Installing WordPress
You never know when the 1-click-installs won’t be available.
It’s always best to know how to install WordPress manually so you have a better understanding of the install process.
- Purchase hosting
- If domain not included with hosting, purchase a domain – https://www.namecheap.com/
- If you purchase a domain separately you’ll need to ‘point’ the domain to the host’s servers.
- Download latest version of WordPress from www.wordpress.org/latest.zip
- Use the FTP program to link to the hosting account. Recommended free FTP program for a PC and Mac – http://filezilla-project.org/download.php?type=client
FTP or File Transfer Protocol is used to transfer files between client and server - Upload zipped WordPress file to root directory of your account on the chosen server
- Unzip the file using Extract function in cPanel’s “File Manager”
cPanel is found by logging into your hosting account through a browser - While in cPanel using “MySQL databases” create a database
- Create a database with a random name. Do not use the domain in the name.
- Create a user for the database, and not using the domain in the name.
- Use a high strength password including Capitals & lower case letters, numbers and at least one symbol. Avoid words, use a random string of characters.
- Record database name, user name, and password as we’ll need these later.
- Add user to the database, giving the user ALL privileges.
- Using a text editor like Notepad++ we will now edit a PHP file
NotePad++ can be downloaded at http://notepad-plus-plus.org/- In the wp-config-sample.php file, we’ll need to use the database information we recorded earlier and edit the following.
- Define database – “DB_Name”
- Define user – “DB_User”
- Define password – “DB_Password”
- Define host – “DB_Host”
- Change $table_prefix from “wp_”. New prefix should end with a _
- Add SALT keys by copy and pasting from https://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/salt/
- In the wp-config-sample.php file, we’ll need to use the database information we recorded earlier and edit the following.
- Close wp-config-sample.php and rename it wp-config.php
- In a browser go to your domain and you should get a WordPress installation page. If you don’t, try www.yourdomain.com/install.php
- Fill in a user name, make it unique and do NOT use “admin”, enter a strong password (record for future reference), your email address and site title.
- Congratulations you now own a Website.
For the official line on install see http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress
Tweaks in wp-config.php to optimise your site:
Add or edit the following code:
define(‘WP_POST_REVISIONS’,?);
– number of revisions to storedefine(‘AUTOSAVE_INTERVAL’,?);
– seconds between savesdefine(‘EMPTY_TRASH_DAYS’,?);
– days before files deleteddefine(‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’,’128M’);