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How to install wordpress?

In this article, we will walk you through the different steps of a manual WordPress installation.

1: Create a MySQL database in the control panel of your hosting

To install WordPress, you will need a MySQL database. WordPress stores all content and settings of your website in this database. The theme settings, plugins, individual users and other changes are also kept in this database.

To create a database, log in to the control panel (Direct Admin) of your website.

Step 1: Log in to DirectAdmin and open MySQL Management

You can find the login details to the control panel in the email you received from vBoxx. Open the URL of your control panel directly from the email.

Now click on your domain name and look for the MySQL Management Option in the Account Manager tab.

In the MySQL Management you can find all your databases and create new databases.

Step 2: Create a database

Click on Create new Database at the top of the new screen. You now need to enter a number of settings. Choose a strong password and make sure that the name of your database and the username are not the same. You can also use a code as the database name and username.

Now click on Create Database. You will now see the entered data again in a new screen:

Copy the data and keep it for later. In step 3 (adjusting the wp-config.php) you will need this information later.

2: Download the latest version of WordPress

Now that you have created a database, it is time to download the latest version of WordPress. You can download this for free at the Wordpress Website. Click on “Download WordPress” in the top right corner. You are now on a new page, scroll down and you will find the download button to the latest version.

A ZIP file with the current Wordpress version will be downloaded to your computer. Unzip this file and open the folder “wordpress”. In this folder you will find the file . Rename this file so that it is called wp-config.php (without “-sample”):

3: Customize the wp-config.php file

Now that you've named the file wp-config.php, it's time to start editing this file. The wp-config.php file is the core of your WordPress website. For example here is where you will need to insert your MySQL database details, created in the first step in this article.

Step 1: Enter your database information

In this file you will enter the name, user and password of your database, created in step 1.

1. Open the file in a text editor and search for the following code:

{
    /** The name of the database for WordPress */
    define('DB_NAME', 'database_name_here');
     
    /** MySQL database username */
    define('DB_USER', 'username_here');
     
    /** MySQL database password */
    define('DB_PASSWORD', 'password_here');
     
    /** MySQL hostname */
    define('DB_HOST', 'localhost');
}

Enter the name of your database where database_name_here is now. Do the same for the username and password at username_here and password_here. This looks like this

{
    /** The name of the database for WordPress */
    define('DB_NAME', 'wpostma_name');
    
    /** MySQL database username */
    define('DB_USER', 'wpostma_user');
    
    /** MySQL database password */
    define('DB_PASSWORD', '5FVL67pU8');
    
    /** MySQL hostname */
    define('DB_HOST', 'localhost');

}

The “hostname” of your database is in almost all cases “localhost”. This hostname is different for some hosting parties.

Step 2: Customize Unique Keys and Salts

Another important part of the wp-config.php file is the “unique keys and salts”. These are used for securing your WordPress website. Look for the following lines of code:

    {

        define('AUTH_KEY',         'put your unique phrase here');
        define('SECURE_AUTH_KEY',  'put your unique phrase here');
        define('LOGGED_IN_KEY',    'put your unique phrase here');
        define('NONCE_KEY',        'put your unique phrase here');
        define('AUTH_SALT',        'put your unique phrase here');
        define('SECURE_AUTH_SALT', 'put your unique phrase here');
        define('LOGGED_IN_SALT',   'put your unique phrase here');
        define('NONCE_SALT',       'put your unique phrase here');
        
    }

Now go to https://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/salt/ to get a new, random string of characters and replace the above-mentioned lines of code with the keys found there. It looks like this:

4: Upload Wordpress to your server via FTP

The files for your WordPress website are now ready to upload to your server or hosting package. Your hosting party has sent you FTP details that you can use to log in. You need an FTP client for this. This is a special program that you have to download to be able to FTP.

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol and is a way of transferring files between computers or servers.

Step 1: Install an FTP client

Don't have an FTP program yet? I myself use Panic's Transmit. A free alternative is an FTP client such as FileZilla. Download and install this program to continue.

Step 2: Log in via FTP

Now that you have installed an FTP client you can start using FTP. Open FileZilla and fill in the “Host”, “Username” and “Password” for FTP. Your hosting party has sent you this. Now click on “Connect” (or “Quickconnect”) and look for the root folder of your website. You can usually find these as follows:

domains > yourdomain.com > public_html

The most important thing is that you are in the public_html folder of the correct domain name. Delete the files already here. You do this by selecting them all and then clicking on the files with your right mouse button and choosing “Delete” or “Delete”. Wait until FileZilla has finished removing it.

Step 3: Upload WordPress files

Now open the folder “wordpress” on your computer. This is the folder where the wp-config.php file is located. Now select all files in this folder (on Windows Control + A or on a Mac Command + A). Now drag these files to the public_html folder in your FTP client. Now wait for your FTP client to finish uploading to move to the next and final step.

5: Install WordPress

You have now gone through almost all the steps: you have created a database, downloaded WordPress and uploaded it via FTP to your domain name. You can now go through the last step to install WordPress.

To do this, go to your website (the domain name you installed WordPress on). If you have completed all the steps above correctly, you will now see the following screen:

Here are some fields that you will need to fill in to complete the WordPress installation:

Site Title

Enter the name of your website at “Site Title”. You can change this title later, but if you already know what you want to call your website, you can enter the name here. In most cases this is, for example, your company name.

Username, password and email address

With username and password, it is important that you choose a strong combination. These are the login details that you will use to log in to the WordPress admin environment. WordPress already creates a strong password for you by default. It is wise to use such a strong password. Usually you cannot easily remember these types of passwords yourself. So use a tool like LastPass to remember your password.

Also enter a working email address so you can reset your password if you ever forget it.

Search Engine Visibility

If you check this option, WordPress will add the "noindex" tag to your website. This tells search engines that you do not want your website to be indexed. You can always adjust this setting later.

Install WordPress

Now click on “Install WordPress”. If everything goes well, you will now see the following screen:

WordPress is now installed and you can log in to WordPress at https://yourdomainame.com/wp-admin. Use the information you have just entered.

How to install Wordpress?