WordPress is famous for its 5 minutes installation process and the one-click installing services from hosting companies make the task much easier. There are lot of readymade tools available for this purpose like Softaculous, SimpleScripts or Fantastico. Also, custom hosting panels like SiteGround Site Tools do everything behind the screen and offers you the login for WordPress site. Now that you may wonder why to install WordPress manually when such easy services are available with almost every hosting companies out there. Read on further to under why you should install WordPress at least one time and how to do that.
Why to Install WordPress Manually?
Automatic WordPress installation will lead to lot of problems:
- You will not know the basics and need to search for help or get in touch with hosting support when facing problems in the frontend.
- The problem with one-click install is that you need to be careful when choosing the details like domain, username and database name from security perspective. Most hosting companies do not even allow to create/select DB, username, password details when you go for quick install option. When you choose custom install, you need to manually select http or http, www or non-www, subdirectory or main domain and database name is generally created with additional prefixes. You will not be able to change the database name on some setup like SiteGround.
- If unnoticed, your hosting account email or generic emails like [email protected] will be assigned as your WordPress login username. You can’t change the admin username through frontend WordPress admin interface. Learn more on how to change WordPress username.
The other issue with WordPress installation from hosting companies is the add-on plugins installed. For example, SiteGround WordPress installation needs a plugin called SiteGround Central and you will get other plugins like Speed Optimizer and Security Optimizer. You need to deactivate and delete these plugins if not needed.
How to Install WordPress Manually on Your Domain?
The solution here is to go for manual installation in which you can define your own parameters without any hassle. Installing WordPress manually has the following steps:
- Downloading latest WordPress version.
- Uploading WordPress on your domain.
- Creating a database.
- Connecting database to WordPress.
- Run installation process.
- Login to WordPress admin panel.
We will discuss each step in detail.
1. Download Latest WordPress
Go to WordPress.org site and download the latest WordPress version. Note that WordPress.com and WordPress.org are two different flavors of same WordPress software. For self installation, you should go to WordPress.org site and download the application.
Extract the downloaded zip file and you will get a folder named “wordpress”.
2. Uploading WordPress On Your Domain
Use either FTP applications like FileZilla or “File Manager” app in hosting account and upload the files to your domain.
- If you want to install WordPress on your domain, then copy all files from the downloaded “wordpress” folder and upload in your site’s root directory (/public_html).
- For subdomain or subdirectory installation, make sure to upload the files inside the required folder. Note that in most hosting panels, you will see both subdomains and subdirectories as folders in File Manager / FTP though they are different in the setup.
Remember, if you upload the entire “wordpress” folder then you will be installing WordPress on a subdirectory like “yoursitename.com/wordpress”. So, make sure to only upload the files inside “wordpress” folder and not the folder itself. This is one of the mistakes most of beginner users make and checkout our article on WordPress beginners mistake to avoid such mistakes.
3. Creating a Database
Wait till the time all files are uploaded through File Manager. If you are using FTP, during the time files are uploaded on your server, login to your hosting account and navigate to MySQL database section and create a new database. Below is the picture showing the database creation in cPanel and learn more detail on how to create database in cPanel.
Next, create a user and assign the user to database in hosting account. Note down your database name, username and password details which you need to use in the next step.
4. Connecting Database to WordPress Site
Ensure all files are successfully uploaded in step 2 before proceeding further. Now that you have database and WordPress installation and the next step is to configure WordPress to connect with your database. There are two ways of doing this:
Creating “wp-config.php” file
WordPress installation will have a file named “wp-config-sample.php” in your root folder and copy the content of this file. Create a new file called “wp-config.php” in the same location, paste the content inside this file and save.
Now edit “wp-config.php” file and add the database details which you created in step 3.
The hostname is always “localhost”, if it does not work then you can use your hosting server as a hostname. If you have difficulties in editing “wp-config.php” file then follow the below steps to connect your database.
Configure “wp-config.php” in Frontend
After you uploaded WordPress on your server and created a database, open your site’s URL in the browser. WordPress will prompt to you choose the language of your installation and choose the language from the list and click on “Continue” button.
WordPress will indicate the missing “wp-config.php” file and provide an option to create it online. Click on “Create a Configuration File” to proceed further.
In the next screen, WordPress will remind to keep database details ready and click on “Let’s go” button.
Enter database name, username, password, host, table prefix and click on “Submit” button. Table prefix will be “wp_” by default and you can change to any prefix, as you need.
If the database is not connected then you will see the below error, probably you might have entered wrong password, username or DB name. Check “wp-config.php” file and make sure you have provided the correct details.
5. Run WordPress Installation
If your database is successfully connected then you will see the below screen and click on “Run the Install” button.
Enter title, email and login credentials for your WordPress site. We recommend to uncheck “Allow search engines to index this site” to avoid search engines displaying your site in the search results page. Once your content is ready then you can enable this option from frontend admin dashboard.
Once installed you will see a success message as below.
6. Login to WordPress Admin Panel
Click on the “Log in” button to login to your WordPress admin dashboard and start building your site. You can login to admin panel by using one of the URLs with your domain:
https://www.yoursite.com/wp-admin/
https://www.yoursite.com/wplogin.php
Final Words
Though manually installing WordPress is a lengthy process, you can define all details like database, username, password and admin email as per your wish. You can also edit the configuration file and change these details anytime later without looking for help. This will give you a solid backend knowledge of WordPress and helps you to troubleshoot whenever there are problems.
