How To Install WordPress 4 Methods Discussed

Last updated on June 6th, 2020 at 05:59 am

Whether you’re getting ready to start your own blog or setting up a website for your business. Chances are if you’re on this website, you are considering using WordPress as your platform of choice. In this blog post, you are going to learn how to install WordPress step-by-step with pictures to help guide you from start to finish.

I am going to be discussing several different methods you can use to install the software. You can then choose which method is right for you.

It is one of the most popular platforms that powers millions of websites. Many people use WordPress to run their e-commerce stores, blogs, corporate websites and personal websites.

Regardless of why you have decided to use this popular platform. One issue you must face before you can start using the platform, is that you need to learn how to install WordPress.

If you need help understanding WordPress, I’ve compiled a great list of WordPress tutorials on this blog that will make it easy for you to understand WordPress better. If you’re ready to rock your WordPress blog, then be sure to visit my WordPress tutorials for beginners

I am going to discuss 4 different methods, feel free to use whichever method works best for you.

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Video Tutorial WordPress Installation Walkthrough

If you would rather watch a video of me installing WordPress manually and follow along, I’ve created a video of the process step-by-step.

If you don’t like video, then follow the step-by-step tutorials below as I walk you through on how to install WordPress using 4 different methods.

How To Install WordPress Using Softaculous

Softaculous makes setting up WordPress extremely easy. It allows bloggers and website owners to setup their WordPress installation with one click of a button. If your hosting company uses it, you can easily find it on your cPanel dashboard.

Click on the app and you will be taken to a screen like this.

Click on the WordPress icon. You will notice that when you place your cursor on top of it, you are given 3 options. Install, demo and overview. Click on install.

Software Setup

You are taken to the software setup screen. This is where you input all the necessary information to get your WordPress installation complete. Lets run through them quickly.

Choose protocol: I usually leave this as the default.

Domain to install software: This is only if you have more than one domain.

In Directory: This is usually left blank. Unless you are installing WordPress inside of a sub-directory.

Site Settings

Site Name: The name of your WordPress blog or website will go here. Don’t forget to make it keyword rich.

Site Description: This is where you will enter your site description. You can always change this at a later date, so just enter something to complete the installation of your WordPress website.

Admin Account

Admin Username: Be sure to use a strong admin username. This can’t be changed, so be sure you use something that is easy for you to remember. Do NOT make the mistake of using “admin.”

Admin Password: WordPress allows you to use different types of characters to setup a strong login password. Be sure that the box under the password says Strong 100/100.

Admin Email: This is the email where your login credentials will get sent as soon as you click the install button on the bottom, so be sure to use a valid email.

Choose Language

Select Language: Most likely you will be using English for your WordPress blog. If not, then be sure to choose the appropriate language.

Select Plugins

Here you have the option of installing the Limit Login Attempts and the Clef Secure Passwordless Login.

I’ve personally never used any of these before. So you can decide if you want to install them. You can always delete the plugins later if you want to.

Choose A Theme

Again, I’ve never used this, so I am not familiar with this option. Whenever I start a WordPress blog, I always use the Genesis Framework. I’ve written an in-depth tutorial that walks you through on how to choose a WordPress theme and show you which child theme I’m using.

Advanced Options

The advanced options allows you to change your database name and your table prefix. If you’re not familiar with WordPress, just skip this part. I’ve written a great tutorial on setting up a WordPress blog that talks about the database and table prefix.

I know that seems like a lot just to get your WordPress installation setup. However, once you get all that filled out, click on install at the bottom of the page. You should be able to log in and start setting up your WordPress blog.

How To Install WordPress Using Fantastico

Fantastico is another type of script installation that is offered by several hosting companies. Siteground no longer offers Fantistico, so for this walk through, I will be using my clients Hostgator account.

Click on it and you will be taken to the quick WordPress installation screen.

