Now you need to install WordPress on your hosting account. If your host requires you to install it by hand, go to WordPress.org’s instructions. But nowadays, many hosting companies have an easy installation program for installing WordPress. If you chose HostGator, this program is called Fantastico.
This tutorial covers how to install WordPress using Fantastico. You simply sign into your Hosting account (your control panel, aka cPanel for many hosting companies), scroll down to Software/Services and click on Fantastico, or Fantastico De Luxe.
In the left hand column, you will see a list of programs that you can install using Fantastico. WordPress is near the top of the list under Blogs.
WordPress Listed under Blogs
Click on the word WordPress and when the screen changes, click on New Installation. Then simply follow the steps.
You will now have a form to fill out (see the screen shot below).
- Choose the domain name that you wish to install WordPress on.
- For this tutorial, I will assume that you are installing wordpress on www.yoursite.com, so leave this next box blank. You would fill this in if you wanted more than one WordPress installation on a domain name. This particular tutorial won’t be covering this option.
- Fill in the administrator access information. This is the username and password that you will enter when you sign into your WordPress site. Please, don’t ever use a simple username and password. Unfortunately, there are people in the world that have nothing better to do than to try and hack into and destroy websites. To help keep your WordPress website secure, choose a username and password that would be very difficult to figure out. Don’t use words of any kind. Use a combination of small and capitalized letters and numbers for each. Write them down, or copy and paste them into a document somewhere on your computer. Here’s a tips: don’t use letters that can be confused with other letters when typed, such as a capital I (i) and lower case l (L). See how they look just alike? And if you’re writing down your username and password, underline letters that are capitalized so you can tell the difference between something like a lower case k and uppercase K.
- The next section of the form is the Base Configuration. The nickname and email that you enter here is what WordPress will use when you write posts, or allow people to contact you via email. The site name and description will be what shows up at the top of browsers on the home page, and some themes will use them as part of the design.
On the next screen, Fantastico will tell you that it will be creating a database with a user. Keep this information along with your username and password. You will need to know the name of your database in order to backup your database in the future. You should be able to just use your cursor to hi-lite the text and copy it and then past it into the same document with your username and password. Once you have saved this information, click on the Install button.
The third screen of the installation process tells you about your WordPress installation (I have hidden my installation information in the screen shot to the left for security reasons). This screen will also provide you with the URL that you will go to to sign into your Adminstrator area. Click on the link that it gives you and make sure that you bookmark it so you can get back to it later. The link will open in a new tab.
Don’t bother clicking on the Back to WordPress Overview button. This just brings you to the screen where you would install WordPress on another domain name. Instead, sign out of your web host control panel. For HostGator, click on the red X in the upper left hand corner:
Now go to to the tab in your browser that was created when you clicked on the link for your WordPress administrator sign in. It will look like this:
