If you’re looking to build a website for your company, but are unsure on how to start, WordPress is the website builder for you. WordPress is an open-source content management system designed to help make the website building process quick and easy.  This means that even if you don’t know much about website building, you can still build a website yourself using WordPress.

Installing WordPress is a quick process that usually takes less than five minutes to install. This article will guide you through every step, in order to help you with the installation process.

The first thing you will want to do when installing WordPress is to have a website host manager. A host manager will allow your website to be accessible through the world wide web. This way, more customers will be drawn to your website. In this case, we’ll be using cPanel.

Once you have your domain and host, you will want to login to your host server. In this case, the server will be WHM. From there you will access cPanel. This is where the installation will begin.

The next step is to name your domain. When naming your domain consider keeping the name short, easy to spell, and memorable. Once you have decided on a name, copy the name to your clipboard or a digital notepad. You will need to paste it when you create a database.

The first step is now complete, you have created and named your domain. The next step is to set up the database. You can use the database to store and edit your website data.

To set up the database, go back to the cPanel. This can be achieved by clicking on the three by three square icon located on the top left corner of your screen. Once you are back to the cPanel, select “MySQL Databases”. This will allow you to create a new database with your domain. In the bar titled, “New Database”, paste your domain name and create the database. You’ll want to copy the database string to use for later. To make sure it is the database string, it should be surrounded by quotation marks. Be sure to keep the string in a safe place, such as your digital notepad.

Once you have created your domain, you will be asked to create a new user. In the very first bar, type in a username you would like to use. Keep in mind that the username can be no longer than eight characters. The next step is to create a password. When creating a new domain, you will want your password to be as strong as possible. To do this, select advanced options. Set the character limit to the maximum, which should be about eighteen characters. Allow the site to generate a password for you. Be sure to copy it in a secure place, this is when that digital notepad would come in handy.

When the user is created, you will next add the user to database. You can do this by typing the username into the bar titled ‘user’ and adding the database into the bar titled ‘database’. You can then add the user to database. Once the user is added to the database, you will want to make sure that you allow the user to have all privileges. To do this you must select your user under the bar titled ‘user manager’. Here you will see all privileges assigned to your user. Make sure all privileges are selected and saved.

Now you can find your domain on WordPress. Download WordPress to your computer by going to www.wordpress.org and selecting the download button. Once downloaded, locate the WordPress folder in your files and open the file titled ‘public_html’.  You are going to use this file to test the domain.

In WordPress, upload your file by selecting the media tab and dropping your file there. Although you may be tempted to click on the file when it reaches one-hundred percent, wait until the file turns green before extracting the file. When the file is properly uploaded and extracted, reload to check your work by clicking on the reload icon located on your tool bar.

Now go back to your files, select your database file and rename it. The standard WordPress file should be saved under the name ‘wp-config-sample’. You are going to want to rename the file to ‘wp-config’ by removing ‘sample’. When this is complete you can select all the files, chose 7.zip or which ever file archiver you prefer, and archive the files. Make sure to name the file when archiving.

Upload the extracted files to WordPress by re-uploading. Make sure to extract the files and reload to check your work. Once the upload is complete you can delete the zip file.

The next step is to edit your file. Select the file ‘wp-config’, right click and chose the edit option. From here you will copy your saved database name, user, and password. You are now ready to visit your site.

Type in your domain into a search engine,  such as Google. If you set it up correctly, you should see a title screen with the WordPress logo on the top and language options listed below. Go ahead and select your preferred language, and log into your site using your username and password. Fill out all necessary information such as the email and chose how you want your sit to be searched. If it is a test site, make sure to select the box on the bottom of the screen that says ‘discourage search engine verification’. This will hide your site from unwanted public searches while you test it.

That’s it. You now have an installed WordPress site on cPanel.