Installation of Wordpress
Introduction
Wordpress is a popular content management system (CMS). It was initially developed to create blogs but is now also used as a CMS for websites that do not have a blog character. With Wordpress, even users without extensive web development knowledge can create and manage sites. Technically, it is based on the PHP scripting language and uses a MySQL database to store content. The software is distributed for free by the Wordpress Foundation under an Open Source GPL license.
In this tutorial, we will show the installation of Wordpress version 5.x on a web space. It is especially recommended, for security reasons, to install the latest version of Wordpress. This guide essentially also applies to later versions of Wordpress.
This tutorial will cover the following points:
- Download and unzip the Wordpress installation files
- Upload Wordpress via SFTP to the web space
- Basic configuration of Wordpress on the server
- Menu customization
- Creating a homepage
The installation of themes and plugins will be covered in a separate tutorial.
Step 1: Check Prerequisites
You have a hosting.fr web hosting package, which has already been configured as follows:
- For your domain, as in our example “mustermann-domain.com”, a Apache web server with PHP 7 has been configured in the options.
- A database has already been created in your web hosting package. You know the credentials for this MySQL database. Otherwise, the article “Where can I find my database credentials?” explains how to find your credentials.
- A user has been created to access the domain’s web space, which has access rights for the “SSH File Transfer Protocol” (SFTP). You know the credentials for this user. Alternatively, you can find the credentials in the article “Where can I find my FTP/SFTP credentials?”.
- For the domain, SSL, for example via Let’s Encrypt, has been activated, allowing secure communication with the site via an HTTPS connection.
In this tutorial, the tool FileZilla is used, which can be downloaded via the project site for Windows / OSX / Linux. It is assumed that this tool is already installed on your computer.
Step 2: Installation
Download and Unzip Wordpress
A French version of Wordpress can be downloaded via the Wordpress site. Download the latest French version of Wordpress directly via this link.
Unzip the zip archive on your computer. This will create a “wordpress” folder.
Create a Server Profile and Establish Connection to the Web Space in FileZilla
Launch the FileZilla tool. Create a new server profile under “File” > “Server Manager” > “New Server”.
Select the SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP).
Enter under “Server” the server address, which you will find in the management of “FTP/SSH/Statistics Users” of your web hosting package.
Select port 2244.
Enter the username and password for the web space.
For clarity, you can name the server profile, for example, “hosting.fr Wordpress”, by selecting the profile on the left in the tree and pressing “F2”.
Finally, click on “Connect”.
Filezilla will ask if you want to save the password for your web space. Choose “Save Password”. However, we recommend saving the password securely by choosing a master password.
Filezilla will then ask if you trust the server’s cryptographic fingerprint. Choose here “Always trust this server, save this key.”
Upload Wordpress Files
After successfully establishing the connection to the server, you can upload the files to the server:
Navigate in the left column of FileZilla to the “wordpress” folder, which you unzipped from the downloaded zip archive.
Navigate in the right column of FileZilla to the “html” > “mustermann-domain.com” folder.
Select all files in the “wordpress” folder on the left. Right-click on the files and choose “Upload”.
Configuration of Wordpress on the Server
Once you have uploaded the Wordpress files to the server, you can use the Wordpress web installer. Remember to access your domain in a web browser: https://mustermann-domain.com/. The page you see should look like this:
Click on “Let’s go!”. You will then be prompted to provide the database credentials:
Your database credentials are found in the partner system. Enter the database credentials, which are:
- the database name,
- the username,
- the password,
- the database host.
in the form and click “Submit”. If the credentials are correct, the following message will appear:
Please click on “Run the installation”.
Then, a page will appear where you can configure the basic settings of the website managed by Wordpress.
Please enter the chosen title, the username for the administrator, etc. Set a username and password for the administrator. Finally, click on “Install Wordpress”.
Click on “Log In” and log in to your newly installed Wordpress:
The basic installation of Wordpress is now complete.
The frontend, i.e., the actual website, is accessible via your domain.
The backend of the site is accessible by adding
/wp-admin/to your domain in the address bar of your browser.
The following screenshot shows the Wordpress backend:
Step 3: Essential Procedures on the Wordpress Installation
After installation, the page settings should be reviewed and adjusted under “Settings”. The settings regarding the comment function are particularly interesting. You might prefer not to allow comments on your page.
Step 4: Menu Customization
After installation, there is no menu yet. If you do not want to run your site as a blog, it is advisable to create a menu for navigation. To do this, please go to the backend to the “Appearance” > “Menus” tab. Create a new menu called “Main Menu”. Make sure to check “Primary” when creating.
As a test, you can already add “Sample Page” to the menu by selecting it on the left and clicking “Add to Menu” then “Save Menu”. The “Sample Page” menu should appear at the top of the page in the frontend:
Step 5: Creating the Homepage
Pages can be created in the backend via the “Pages” tab.
If you do not want to run your Wordpress site as a blog, it is recommended to create a homepage. Create a new page “Homepage” and publish it by clicking the “Publish” button. Then, go to the backend to the “Settings” > “Reading” tab and set the page you just created as the homepage.
Step 6: Automatic and Manual Updates
Since Wordpress is a very popular software, finding security vulnerabilities is very attractive to attackers, which is why you should always keep your Wordpress installation up to date. Automatic updates for the Wordpress core for “minor-releases” and security updates are enabled by default after installation. Plugins are not updated automatically and must be updated from time to time by the site operator.
Conclusion
In this tutorial, the basic installation of Wordpress was shown. In other articles, we will discuss how to extend Wordpress with plugins and adapt the site design with themes.
Learn More
- Installation of Plugins and Themes in Wordpress - Install themes to adapt the site design and plugins to expand functionality.
Web Links on the Subject
The official site of the Wordpress Foundation in English offers a lot of information about Wordpress.
You can get help with problems and questions about Wordpress in the Wordpress community forums.
A complete documentation on Wordpress is available on the Wordpress Codex in English.