Click on WordPress so we can begin the quick installation process. As you can see from the image below, it is asking for basically the same information as the Softaculous installation we just walked through.

If you need help remembering what goes in each blank, just review how we filled out the software setup on Softaculous.

How To Install WordPress Via File Manager in cPanel

This is my favorite method to use when I am installing WordPress. This method gives me more control over my installation. It’s a lot different than the 1-click WordPress installation method. So follow along and I will help you get your site setup so you can start blogging.

Download WordPress

Head on over and download a copy of WordPress if you haven’t already. You don’t have to worry about extracting it as we are going to be uploading the zipped file via your file manager.

Go To Your File Manager

Make sure you are in the public_html folder for the domain you will be doing the installation. If you only have one domain then you will be fine. If you have more than one domain, make sure you’re in the the right folder.

The directory should be empty because we haven’t started the installation yet.

Now it’s time to upload the WordPress file. At the time of this writing, I am using version 4.6.1. Your version may vary depending on when you’re reading this blog post. This method works for all versions of WordPress.

Upload WordPress

Click on the upload button and browse to the location you saved the zipped WordPress file you downloaded. It won’t take long to upload, once it is done, click on “Go Back to home.

Extracting WordPress Files

Now it’s time to extract the files and complete the installation. Click on the WordPress zipped file till it turns a blue color. Yours may or may not turn blue, just click on the file.

Now we want to extract the files, click on “extract.”

All the folders will extract into a WordPress folder. We want take those files out of the folder and put them into the root of our domain.

So follow along closely as this may be the most confusing part. It’s not difficult I promise.

Double click on the folder WordPress folder to access all the files inside.

Step 1: Check select all to highlight all the files.

Step 2: Click “Move File”

We are going to be moving all the files outside of the folder and onto the root of our domain. Don’t worry if this sounds confusing, I’m going to show you exactly what I mean.

Once you click on move file, you will see this.

Once you delete the WordPress directory, this is what you want to see.

If you only have one domain, it will only say /public_html/. If you are installing WordPress on a subdomain like I am, then you should see something like this.

Great now click on move files and this will move all the files outside of the folder onto the root of your domain. When you have moved the files you can delete the WordPress folder as well as the zipped WordPress file.

Creating The Database

Now that the software has been installed, it’s time to create the database so we can connect it and make our blog or website live. Head on back to your cPanel and click on MYSQL Database Wizard.

Give your database a name, you can use whatever you want. Make sure that you jot down the information you use on a notepad because you will need it to complete the installation.

Since the Wizard walks you through the entire process step by step, there’s no reason for me to walk you through the process. Just follow along and if you happen to get lost, I wrote a blog post on how I setup my WordPress blogs.

Once you’ve created the database head on back over to the file manager. Go to the folder of the domain where you just uploaded the WordPress software.

Connecting The Database To WordPress

Scroll down until you see a file called wp-config-sample.php. You want to change that file to wp-config.php. Click on the file to choose it and then right click on it like below.

Place your cursor right behind the word sample and delete it until you see wp-config.php. Make sure that you only delete the word sample, otherwise you will get errors when you try to connect your database.

Now we want to add our database information to this file. Now it’s time to grab that notepad file with all the information you saved from creating your database.

Open up your wp-config.php file. Click on the file and right click again, this time we are going to click on “Code Edit.”

Add Your Database Credentials To WP-Config

If all this looks like gibberish, don’t worry. We are only going to be changing a few things. Here is what we are going to be changing.

Step 1: Add your database information in the appropriate spaces. Be sure that to add the database information in between the ‘quotes’

Step 2: Head on over and grab some fresh salt keys. Paste the salt keys directly on top of the highlighted area you see in the image. This will delete what is currently there, which is what we want to do.

Step 3: Change your wp_prefix table. This is a great security measure you can take to make it more difficult for hackers to hack your site. I always remove the wp_ and make it something like this. WkWhTaK8s8UO_ just make sure that you leave the underscore at the end. You can read my in-depth blog post of starting a blog, which show you how I secure all my sites.

