How To Install WordPress Manually

Description:

If you are new to the website scene and want to do things as easy as possible to save time then I suggest you “Install WordPress using Fantastico” (if you have it on your web server, if you are with Hostgator, you do). This tutorial will run through the process of installing WordPress manually.

Video:

Requirements;

• FTP Client for Uploading Installation files
• Create a MySQL Database and a MySQL User.

Step By Step;

Here are the instructions given by WordPress.org, which I will expand on and explain each part;

Step 1) First you will need to download the installation files from WordPress.org, link to the download page here.

Step 2) Now unzip the file you downloaded, you can unzip it anywhere you like, it won’t be needed once you have finished installing WordPress.

Step 3) The contents of the zipped file should have been a folder called “wordpress” that contains a bunch of files and folders (the WordPress installation files). You now need to edit one of those files, open the “wordpress” folder and locate the “wp-config-sample.php” file. Depending on your computer this step may be slightly different for some people, right click on that file and select something along the lines of “Open file with” and then you will need to choose Notepad, WordPad or something like that. You could also open Notepad/WordPad first and then choose file open and locate the “wp-config-sample.php” file.

Step 4) Once you have that file open you need to change some things, first; the MySQL database name, user and password. You will need to create a MySQL database and a user to go with that database in your website control panel, if you are not sure how check out this tutorial “How to Create a MySQL Database and User”. You will then need to enter those details in the place of the following 3 phrases; ‘putyourdbnamehere’, ‘usernamehere’ and ‘yourpasswordhere’. Look at the following image to understand.

Step 5) There are a few other settings you need to change in this file also. The MySQL hostname is usually ‘localhost’ so you shouldn’t have to change that, if the installation doesn’t work and everything else is entered correctly you should contact your web host to see if your MySQL hostname is different. (Hostgator is ‘localhost’)

Step 6) Now you need to change your “Authentications Unique Keys”, they will look like the following:

    
define('AUTH_KEY', 'put your unique phrase here');
define('SECURE_AUTH_KEY', 'put your unique phrase here');
define('LOGGED_IN_KEY', 'put your unique phrase here');
define('NONCE_KEY', 'put your unique phrase here');

You will need to replace ‘put your unique phrase here’ with a unique phrase. It is actually recommended that you have a very unique and reasonably long phrase so I suggest you use the unique key generator that WordPress offer, "Generate Your Unique Keys Now". It will generate text like the following.

    
define('AUTH_KEY', 'QOCL_n|iW$6u&#1+(mUh+W7(]i)=F84n>p]I*_-- d;qA6CsiL{_f+smY!ai^6=K');
define('SECURE_AUTH_KEY', 'Vl5db8M-_2i>[CvC]-hu<AV|:cLz>Qm-ATW;svR=y+Hm0XU!Z?>4@k=8[-wz>=*T');
define('LOGGED_IN_KEY',   ';~o9Cp-tLhQ+*[X(5c[zhfXM|4A%a}VMdSD~|@;XapR=s`JZ[U+-4I|cc|}lsA-V');
define('NONCE_KEY',       'wm[8c)^]lOh}LO0f~OzC$p|FaR?}ZU_V]Li:&Oz)C|vvbm 0@){d@r=jDEW98bu1');

Step 7) Once you have changed the things mentioned above you are ready to upload and install WordPress. Using an FTP Client (like Filezilla) upload all the files within the “wordpress” directory to the location you want to install WordPress on your server. This is usually in a folder named something like public_html, www folder, something along those lines. With CPanel on Hostgator your main directory (that www.yoursite.com loads from) is public_html. So any folder created within that would be www.yousite.com/newfolder, so that should help you with finding the right location to upload the WorPress installation files too.

Step 8) Once all the installation files are uploaded go to www.yousite.com/... (Wherever you uploaded the files) followed by “/wp-admin/install.php”.

Step 9) If you receive an error message when the page loads it means some of the details entered above where incorrect (it will say which ones). If all is well you should see a Welcome screen asking for a few more details. Simply enter a Blog Title and your email address, make sure the email address is valid.

Step 10) Now you will be shown your username and password, these are the Admin login details so write them down. Once you are ready click “Log In”

Additional Information:

Once you login you will be able to change your password to something easier to remember, if you want too. On the left you should see a list of other WordPress tutorials, it’s a good idea to have a look through those to help you learn how to use WordPress.