How to install WordPress

Want to know how to install WordPress on your website? It’s super easy! First off, here is what you’ll need:

A webserver running PHP 4.3 or greater
A webserver with mysql 4.0 or greater.

That’s it! While I would recommend using Apache under Linux, it’s not required. I’m going to show how to install it on a godaddy hosted site, but it’s pretty similar on any web host.

First Step: Get WordPress

Go here to download WordPress to your computer. Save the file somewhere on your hard drive, I chose my desktop. Open up the zip file:

The wordpress folder inside the zip file

Select File -> Extract Unzip the folder somewhere convenient, I chose “C:\web” which is where I put my website files.

Unzip files into a folder

Next Step: Upload files to your site

You want to upload all the files as they are to your server. Personally, I use FileZilla to transfer FTP files to my server. Here is some more detail on how to use FileZilla to upload files.

You can also use a file manager if your webhost supports it. Godaddy has a file manager utility that works fairly well.

Select Hosting -> My Hosting Account -> Manage Account
In the hosting center, select “Your Files”:

This file manager will allow you to upload all the wordpress files into a folder. You can either upload everything into the root of the site, or create a special folder for it, such as /blog or /journal. If you install it in the main site, then your whole site will be a wordpress blog. If you create a folder, it will simply be an extension to your existing site. It’s up to you.

Create a database

The next step is pretty important. You need to create a database. There are many ways to do this, and I won’t go into all of them here, but what you’ll need for wordpress is:

• Database Name
• Database User Name
• Database Password

For Godaddy, here are some instructions: how to create a mysql database on godaddy or, here are some general instructions: how to create a mysql database.

Once you have this information handy, open up your website where wordpress is located (either http://www.yoursite.com or http://www.yoursite.com/blog

You may get the Following Message:

There doesn’t seem to be a wp-config.php file. I need this before we can get started. Need more help? We got it. You can create a wp-config.php file through a web interface, but this doesn’t work for all server setups. The safest way is to manually create the file.

Go ahead and click on “Create a Configuration File”. On the next page click “Lets go”.

Enter your database information in the fields below:

Wordpress Configuration Information

Then click “start install”

Enter the name of your blog “Ex: Jeremy’s SEO Blog” and your email address, and click install.

Make sure you put a checkbox where it says “Allow my blog to appear in search engines like Google and Technorati.” (unless you don’t of course).

You’re done!!

That’s really all there is to it. WordPress is famous for it’s easy install process, and now you know why. You can do it in five minutes or less, and have a fully functioning blog. Be sure to check out other parts of my blog for WordPress plugins, tips and tricks.

Happy Blogging!

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Filed Under: Wordpress Help

Tags: blog, seo, wordpress