website. Ex: www.yourdomain.com
• Hosting – Server to save all files and databases of your site like codes, image, text etc.

Where must you get it?

I recommend you to get domain dan hosting from this company:

• FastComet (First Choice – Recommended)
• BlueHost
• SiteGround
• HostGator
• InMotion Hosting

All of these companies I have tried. All of them are the best provider hosting in the world. But now, I just use FastComet because only this hosting gives me a suitable environment hosting for my websites needed.

Let’s start how to install WordPress and start making money from your blog.

How to Install WordPress (Two Easy Methods)

Here I will show you two methods of how you can install WordPress by yourself. The first method is using Softaculous on your cPanel and the second method is manual installation.

Why you should know both methods?

Sometimes, when you get your hosting, by default your hosting is not provided Softaculous because Softaculous is not free. It is paid application. That is why before you get hosting make sure they have provided this feature. For beginners, I always recommend choosing hosting that has Softaculous features.

If you have this feature on your cPanel, I recommend you install WordPress via Softculous because it is easy and secure compared to manual installing.

So, let’s we look at how to install wordpress using softaculous.

Method #1 Install WordPress Using Softaculous

So, if you have a Softaculous app in your cPanel, just use this method because it is easier than another method.

Step 1 Login to your cPanel. If you need help with how to log in, please refer to our guide on how to log in to cPanel.

Step 2 On section Softaculous Apps Installer, find WordPress icon on your cPanel and click on it.

Step 3 Now, here you need to fill all requirements for installation. To make this tutorial easier, I will separate it part by part so you can follow it easily.

Part #1: Software Setup

For part 1 is software setup. Please look at the explanation below due to the number.

Number 1: On number 1, you need to choose the protocol for your website whether you want to put http, https, www, or not. This is not give any negative impact on the SEO of your website. But I recommend you choose “https://www” because this URL protocol looks more neutral and now Google is more concerned about the website having SSL (https).

Number 2: Please choose your website URL. If you have added many domain names on the same cPanel, you need to choose here which one you want to install for WordPress.

Number 3: In the directory section is your choice. If you want to install a subdirectory, you can put any name here.

What is subdirectory?

For example, www.yourdomain.com/folder1, where is “folder1” is called a subdirectory. If you do not want to add any folder after the extension (.com.net), just leave it blank here. I am strongly recommended just leaving blank.

Part #2: Site Settings

For site settings, you need to decide about your site name, site description and others. Please look at the explanation below.

Number 1: Please decide your site name. Usually, for site name, you can put your domain here. For example minutesguide.com.

Number 2: Site description is a little explanation from the Site Name. For example, WPBeginner’s site description is Beginner’s Guide For WordPress.

Number 3: Disable WordPress Cron means, if selected, WordPress cron will be disabled and a cron job will be added in your control panel to be executed twice an hour. So, please do not tick here.

Part #3: Admin Account

On these settings, you need to configure your admin account credential. Please refer the explanation below.

Number 1: Please think about what the best for the admin username because you cannot to change it later. You can change via phpMYAdmin only where it is quite technical to do it. So, please choose the best here.

Number 2: Choose your strong Admin password. I am very recommended to use an auto password generator by clicking on the blue key. It will give you a randomly strong password.

Number 3: Just put your email here.

Part #4: Choose Language

On this part, you can choose a language for your site.

Number 1: By default, the system will choose the English language. If you want to change it, just click on it and it will list any language available.

For me, I stay to select the English language because WordPress terms will be weird if you change to another language.

Part #5: Select Plugins

WordPress considers you to install these two plugins, Limit Login Attempts (Loginizer) and Classic Editor.

Number 1: Limit Login Attempts is a plugin that can protect your WordPress from someone who wants to log in to your WordPress site. If someone makes fails to log in more than three times, the system will block them from login.

Please decide for yourself you want it or not.

Number 2: Classic Editor is a plugin where you can use the old interface of the WordPress site. For me, this is not necessary but it depends on you.

Part #6: Advance Options

This part is an option for you whether you want to change it or not. If you decide to change it, please look at the explanation below.

Number 1: For the database name section, you can change it. For example, “wp55” you can change to “mysite” or others for your reference if you install many WordPress on the same cPanel.

Number 2: Decide wheater you want to do backup or not. For me, this backup function is not effective. You need to more powerful backup system for your WordPress.

Number 3: For table prefix just leaves as default.

Number 4: Choose the backup location to be used while backing up this installation.

Number 5: Backup rotation means, if the backup rotation limit is reached, Softaculous will delete the oldest backup for this installation and create a new backup. The backup will utilize your space so choose the backup rotation as per space available on your server.

Last Step Finally, when you satisfy with your settings, click the install button to finish your installation. Please make sure all is correct.

If your installation successful, you will direct to this page.

That all.

You can look here for the demo >>> http://demo.minutesguide.com/

Method #2 Install WordPress Manually

This method I just recommend if you do not have the Softaculous app in your hosting or cPanel. So, this is the only method you can do. Do not worry because it is easy as ABC if you follow this tutorial.

Before that, make sure you have created a new database for WordPress. Please refer to our guide on how to create a new database. Save this database info because you will use it on the step below.

Step 1 First, please download WordPress file from WordPress official site. Save the file at an easy place to reach.

Step 2 Second step you need to upload a WordPress file from your computer to the server.

Here you can choose whether you want to use cPanel or FTP clients such as FileZilla or WinSCP to upload files into your server. Here I like to use cPanel because it is faster than FTP when uploading files. But this is for the first-time installation only. If you want to upgrade your WordPress manually, you MUST use the FTP client.

Since this is the first installation of WordPress, so here I choose cPanel to upload WordPress files into the server. If you do not know how to log in cPanel, then please refer to our guide on how to log in cPanel.

Where to upload it?

Continue your reading.

Step 3 After logging cPanel go to Files section, File manager » public_html (upload here if you install on the main domain of server) » folder site domain (upload here if you use addon domain).

Then, upload the WordPress file which is you have downloaded just now.

To upload it, just click UPLOAD on the menu as shown in the picture below.

Then click on the button Select File to start to upload the WordPress files and wait till complete upload.

After finishing uploading the file, click on the “Go Back to …”

Step 4 Back to the folder of your main domain and you will see the WordPress file in .zip format. What you should do now is select the file and extract it. Now all files and folders of WordPress are already on your server.

Step 5 Go to your browser (ex: Google, Mozilla, or Opera) and type URL structure like this;

https://www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin/install

Step 6 First thing you see on the installer page, is you need to choose your preferred language. Just choose English.

Step 7 Here, you need to put your database. Earlier, I have told you to create a new database first because you will use it here.

Refer above to how you can create a database on cPanel.

Usually what you need to here is put Database Name, Username, and Password. For Database Host and Table Prefix just leave the default.

After you fill in the info of your database, click the Submit button.

Step 8 Then, click the Run the installation button.

Then you will redirect to the configuration page for your site.

Here you need to write your site title, username, password, and email. After that, just click on the Install WordPress button.

If your installation success, you will receive the message like above and click the login button to log in to your site for the first time.

Next what you must do is, delete the installation folder.

Finish!

Conclusion

Now, you have learned how to install wordpress by yourself without hiring someone to do it. Next, you must be setting the basic things in WordPress like permalinks and others. It looks simple, but it is a critical setting in WordPress for your SEO future.

I will show you how to do it in the next tutorials.

Keep staying with me 🙂

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