Installation of WordPress needs a hosting server and Bluehost is one of the recommended hosting companies by WordPress. Before you start the installation process it is necessary to decide your domain name. Bluehost offers the following possibilities to choose a domain for a WordPress installation:
Default Bluehost login domain which you already added during account setup. Check your default domain name under “Domains > Domain List”.
New domain which you can associate to your Bluehost account. You can also associate a new domain to you Bluehost account under “Domains > Assign” and install WordPress on that domain.
Create a subdomain of any associated domain under “Domain > Subdomains” in order to install WordPress on a subdomain.
Bluehost Domain Options
Besides the above options, you will also have the following options during the installation process:
Choose the domain with WWW or without WWW option during installation.
Temporary domain offered by Bluehost for free. This is normally used for installation before migrating the site to live server or for testing purposes.
Installing on root directory or any specific directory. WordPress by default will be installed on the root directory “/public_html/”, you can install on other directories like “/public_html/wordpress/”. You can add directory during the time of installation and need not to create it in advance.
Domain Options During WordPress Installation
WWW is a subdomain of you domain which will be available by default and you do not need to create this.
Installing on a specific directory or a subdomain are technically same from the file structure perspective. For example, a directory installation like “www.yoursite.com/wordpress/” and a subdomain installation “http://wordpress.yoursite.com/” will create a folder “wordpress” under root directory like “/public_html/wordpress/”. The difference is the URL which you can define in WordPress admin dashboard frontend.
Decide the domain based on your need before you start WordPress installation process.
DNS Settings and Domain Accessibility
Once you decided your domain name, open it in a web browser to check whether it is accessible. At this point it should show a Bluehost ad since nothing is setup on your domain. If you see “404 page not found” or any other server error then DNS settings are the immediate thing to be checked. Checking DNS settings is important especially if your domain is registered with other registrars like GoDaddy or HostGator. Follow the below steps to setup your domain’s DNS settings:
Open your DNS zone editor in GoDaddy or HostGator and change the name servers to Bluehost name servers. This will transfer the DNS ownership to Bluehost servers and your GoDaddy or HostGator DNS settings will be disabled once the changes are propagated.
Go to “Domains > Zone Editor” in Bluehost and add an “A (Host)” and “CNAME (Alias)” records to point your domain to Bluehost server’s IP address.
Checking Bluehost DNS Settings
Once you changed DNS settings it may take up to 4 hours for the changes to propagate and effective in live. Again open your site’s URL in a browser to check the accessibility.
IP address of your Bluehost server can be found under “cPanel > Stats sidebar”. If you have a dedicated IP then find your server’s IP under “Hosting > Server > Server IPs”.
Ensure your URL does not show any error in the browser like 404 page not found, otherwise you will not able to open your WordPress admin dashboard as well site though you will be still able to install WordPress.
Leave a Reply
Your email is safe with us.