Learn about the easiest ways to install WordPress on the server, automatically or manually

WordPress is one of the most famous scripts for displaying content and building websites on the Internet, and it is preferred by millions of website owners around the world. Therefore, in today’s topic, we will explain the methods of installing WordPress on all kinds of servers, whether the server is local to your device, a private server, or even shared hosting of all kinds. Also, more than 90% of websites on the Internet use WordPress, and this spread is due to the availability of many plugins and templates for WordPress and the possibility of changing and customizing the site with ease by using these additions, or what are called Plugins.

What does it mean? 

Installing WordPress on the server? Why do you need to install WordPress on the server?

How to install WordPress on the server: First: Install WordPress

Press automatically Second: Install WordPress on the local server 1- Download the XAMPP local server emulator program 2- Download the WordPress script from the official website 3- Download WordPress files on the local server program What does it mean? 

Installing WordPress on the server?

When you purchase any type of hosting or even use your local server, it will be completely empty, and when you open the associated domain address or test the server, only a white page will appear for you with the phrase Not Found. This is because the server is empty and does not contain any files, so you must first do the very important step, which is to install WordPress on the server, which means installing the WordPress script files, attached files, and settings files, and this is done either through automatic download in many ways that we will explain later in this article, or even the manual download method directly to the file manager. After installing WordPress on the server, and when you open the associated domain, the WordPress content that you created will appear to you, and you can then modify the site as you prefer, such as installing templates and plugins, writing articles, uploading images, and so on.

Why do you need to install WordPress on the server? In fact, we need to install the WordPress script on the server in order to display the content that is intended to be delivered to the visitor in the best way, so that the site is organized in terms of the main interface, and if your site has many sections, you can classify the articles and distribute them among the sections, and also add all the links to the sections and pages of your site to the main menus at the top of the site and the side menus. All of the above will provide you with a very good visitor experience and make the visitor never get bored of your site and continue browsing the site and moving from one article to another. The user interface will also be a reason for the visitor to return to the site again later, which also has a positive effect on the site’s ranking in the Google search engine and improving the site’s SEO in general.

Therefore, many website owners prefer to install WordPress on the server because it is the best and fastest way to display and deliver information to visitors through some simple and free templates and plugins. Also, the WordPress script is completely free and does not require huge amounts of money in order to display content over the Internet. How to install WordPress on the server. Let us first start with the easy method, as it is possible to purchase hosting that contains the WordPress script installed automatically without any intervention from you. This is done through some companies that provide WordPress hosting separately, or what is called WordPress hosting. Most foreign or even Arab hosting companies must find a WordPress hosting section and it will save you time and effort searching for a method of installation, setting up databases, etc., and your site will be ready just to create templates and plugins and publish your articles directly.

The other methods that we will explain later in this topic in order to complete the process of installing WordPress on the server are manual methods through the hosting control panel, and you will have the choice between all the methods described according to what is appropriate for you. First: Install WordPress automatically. As we mentioned previously, the WordPress script can be downloaded automatically on the server when you purchase any hosting plan supported by WordPress website hosting. This hosting has resources specially prepared to deal with the WordPress script to provide the best performance and speed for the site. This is because we all know that site speed has now become an important ranking factor in search engines such as Google. When you enter the shared hosting section in any foreign company, you will find what is called WordPress hosting, as is the case in a company like Namecheap, for example, as in the picture.

After choosing WordPress Hosting, you will notice below that the features of this hosting appear and it is written that it is 3 times faster than regular shared hosting. As we explained previously, site speed is a good ranking factor, so be sure to choose this hosting package if you want to create a site that fulfills the most important SEO requirements for websites. Nassim Seeb Company also provides a free CDN for the ability to host your images on a private server to increase the loading speed of the site, in addition to a free package of templates and add-ons that help you edit your site completely and for free.

It is also distinctive that the price of WordPress hosting does not differ much from shared hosting, as the price of monthly WordPress hosting starts at only about $6, while shared hosting starts at approximately $3, so it is always preferable to choose WordPress hosting if your site runs on this platform, especially since the difference in amount is not a big difference. This is also the case with the famous GoDaddy company, as it also provides hosting plans for WordPress only, as in the picture. GoDaddy also offers WordPress hosting customers a free CDN, as well as a security certificate and support for high speeds specifically for this platform. It also provides more than 58 thousand free templates and plugins that you can use for free when you purchase any WordPress hosting plan through them.

Second: Install WordPress on the local server. Through this method, we will install WordPress directly on our personal computer without the need to buy a domain or even purchase hosting. All we need is a computer and an Internet connection, as we will use the XAMPP program, which represents a complete simulation of the server or hosting that you purchase from well-known sites. This method is also suitable for educational purposes if you like to learn and experiment with the WordPress script for free and without paying any money. It is also suitable for programmers and designers who work on developing WordPress templates and plugins on an ongoing basis and need continuous experiments on the blog. 1- To download the XAMPP local server emulator program, you must first go to this link to download the local server program with a size of approximately 150 MB. On the main page of the program, we click on the word XAMPP for windows as shown in the picture.

After downloading the file to your device, open the exe file that you downloaded to begin the process of downloading the local server program XAMPP as in the picture. We carry out the installation process known to all programs by clicking on the word Next until the installer finishes downloading the program to your personal device, as shown in the following images. Wait for the installation process to complete.

Now the installation of the program has reached the final step, and the program will run automatically after completing the installation, and the main menu of the program will appear directly like this. Now the program provides us with three main services on which running the WordPress script or any php script in general depends, which are Apache, Mysql, and also FileZilla for uploading files to the local server.

As shown in the pictures, we will click on the word Start next to the first three services as we mentioned and make sure that the service has been activated and running in green as shown in the following picture. Now your computer has completely turned into a personal server and you can host files on it and run PHP scripts. 2- Download the WordPress script from the official website. In this step, we need to enter the official WordPress website from this link to download the latest reliable version of the script with ease, which is currently version 6.1.1, as shown in the following image. We click on Download WordPress 6.1.1 and keep the downloaded compressed file on the desktop, for example, because we will need it in the following steps.

After downloading, you will find the compressed WordPress file with a size of only 23 MB in exactly this format, which is a zip file. 3- Download WordPress files on the local server program

After ensuring that all services are working as in the upper picture, we now move to the step of creating a database on the MySQL system and creating a user name and password for it so that it can be used during the actual installation of WordPress on the local server. First, we click on the word admin next to the MySQL service, as in the picture. After that, the program will transfer us to a page on the default browser of your device, which is the phpmyadmin service, through which we will be able to create the database by clicking on the word Databases, as in the following image.

Then this page will appear for us in this form to choose the name of the database that we will work on. In box No. 1: We write the name of the database (you are free to choose any name you want completely freely), and then we press the Create button to create the new database. After creation, we will notice that the name of the database that we created appears in the left column on the main page, as shown in the picture.

The next step is to download the WordPress files to the local server, so we go back to the XAMPP program and then click on the word Explorer as in the following image to open the file manager on the server. After that, the program will transfer us to a folder containing many files. We click on a folder called htdocs, as shown in the following image. After opening the htdocs folder, we create a new folder and name it WordPress, for example, or whatever name you prefer, as it will be the path to the WordPress script that, when written, will direct you to the home page of your WordPress site.

We now take the zip file of the version of WordPress that was downloaded from the official website and move it to the WordPress folder that we created in the previous step. We now open the compressed folder. We will find a WordPress folder inside it. We enter it and then select all the files inside the compressed file and move them to the WordPress folder that we created as in the following image. Now we have finished preparing all the WordPress files and database and we are ready to start the process of installing the script on the local server with ease.

4- Start installing WordPress on the local server now. In order to begin the process of installing the WordPress script, we must open any browser on your device and then go to this link http://localhost/wordpress, where the word local host means the local server and the word wordpress is the path or name of the folder to which we downloaded the WordPress files. When you go to this link on your internet browser, this WordPress installation page will appear in front of you as in the picture. In my case, I chose the English language, but you can choose the Arabic language if you like, or after finishing, you can change the language from within the control panel with ease. Now after choosing the language, we click on the word continue to continue as in the picture. After that, we click on the word “Let’s go” to enter the database settings page for WordPress.

Box No. 1: We enter the name of the database that we previously created within the mysql service in the first step, and in our case, the name of the database that we created is mysite. Box No. 2: Username. We write only the word root, as in the picture. Field No. 3: The password field. We leave it blank as it is.

Box No. 4: The host box says localhost. Leave it as it is as well. Box No. 5: Leave it as it is wp_ because it is related to the database encoding and we do not want to change it. After that, we click on the word Submit to continue the installation process.

This page will then appear. We click on the word Run the installation to start the installation process immediately. Now the script requests the data of the WordPress page admin or the data of the WordPress site owner, and you will need this data to enter the main control page of your site to publish topics or modify the site in general. Box No. 1: We write the address or name of your site, for example: Muhammad’s Informatics Blog.

Box No. 2: We write the name of the user or site owner. You can choose any name, such as admin, for example. Box No. 3: We choose a password for the website owner’s membership. It is preferable to choose a difficult password from the words suggested in front of you, as in the picture above. Box No. 4: We write your email to receive notifications and messages from the site.

After filling out all of this data, we click on the word Install WordPress. Now WordPress has been successfully installed on the server, and if you would like to enter the site admin page, we click on the word Login as in the picture and it will redirect us to the login page. Box No. 1: We write the username that we chose.

