9. Installing WordPress on Shared Hosting

WordPress is one of the most popular content management platforms (CMS) in the world, used by millions of websites, from personal blogs to major news portals. One of the reasons for its popularity is its ease of installation and use. In this chapter, we'll explore how to install WordPress on shared hosting, which is one of the most economical and popular options for hosting a website.

Understanding Shared Hosting

Before we dive into installing WordPress, it's important to understand what shared hosting is. This type of hosting is where multiple users share a single server, including its resources such as memory, disk space and processing. This makes shared hosting a cost-effective solution for small to medium-sized websites.

Choosing a Hosting Provider

The first step to installing WordPress is choosing a reliable hosting provider. There are many providers offering easy WordPress installations, with plans that vary in price, performance, and additional features. Make sure you choose a provider that supports PHP and MySQL, which are requirements for WordPress.

Registering a Domain

A domain is the address of your website on the internet. Many hosting providers offer a free domain with a hosting plan, or you can purchase one separately. Choose a domain name that is easy to remember and represents your site well.

Creating a Hosting Account

After choosing your hosting provider and domain, you will need to create a hosting account and purchase a plan. During the sign-up process, you will need to provide personal and payment information. After confirmation, you will receive login details to access your hosting control panel.

Accessing the Control Panel

The hosting control panel is where you manage your website, domains, email accounts, and more. CPanel and Plesk are two of the most common control panels. You will need to access it using the credentials provided by your hosting provider.

Installing WordPress

Many hosting providers offer automatic installation of WordPress through tools such as Softaculous, Fantastico or QuickInstall, which are available in the control panel. Here are the general steps for installation:

1. Log into your hosting control panel.
2. Look for the app installation section or the WordPress installer.
3. Select WordPress from the list of applications available for installation.
4. Fill in the required details such as the domain name where WordPress will be installed, the directory name (if you want to install it in a specific folder), administration information (username, password and email) , and the title of your site.
5. Review the settings and click the install button.
6. Wait while the automatic installer completes the process.
7. Once the installation is complete, you will receive a link to access your WordPress admin panel.

Manual WordPress Installation

If your hosting provider does not offer automatic installation, or if you prefer to do the process manually, follow these steps:

1. Download the latest version of WordPress from the official website.
2. Unzip the downloaded file on your computer.
3. Upload WordPress files to your hosting server using an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) client, such as FileZilla, or through the File Manager in your control panel.
4. Create a MySQL database and a user for WordPress through your hosting control panel.
5. Associate the user with the database with all privileges.
6. Rename the wp-config-sample.php file to wp-config.php and edit it with the database information you just created.
7. Go to the domain where you uploaded the WordPress files and follow the instructions to complete the installation.

Conclusion

Installing WordPress on shared hosting is a simple process, whether through an automatic installer or manually. With WordPress installed, you're ready to start creating and customizing your website. In the next chapter, we'll explore initial setup and how to select a theme for your website.