How To Install WordPress to cPanel in 5 Easy Steps
WordPress is one of the most fastest growing CMS software on the market. It is also probably the easiest and most powerful content management system nowadays.
With WordPress you can create a blog in just 5 minutes, a presentation website and even an online store. Due to its fast growing community, there are tons of plugins and themes with which you can customize your website as you like.
Both despite and because of its popularity, WordPress is a secure platform and extremely flexible. You can additionally enhance your WordPress website security by installing plugins that do just this.
In this article I will show you how to install WordPress to your cPanel in just 5 easy steps.
1. Download WordPress
- Download the latest WordPress package to your local computer from https://wordpress.org/download/ and click on the Download WordPress button to begin downloading.
If you don’t want to download the latest version, you can simply go to https://wordpress.org/download/release-archive/ and choose older versions of WordPress.
However, I don’t advise you to use older WordPress versions due to security reasons. - Unzip the downloaded package to a folder in your local computer
2. Upload WordPress to cPanel
There are 3 ways of uploading any files to a hosting account, including WordPress:
- Upload via FTP
- Upload via File Manager
- Upload via SSH
The first two are the most used. Use the method you are comfortable with.
I’m going to use FileZilla (it’s free) to show you how to easily upload WordPress to cPanel. The FileZilla client can be downloaded from here.
As soon as the FileZilla instalation completes, open the client and let’s get to work.
- Insert your FTP credentials: host (www.example.com), username and password and click Quickconnect. Usually they are the same credentials you are using to log into cPanel. If you cannot log in via FTP, you’d want to contact your hosting provider and ask them for more information.
- Go to public_html folder and create a new directory for your WordPress website. For security reasons, I suggest choosing a strong folder name to protect yourself from bots and crackers.
- Drag and drop. Locate your recently downloaded WordPress folder and simply drag and drop all the files into your newly created directory on your public_html.
Congrats! You’ve just uploaded your WordPress website via FTP!
Let’s go to the next step.
3. Create MySQL Database and User
Once you’ve uploaded the WordPress folder to cPanel, you have to create the database in which WordPress will store its information.
- Log into cPanel
Go to Database section and click on MySQL Databases icon
3. Create a database from the “Create a New Database” section. Choose a name that is fit for your website and insert it in the form. I will go with “wordpress” because it’s a WordPress website that I’m installing.
For security reasons, you might want to scramble your database name a little bit, because a database named “wordpress” is more vurnarable than a database named “wp9823”. For the sake of simplicity, I will go simple with “wordpress”.
- Create an user for your database. From the same MySQL Databases panel, scroll down a bit to MySQL Users section. Choose an username for your database. Again, for security reasons I would recommend choosing a complicated username and a very strong password. I will go with “wp” just to show you how it looks.
If you cannot think of a strong password, you can click the “Password Generator” button to create a random strong password. But be careful to save your password somewhere secure so you don’t lose it.
- Add an user to a Database. From the “Add a user to Database” section, choose your user and database from the dropdown menus and click the “Add” button.
Now you can see that a new window has popped out and you must choose the privileges for your user and click the “All Privileges” checkbox and click “Next Step“.
Congrats! Your database is all set and we’re ready to go install WordPress on cPanel!
4. Configure wp-config.php
The wp-config.php file contains all the database information WordPress application needs to know.
You must configure wp-config.php to ensure the correct database information is associated with the WordPress instalation.
The wp-config.php file can be found inside your WordPress folder, usually at public_html/yourwordpressfolder/wp-config-sample.php.
As soon as you locate the file:
- Right click on it, and select Edit.
When the file opens, look for the following information:
- Replace database_name_here with the name of the database you created earlier
Replace username_here with the username you created for the database you created
Replace password_here with the password of the database that you created
When done editing, make sure you save and then close the file
Congrats! You’ve just set up the configurations. Let’s go further, you’ve got one last step until you complete the installation!
5. Run and Complete the Installation
Open a browser window and access the installation page to run the installation script. Depending where you installed your WordPress, you will find it at either of the following urls:
http://yourdomain.com/wp-admin/install.php
http://yourdomain.com/yourwordpressdirectory/wp-admin/install.php
Once you triggered the install script follow these simple steps:
- Select your language
Insert your credentials and click Submit
- Create an administrator account. Make sure you choose a strong password.
You are now good to go!
Make the best of the newly created website and let me know if this guide was helpful!
Carol Pelu
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