Box No. 2: We write the password of the admin that we chose in the previous step. We click on the word Login to enter the site admin page. Now, the WordPress settings page has opened, and through this page you can modify everything you want on your site. You can now choose a theme or template, install plugins, or even publish articles and images directly.

To modify the default template on the site or even download a new template, you can do so by clicking on Appearance and then Themes as in the picture. You can also customize and download more plugins, which are the strength of the WordPress script, by clicking on the word Plugins from the left menu, as in the picture, and then clicking on Add new from the top to download any new plugin. As for how to publish topics on the blog, in the list you will find the word Posts, then ADD New, click on it as shown and start writing your topics.

To publish the topic of your blog and make it visible to everyone through your website links, after you finish writing the topic completely, click on the word Publish or Publish located at the top right of the screen as shown in the picture. Third: Explanation of installing WordPress on hosting When talking about downloading WordPress on hosting, there are two methods: either downloading the WordPress script via the cpanel control panel, or downloading WordPress by uploading files directly via what is called FTP. Below we will explain the two methods in a simplified manner, and you are free to choose between them. - Installing WordPress via the Cpanel panel. To use this method, you must first make sure that the hosting company provides you with a CPanel control panel, as some hosting companies provide a different control panel sometimes, but always look for the two most important additions, which are File manager, MySql, and finally Phpmyadmin to modify databases.

First, we enter the CPanel of our website by adding the website link and then writing: 2082 immediately after the website link, so that the control panel opens for us as follows and we log in. Box No. 1: We write the user name that the hosting company sent to you. Box No. 2: We enter the membership password, which you also obtained from the hosting company.

We then log in by clicking Log in. After opening the Cpanel control panel, you will also have two options to download WordPress, either by downloading it automatically with the click of a button or downloading it via the MySQL file and database manager. Let us first start with the easiest and fastest method for any user, which is the automatic download method via the CPanel by going down to the bottom of the control page and searching for the word WordPress and finding it as in the picture.

By clicking on the word WordPress, the control panel will redirect you to the WordPress download page as shown below. We then click on the word Install now and you will be asked for the blog name, username, and password for the site owner or admin membership, as we used to in the previous steps, and the WordPress script will be completely ready with just the click of a button.

The second method, which concerns CPanel, is longer

A little, but easy. This is done by first going to MySQL Databases, as shown in the picture, to create the database and connect it.

After clicking on MySQL Databases 

We write the required data as shown in the picture. Box No. 1: We write the name of the database you want and then click on the word Create Database to create the database first. After that, we go down a little until we find what is called MySql Users and fill in the following fields.

Box No. 1: We write the name of the database user (the name is specific to the database only and not to the WordPress site admin. Pay attention to that). Box No. 2 and 3: We type the database admin password and return the password again in box No. 3, and then click on the word Create User. Now the database has been created and the database control membership has been created, and you must be careful to copy them and keep them inside a text file on your own device because it is possible to forget them and you may need them later at any time. Now what remains is to link the database with its user name to each other and this is done by scrolling down a little further until we find the word Add User To Database as in the picture, noting that all this data is present on the same page.

Box No. 1: We choose the user name that we created. Box No. 2: We choose the name of the database that we created to connect WordPress to. After that, we click on the word ADD or Add.

After clicking on the word ADD, the required permissions page will appear. Make sure that you have chosen ALL PRIVILEGES, or granting all the permissions as in the picture, and then click on the word Make changes. Important note: If you do not grant the membership all permissions, it is certain that WordPress will not work properly, so you must be careful. We now come to the step of uploading WordPress files to the hosting via Cpanel. We go to the file manager, as in the picture.

Then we open a folder called Public_html as in the picture. We then click on the word Upload to upload the WordPress zip file that we downloaded from the official website previously in the previous steps. After clicking on Upload, this window will appear for us by clicking on Select file.

Then we select the compressed file as follows: After selecting the compressed file and clicking Open, the compressed WordPress file will begin to be uploaded to your hosting. Please wait until the download is finished, shown in the following image, as it depends on your internet speed. After the file is uploaded, we go again to the Public_html folder, then select the file and click on the word Unzip or Extract from the top right of the screen, as in the picture. After decompressing the files, you will notice that many files appear in the Public_html folder. We select the wp-config.php file, which is responsible for the basic WordPress settings, and we click on the word Edit from the top of the screen, as in the following image.

Now this page appears to us, which is the WordPress settings regarding databases and database administrator data that we previously selected inside the CPanel. In field No. 1: We write the name of the database between two signs ‘ ‘ that we chose previously.

Box No. 2: We write the name of the user or database administrator that we created previously. Box No. 3: We write the password for the database, which has also been previously set. Box No. 4: We leave it as it says Localhost, as in the previous image.

