WordPress is the most popular CMS (content management system) in the world. Joomla and Drupal are also often used, but WordPress has the most fans. The success of this platform is due to its accessibility and ease of use.
However, the biggest advantage of WordPress is that everyone can set up their website without coding skills. So we don’t need to know languages such a PHP or HTML.
WordPress is an ideal tool for anyone thinking about setting up a blog, online store, or showing a portfolio.
It is worth knowing that WordPress is available in two varieties. The first one is WordPress.com. Generally, it is a hosting dedicated to WordPress and it looks a little like Blogger.
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You can create an account, choose a template and start blogging. This solution, however, has several limitations. First of all, our blog name will contain a subdomain with the wordpress.com extension (you can read more about domain extensions here). This doesn’t look too good, and if you change an extension, an additional payment is required.
The biggest disadvantage of this option is the lack of plugins support. They are very useful, shorten the time of creating the site and make it look elegant and professional.
A more recommended solution is to choose the second option – WordPress.org. Here we have a lot of possibilities to configure the site, choose and install plugins and present the site under our domain. This is very important when we want to build our own, recognizable brand.
And it is at this point that many beginner bloggers are asking themselves – how to install WordPress?
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One-click Auto Installers
The methods may be different. The easiest way is to choose a hosting company that offers the option to automatically install WordPress with one mouse click.
This is a very comfortable solution, requiring no additional skills from us. As I already wrote in the post “Cheap Domain With Hosting For Your Blog” – Bluehost, is recommended for all blogs based on WordPress.
After choosing one of the available hosting plans, we can automatically install WordPress.
But what if we already have a registered domain and our hosting company does not provide options – one-click automatic installation?
Then all we have to do is install WordPress on ourselves. This is not a difficult task and takes a few minutes.
In this post, I will try to show you how to install WordPress using FileZilla step by step.
How to Install WordPress Manually?
What is FileZilla?
To install WordPress files, we will have to place them on an FTP server. For this, we have to use a software called FTP client.
FTP is short for File Transfer Protocol. It is a standard Internet protocol used to transfer files between client and server.
FileZilla is a free FTP / SFTP / FTPS client, which was created in 2001 by Tim Kosse and allows you to upload and download files from your FTP server. The latest version is available here: filezilla-project.org
The most important features of FileZilla
- Support for FTP, encrypted FTP – SSL/TLS (FTPS) and SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP).
- It allows you to download, send, delete, rename, move files and folders on an FTP server,
- Supports file transfer over 4GB,
- You can ” drag and drop” files between the local window and the server.
- It allows you to change permissions, files, and folders (chmod).
- You can search for files and folders by date, size, name, path.
Connect to the server using FileZilla FTP client
Before installing WordPress, we must first connect to our server. So we need to prepare the data necessary to log on to the FTP server first.
This data is the FTP hostname, FTP username, and FTP password. We will receive this information from our hosting provider. Before this operation, a message is displayed in the window associated with the server files: Not connected to any server.
So run FileZilla and click: File > Site Manager
A dialog box will appear in which we can start a new connection to the server. To do this, select New Site and complete the required fields:
- Host – Your FTP hostname
- User – Your FTP username
- Password – Your FTP password
Then click Connect – if everything is OK the FTP client links to our server. You can now transfer the files to the server.
How to Install WordPress On a Server?
Transfer Files with FileZilla
You will find the latest version of WordPress here. After downloading the folder, the files should be unpacked. Then, in the window on the left, look for the folder with the downloaded WordPress files and enter its contents.
In the window on the right, we enter the domains folder and search for the domain under which we will display our website or blog. In this case, we choose the domain smartaffiliatekit.com. You can read more about how to choose a domain for your blog here.
In the domain catalog, find the folder public_html.
We must now transfer WordPress files from our computer to the server. To do this, select all the content, right-click and choose Upload.
After a while, the files are already on the FTP server. If everything is OK, you will see a message: Transfer finished. All files have been successfully transferred.
How to Edit wp-config.php File in WordPress?
The next step in installing WordPress is to edit the wp-config.php file. As you can see there is a file named wp-config-sample.php in the directory. Download the file to your disk – right-click and choose Download. Then change its name to wp-config.php.
Using a text editor, open the file and find the following lines of code shown in the picture below:
In the indicated places we must enter information about our database.
This data is:
- name of the database
- database user
- database password
Where do you get this information from? Well, after logging into the customer panel of your hosting provider, we can manage our domains. One of the options available is to create a new MySQL database for your domain. There we can give a name for the new database, assign a user to it and secure it with a chosen password.
After creating the database, we complete the required fields in the file wp-config.php. Save the file and upload it back to the FTP server.
In the next step, the installation is carried out in a web browser.
How to Install WordPress – Last Step
We start by entering the website address in our browser. Depending on whether you have placed WordPress files – in the root directory of the domain or a subdirectory, the address should look like this:
- http://www.your-domain.com/wp-admin/install.php
- http://www.your-domain.com/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php
If all is correct, we go to the installation of WordPress. In the next steps, we will be asked to choose the language, name, and password for our new site. The installation is not complicated and takes no more than 5 minutes.
The data we enter at this stage can always be edited after installation. Once you have completed all the required fields, press Install WordPress.
It is also worth mentioning that there is an option to choose not to index our site by search engines.
At the beginning of blogging, we won’t have much valuable content. So sometimes it’s worth waiting a while – add a few pages, create a menu and publish a few posts. And then allow for indexing in Google.
We are informed about the completion of the installation of WordPress by an appropriate message. Then you can log in to your account and start blogging.
How to Login to Your WordPress Dashboard?
After the installation is completed, the login window will automatically appear. But how to log in next time? It is easy. Just enter the following address in the browser bar:
http://domain-name.com/wp-admin
Of course, domain-name.com is replaced by our own domain.
As you can see, installing WordPress with FileZilla is not as difficult as it might seem at first. Remember that you need your website hosting and domain name.
You can read about how to register a suitable domain for your blog here. When it comes to hosting – I suggest Bluehost. It is recommended for all blogs based on the WordPress platform.
Just choose the best hosting plan for you and start blogging!
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