Once you fill out the necessary information, click on save at the top right of the code editor.

Installing WordPress

Next we need to complete the installation process. Open up your favorite browser and type in: yourdomain.com/wp-admin/install.php

You should see this.

Choose the appropriate language and click continue.

On the next screen you will fill out all the necessary information like we did when we walked through Softaculous. So if you need assistance jump back up to that section.

The only difference here is that we want to check “Discourage search engines from indexing this site.” I never want my WordPress blog indexed until I’ve set it up the way that I want and have added fresh unique content.

Once you fill out everything click on “Install WordPress.”

Now you should be able to log into your new WordPress blog.

There you have it, you have successfully setup WordPress without having to access your FTP software. As I mentioned, it takes a little longer than the one-click installation software.

But I always use this method whenever I setup a new WordPress site.

How To Install WordPress Using FTP

Now that you’ve learned how to install WordPress several using the different methods we discuss above. Installing WordPress via FTP will be a breeze.

In fact, there is absolutely no reason to go through the whole process as the steps will be almost the same as installing it via file manager.

The only difference is that you will upload WordPress to the root of your domain using your favorite FTP client. So for this walk-through tutorial, I will be using my favorite FTP client for Mac.

Access your Server Via FTP

Open up your FTP and lets access the server.

Since this is a brand new installation, the folder on your root domain will be empty. As you can see, I’ve already got WordPress files in mine. I chose not to delete my current WordPress installation that we just setup using the file manager method.

If you haven’t done so already, unzip the WordPress files. You won’t be uploading the zipped folder. You want to drag and drop all the files excluding the WordPress folder.

Creating the Database

Follow the prompts to complete the database creation. Give the username privileges and don’t forget to save your database info because you’re going to need it.

Access Your WP-Config File

You can either open up your wp-config-sample.php file inside of your FTP software or you can drag the file onto your desktop and open it up with your favorite text editor. I use Sublime as my text editor of choice.

Open up the wp-config-sample.php file and add your database information in the appropriate spots.

Save the file and this time you want to save it as wp-config.php. Once you have saved the file, you can delete the wp-config-sample.php file.

Complete The Installation

Next, you want to complete the installation by going to yourdomain.com/wp-admin/install.php

If the database information you entered on your config file is correct, then WordPress will ask you to select your language. Choose the appropriate language for your site and click continue.

Enter all the necessary information on the five-minute WordPress installation process page. Finally, click install WordPress. You should be able to log into your WordPress site.

Writing Your First Blog Post

Now that you have installed WordPress, it’s time to start writing your first blog post. Before you start writing, it’s important to make sure that you understand how to optimize your blog posts to help you rank better in Google.

This means that you’ll want to spend time using a free tool like Ubbersuggest to help you undercover low competition keywords that you should be able to rank for.

If you are completely new to SEO (search engine optimization) then I highly recommend using the Yoast SEO plugin to help you start optimizing your blog posts.

I’ve written this Yoast SEO Plugin tutorial to help you understand how to use the plugin. It will answer a lot of your questions as to how many times should I use the keyword in my article and where to place your keyword.

Remember, the last thing you want to do is keyword stuff your articles. This will only cause your blog to be penalized by Google when they do an algorithm update.

I know that learning how to grow a blog can be confusing. There’s so much to do, what is a new blogger supposed to do? That’s why I’ve put together the JumpStart Blog Traffic eBook that will walk you through step by step on how to write content your audience will love.

Final Takeaway

Feel free to use any of these methods to install WordPress. If you don’t want to install it manually, use the 1-click installation methods. You’ve just learned how to install WordPress using several different methods.

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Let me know if you plan on using any of these methods and if they helped you get your site installed. If you already have a blog, did you use any of the methods above to get it installed? If not, how did you install it?