WordPress is the world’s most used platform for web publishing. And that might not be a big surprise: It is is free, user-friendly and flexible based on Open Source. Here’s a complete tutorial on how to install WordPress from scratch. We will also give you a few bonus tips to get started with your website – smooth and safe.
👉 Free course: Create a Stunning Website with WordPress from scratch
We will use WordPress.org, which means that you are free to choose any domain and web hosting and install the themes and plugins of your choice. WordPress.com is a very limited version of WordPress, which also requires you to pay a fee to remove ads from your website. WordPress.org is often called “the real WordPress”.
What you need
- A web host account with support for PHP (preferably version 7.2 or higher) and MySQL (version 5.6 or higher) or MariaDB (version 10.0 or higher)
- A domain (website address)
10 Steps: Install WordPress from Scratch
Most web hosting companies today provide 1-click install for WordPress. In this article, however, we will focus on manual installation. Why? Because it gives you more flexibility to adjust and understand the settings and thereby improve safety. The complete installation process with all ten steps will take about 15 minutes in total.
- Download the latest WordPress version at https://wordpress.org/latest.zip
- Extract the zip-file on your hard drive
- Upload all the files and folders in the wordpress folder to your website folder. The website folder is often (but far from always) called “public_html”. Use the File Manager in your web host dashboard or a ftp client, like Filezilla, to upload the content.
👉 Do not upload the actual folder called “wordpress” – just its content. - Before you start the installation you need to create a database where the website data can be stored. Find the settings for MySQL databases in your dashboard in your web hosting account and create a database and a database user with write permission. Get in touch with your web host support if you can’t find your database settings.
👉 For advanced users: What is the least database user privileges required for WordPress? - Make a note of the following credentials in a safe place: a. Database name b. Database username c. Database password d. Database host (this is often, but far from always, localhost)
- It’s time to connect WordPress with your database. Enter the URL to your (soon to be awesome) website in the in the address bar in your web browser (for example: https://victorduse.com). Choose your language.
👉 You can change your language settings in WordPress later under the Settings > General tab.
- Welcome to WordPress! Just click the button Let’s go! to get started.
- Now it’s time to use the database details that you wrote down in step 5. To protect your website from hackers, it’s recommended to use something else then wp_ in the field “Table Prefix”, for example _divi or _dm.
👉 Use a unique Table Prefix for each website. - All right, sparky! If the database connection was successful, you will be greeted. Click “Run the installation” to continue. The fun part is soon about to start – web design and content creation.
- It’s time to enter your basic website information. Choose a secure password (you are good to go when the bar is green). Do not choose the username Admin since hackers will try to exploit it. You can’t change your username later (without creating a brand new user), so choose a good one.
👉 If you want your website to be invisible for search engines, like Google, during the development phase, you can tick the checkbox to “Discourage search engines from indexing this site”. But don’t forget to reset this setting (under Settings > Reading in the WordPress dashboard) later when your website is finished. It’s is easy to forget this this setting and the result of that bad.
Well done!
You have now installed WordPress manually from scratch. Just log in to your WordPress dashboard by adding /wp-admin after your website URL, for example https://victorduse.com/wp-admin
Nice, but what happens now?
This is where the fun part begins: to choose a WordPress theme and create your own website. But what is a theme and why do you need one? To be clear, it’s not possible to create a WordPress website without a theme. If we make a parable to a car, WordPress would be the engine and the theme would be the body or the coachwork with its look and feel. And of course, you will be the nifty driver!
There are thousands of themes to choose from. The default WordPress theme is called Twenty Nineteen but you will probably need something more versatile and crafty. So how do I choose the best one?
Divi is the most popular theme for WordPress
We recommend Divi – the number one premium WordPress theme used by more than half a million web designers. It fits beginners as well as professional designers. You will not just get a flexible theme with hundreds of professional ready-made layouts but you can – of course – also create your own unique custom-made website design.
Use less code and more creativity with the most user-friendly visual page builder – The Divi Builder – where you create design and content directly on the page using drag and drop and click and type. Read more about Divi or get 20% Off Divi today with a special discount from VictorDuse.com. Good luck with your WordPress web design!
👉 Related post: How to install the Divi Theme
This tutorial is really helpful. Thanks for sharing. It helps a lot to the beginners because you have explained each and every term in a user-friendly way. Keep it up!!