In this presentation we cover the details of installing WordPress, go over common problems and talk about the importance of maintaining your website and basic website security.

1. Installing WordPress The Right Way
By Chris Burgess @chrisburgess
(slides will be posted to Meetup after the talk)

2. Agenda
• Before you begin
• Walkthrough of the "Famous 5-Minute Install”
• Common installation problems
• Other methods of installation
• Next steps

3. Before you begin

5. Make sure you have…
• Hosting
• Domain Name (pointed to your web host)
If you missed the Meetup last month, the links
to the slides and video are on Meetup.

6. WordPress’ “Installing WordPress
Guide”
https://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress

7. The Famous 5-Minute Install

8. Famous 5-Minute Install
Here's the quick version of the instructions for those who are already comfortable with performing such installations.
More detailed instructions follow.
If you are not comfortable with renaming files, step 3 is optional and you can skip it as the install program will create the
wp-config.php file for you.
Download and unzip the WordPress package if you haven't already.
Create a database for WordPress on your web server, as well as a MySQL user who has all privileges for accessing and
modifying it.
(Optional) Find and rename wp-config-sample.php to wp-config.php, then edit the file (see Editing wp-config.php) and
add your database information.
Upload the WordPress files to the desired location on your web server:
If you want to integrate WordPress into the root of your domain (e.g. http://example.com/), move or upload all contents
of the unzipped WordPress directory (excluding the WordPress directory itself) into the root directory of your web server.
If you want to have your WordPress installation in its own subdirectory on your web site (e.g. http://example.com/blog/),
create the blog directory on your server and upload the contents of the unzipped WordPress package to the directory via
FTP.
Note: If your FTP client has an option to convert file names to lower case, make sure it's disabled.
Run the WordPress installation script by accessing the URL in a web browser. This should be the URL where you uploaded
the WordPress files.
If you installed WordPress in the root directory, you should visit: http://example.com/
If you installed WordPress in its own subdirectory called blog, for example, you should visit: http://example.com/blog/
That's it! WordPress should now be installed.

9. Overview
1. Download WordPress from WordPress.org
2. Upload the WordPress files to your web host
3. Create a database and database user
4. Run the installation script

10. Step 1: Download WordPress from
WordPress.org

14. Step 2: Upload the WordPress files to
your web host

15. Log into your cPanel (or equivalent)

16. cPanel -> File Manager

17. First time you use File Manager

18. File Manager

20. Upload WordPress

21. Extracting WordPress

22. Extracting WordPress

23. Extracting WordPress

24. Extracting WordPress

25. Moving WordPress to the Web Root
(i.e. example.com/ rather than example.com/wordpress/

26. Moving WordPress to the Web Root
(i.e. example.com.au/ rather than example.com.au/wordpress/

27. Moving WordPress to the Web Root
(i.e. example.com.au/ rather than example.com.au/wordpress/

28. Before -> After

29. Cleaning up…
• Delete “wordpress” folder
• Delete wordpressXXX.zip
• You can also delete the readme, licence and
install.php if you want

30. Step 3: Creating a database and
database user

31. A little bit about databases
• WordPress uses a database to store content and
configuration
• MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, Microsoft SQL Server,
Oracle, CouchDB, MongoDB, Redis – are all
databases
• Some are better suited at certain tasks than others
• MySQL is by far the most popular database used for
WordPress

32. Creating a MySQL Database
• We can create a MySQL database a few ways,
but the most common way is to use cPanel (or
equivalent hosting control panel) to create the
database and database user

33. We’re going to save our details, I use a
temporary text file…

34. Creating a MySQL Database

35. Creating a MySQL Database

36. Creating a MySQL Database

37. Creating the Database

38. Creating the Database User

39. Always use strong
passwords/passphrases for everything

40. Add the User to your Database

41. Set privileges

42. Confirm what you’ve done

43. Confirm what you’ve done

44. You should have something like this:

45. Visit your URL (your domain name)

46. WordPress reminds us we need our
database details!

47. Entering our database details

48. Copy and paste

49. Step 4: Run the installation script

50. All right sparky!

51. Enter your site name and WordPress
username
Never use the default “admin” and choose a
strong password!

52. You can change this setting in the
dashboard, but it’s an important one!

54. Success!

55. Check your inbox

56. It’s working!

58. You can now login at:
http://wphelp.com.au/login

59. Your WordPress Dashboard

60. Installation Demo

61. Other files…
• .htaccess
• robots.txt
• humans.txt
• favicon.ico (and others)

62. Common installation problems

63. Here are just a few…
• Incorrect database details
• Syntax issues
• Server configuration (PHP, index.php,
permissions etc.

64. Check your database settings

65. Syntax issues

66. Server issues
• Too many to mention
• Check with your host
• Or… check out the next steps in a few slides 

67. Other methods of installation

68. You may have heard of…
• One-click installers (Installatron, SimpleScripts,
Softaculous, Fantastico etc.) <- not recommended
• Clone features/plugins (ManageWP, InfiniteWP)
• BackupBuddy
• WP-CLI (wp-cli.org)
• Version Control (git etc.)
• Manual (FTP/SFTP/SCP, ssh, wget etc.)

69. Next steps

70. Where to go for help…
• Melbourne WordPress Meetup :)
• WordPress Codex
• Search
• Ask a friend

71. Recap
1. Download WordPress
2. Upload WordPress to your web host
3. Create a database and database user
4. Run the installation script
5. Next, make sure you secure your installation
(covered next session)

72. Chris Burgess @chrisburgess
Questions?