Important note: You must make sure to write all the required data between two signs ‘ ‘  because not having them will lead to failure to connect and failure of the WordPress installation later. After that, we go to the domain name or domain of your site, and then write the extension for the WordPress folder as follows: Yoursite.com/wordpress, replacing the word Yoursite with the name and domain of your site, whether it is .com or any other extension, and the browser will automatically redirect you to the WordPress installation page as we did in the previous steps, as in the picture.

You can then continue the installation in the same way as previously described in this topic until WordPress is downloaded to the hosting and linked to your domain name. - Installing WordPress on the hosting via FTP. Some hosting companies do not provide you with a CPanel control panel due to their somewhat high license price. Therefore, some users resort to opening the hosting files via a service called FTP, which allows you to view all the files of your hosting account and upload, modify or delete any files you want directly and easily. Therefore, we first need to download the FTP program, because there are hundreds of these programs that perform almost the same function. Therefore, we chose the FileZilla FTP program, as it is one of the most famous programs in this field, but this does not prevent the use of any program you prefer if you have previous experience in this field.

The FileZilla FTP program can be downloaded via this link directly from the official website first. After downloading the program, we install the file and open the program directly as follows. Box No. 1: We write the host name for your hosting, which will be sent from the hosting company along with the username and password to your email immediately after purchasing hosting from any site.

Box No. 2: We enter the user name sent by the hosting company. Box No. 3: Enter the password for your membership, which was also sent from the hosting company. Box No. 4: Do not write anything in it. The program will recognize the port automatically.

After writing the previous data, we click on the word Quick connect to connect to the server. All the files will appear in front of you as in the previous image. We double-click on the Punlic_html folder to open it, and then we drag the compressed WordPress file that we downloaded directly and drop it into the folder as in the image. Then you will notice that the upload process has begun and the WordPress file has been uploaded to your server or hosting.

Then we will decompress the file and extract the files and make sure they are inside the Public html folder. Then we will select the wp-config.php file as we did previously inside the file manager in the CPanel and modify the data as follows in the same way. After selecting the file and clicking View/Edit, we will modify the data as we did previously, as follows. In this image, we write the name of the database and the user membership data associated with it and click Save changes.

After that, we go to the domain name or domain of your site, and then write the extension for the WordPress folder as follows: Yoursite.com/wordpress, replacing the word Yoursite with the name and domain of your site, whether it is .com or any other extension, and the browser will automatically redirect you to the WordPress script installation page. But you must not forget to create a database first and a user name and password for this database before transferring files via FTP because you will need that data in the wp-config file. Mistakes that must be corrected when installing WordPress. There must be millions of WordPress installations that take place daily on servers around the world, but you must make sure of some things that must be taken care of when downloading the WordPress script on the hosting to create the site correctly, especially if it is your first time in this field, which are the following: Make sure to download the WordPress script from the company’s official website and stay away from copies modified by other programmers on the web.

Always make sure to download the latest version of WordPress, as there are some defects and loopholes in older versions that are permanently addressed by WordPress developers through newer versions. Ensure that there is an SSL security certificate for your domain, as it is a basic condition for the site to operate as an Https link, not Http, and it is also one of the conditions for good SEO for your site. Stay away from downloading any WordPress templates or even plugins that are hacked to your site, or what is called Nulled, and always make sure to purchase a license for templates and plugins from their official websites because they may cause your site to be hacked.

Always be careful when choosing a password for databases or even the website administrator's password to choose a difficult password consisting of letters, numbers, and symbols so that it cannot be guessed or hacked by hackers. Before installing WordPress, make sure that you choose good specifications for the shared hosting or server that you will be dealing with, because your site should not be slow in responding, because speed is also one of the conditions for a good SEO site. After completing the installation of your site, always make sure to take a backup of all the contents of the site periodically to ensure that your site is not lost at any time. This is done through the Backup service located within the CPanel control panel.

You must ensure that the domain is linked to the hosting via the DNS service correctly, because if the link is done incorrectly, your site will never work, even if you follow the explanation for downloading WordPress explained in this topic. Ensure that the link to your site is present within the WordPress settings without www, where the short name is written as in the example yoursite.com, with Your site replaced with the name of your site for ease of access for visitors later. Follow updates of all plugins and templates on your site, as it is possible that some plugins need to be updated to address any vulnerability without you noticing it.

Conclusion: At the end of the topic, we hope that we have succeeded in explaining the processes of installing WordPress on the server, whether the local server or even shared hosting, and through the various methods available to you, whether via CPanel or even the FTP protocol. We also explained some common mistakes that we recommend avoiding to obtain a healthy website. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to leave them to us in the comments and we will answer you as quickly as possible. ****************************