Luckily if you are a customer of the SelfDesigns hosting then this is a really easy one click install and we’ll even do it for you! If you’re with a different hosting company or need it set up on your localhost then read on to find out how to install WordPress.
I’m going to be going through this tutorial as if I was installing on a localhost manually. There are some localhosts such as Laragon which have a quick WordPress install feature but the majority won’t have this. If you’re using one that does then great use that! If not, continue reading. I’ll be using WAMP to install WordPress on my local machine but you can use any other if you like.
Time needed: 15 minutes.
- Download WordPress
The first thing you’re going to have to do to install WordPres is go and download the source code. You can follow this link to get the latest version of WordPress. Once this has downloaded you should have a zip folder with all of the WordPress code inside. For now, we’re going to leave this but remember where you’ve put the folder as very soon we will need to extract the contents.
- Setup the database
Next we will have to set up the database. Click on the WAMP icon and select phpMyAdmin. You should be greeted with a login screen. The username should be “root” and leave the password blank. Once logged in navigate to the “databases” tab and click create. You can call your database what ever you like, it doesn’t really matter. I’ve called mine “wordpress” but you should probably call it something more relevent to the site you’re creating.
- Extract WordPress
Now we need to create a folder so we can store everything for our website. Extract the downloaded source code of WordPress. Once extracted, go into the new folder created and cut the wordpress folder inside. Navigate to your C drive to the following path “C:\wamp64\www”. Paste the wordpress folder inside of here. The folder name will show in your URL so make sure it’s renamed to something relevent. However, for simplicity I’m keeping mine as wordpress.
- Install WordPress
Now you’ve set up your database, placed the wordpress software into your localhost. Time for WordPress’ famous “15 minute install”. Open up your browser of choice and type “localhost/wordpress/” into the url. You should be greeted with a page which lets you select a language for your install. Select the language of choice, and click continue.
The next thing you’ll get is some information of what you need to install WordPress, click “lets go”. Input the table name you called your database and the username should be “root” and leave the password field blank. The database host should be left as “localhost” however if you’re installing on a live server this may be the ip address of the database server. Check with your hosting provider if you have any issues with this. The table prefix should be a random string but I like to append it with the underscore as it makes it easier if you ever need to debug on the WordPress databases.
- Install Information
Once you’ve installed WordPress you should be presented with a welcome page which requires some additional information about the WordPress website you’re creating. Such as the title, admin user login details and email address. Fill this in and then login with the username and password and you can start customizing your website.
