inspiredbywordpress

Installing Wordpress

Before anyone can do anything with Wordpress, they need to be able to install it.  Weather it be on a local server or on a live server it has to be installed.  In this tutorial I will explain how to install wordpress from scratch.  Before you can precede with this tutorial you will require:

1. A working web server
2. An FTP account
3. A MySQL database

Step 1: Downloading and Uploading

The first that you will need to do is visit the Wordpress website where you will need to click the download link on the homepage.  This will take you to the Wordpress download page, here you need to click the large blue link on the right-hand side of the page, this will initiate the Wordpress download. Once the download is complete you need to extract the files.

If you are installing wordpress on your localhost, you can copy the wordpress folder to the location here you wish to install wordpress on your server and then skip to step two.

The rest of you, and no-doubt the majority of you, will now need to upload Wordpress to your server.  For those of you who do not have any hosting yet you can get some free hosting over at byethost.

In order to upload your website to your servers you will require and FTP client like FileZilla.  Once you have installed an FTP client you will need to input your FTP details so that it can connect to your host.

In order to do this in FileZilla you will need to go to File –> Site Manager, then click “New Site” and fill-out the form that you are presented with, finally click “Connect” to connect to your FTP server.

The FileZilla site manager

Once you have connected to your FTP server copy the contents of the “Wordpress” folder that was in the ZIP folder onto the server, in the location where you would like to install wordpress.  In order to do this in FileZilla, navigate to the location where you would like to install wordpress and in the left pain navigate to the location where you extract the wordpress ZIP folder.  Now click-and-drag the contents of the ZIP folder on the right-panel.

Step 2: Running the Install

You will now need to navigation to the location where you installed wordpress.  For those of you who have a byethost account this will probably be username.byethost.com.

Once you navigated to this page you should be presented with a screen that looks like the one below.

The first screen that should be seen when installing wordpress

On this screen simply click “Create a Configuration File” to proceed.  The next screen will explain to you what you are going to do when installing wordpress.  Read the screen and then click “Lets Go!”.

Now, it’s time to insert your Wordpress database settings, you should be able to get these from the screen where you set-up your database with your host, if you cannot find these instructions contact your web host and they should be able to provide with assistance in finding them.

The Wordpress install screen where you configure your database settings

Now, click “Submit”.  If the screen returns and error go back and check your settings.   Otherwise, you will  proceed onto a screen that will confirm that you have successfully connected wordpress with your database.  If you get this screen click the “Run the Install” button.

On the next screen you will need to choose a name for your Wordpress website.  Enter the name into the appropriate box and then insert an email address, this will be associated with the main admin account, and if you forget your password it will be emailed to this address.

If you want your website to appear on search engines, tick the box labeled “Allow my blog to appear in search….” and then click “Install Wordpress”.

The screen that allows you to choose a name for your new Wordpress website

On the next screen you will be presented with your username (admin) and a randomly generated password, note this password carefully before clicking “Log In”.

The final screen shows you your username and password

Now for those of you who didn’t write down your password correctly, check your email.  Assuming that your host allows “php send mail” then you should shortly receive an email with your password in.

The final thing you now need to do is login, you should be presented with a screen like this the one below.

The default wordpress logon screen

Conclusion

I hope this tutorial helps somebody install wordpress successfully on there server.  If you need any help, just give me a shout by leaving a comment and I will do my best to help you.

If you have any other comments, feedback or just want to share your thoughts on wordpress or this tutorial, feel free to leave a comment below.

Thank you for reading.