Installing WordPress is a piece of cake. Easiest is on a hosted website. Most major hosting companies have a one-click WordPress installation available – usually in their cPanel. Then it’s just a matter of clicking the button and answering a few questions about names and passwords and – Hey! Presto! – it’s done: you’ve got a working WordPress website.
Not much more difficult is installing it manually, either on your own local server or on a hosted website. First, download the latest version from WordPress.org and unzip it (extract it) into a handy folder – on your desktop is usually convenient.
Next you’ll need to create a database in MySQL for WordPress. I use phpMyAdmin because I ‘m not confident of my ability to do it manually in MySQL. Once you crank up phpMyAdmin, click on “Databases” (top left tab), there you can create a new database. Just put in a name (WordPress1, maybe?) and click create. Then you need to create a new username and password for this new database. Go to “Privileges:” and click on “add new user”. You’ll provide the new username, the host (name of the site) and a new password. Write these down, you’ll need them almost immediately!
Now you need to use your editor to open the WordPress configuration file – in the handy folder where you extracted it to. The config file is named “wp-sample-config.php”. What you’ll be looking for in the file are 4 items like define(‘DB_NAME’, ‘database_name_here’); in this one you’ll enter the new database name between the single quote marks. The other three places you need to enter your new information are the new username (DB_USER), new user password (DB_PASSWORD) and the site name (DB_HOST). Done! Save the file as “wp-config.php” – in other words, remove the word “-sample” from the title.
Okay, all the background work is done – you’re ready to install WordPress. For a hosted site, use your FTP client (Filezilla) to upload all the contents of your WordPress folder to your host root. If you are doing a local server, dump all the files into your site root (htdocs) folder. Now you need to run the install script. For a hosted site, type in “http://www.your_domain_name.com/wp-admin/install.php” in your browser window. For your local server, type in “localhost/wp-admin/install.php”. Hit enter and your browser should display a working WordPress site!
If this hasn’t worked for you, or is not clear in some way(s), your best bet is to read the WordPress installation directions directly from WordPress itself. They offer their famous “5 minute install” instructions in a clear, easy to follow lesson. If something is still not clear, use our contact form to ask questions – we’re pretty good about a prompt response.