I had to cut this tutorial in half because I encountered a hurdle during the WordPress Installation process. That is, I had to leave off the tutorial and create a tutorial on how to install an SSL certificate on a domain name.
Installing an SSL certificate on the domain name which are using to build your site is critical nowadays. Now that we’ve done that, we can continue our lesson. Now we’ll be able to select the “https” that is, the “secure” protocol for our site.
So let’s go.
We’ve already logged into cpanel. We’ve already looked under “Softaculous Apps Installer” and we’ve clicked the “WordPress” icon.
We click “Install Now” when the WordPress screen rolls us and we’re taken to a new page to select our domain and other settings.
As you can see in the above picture, the first set of options to choose are 1
. The protocol. The protocol options are:
- http://
- http://www.
- https://
- https://www.
The first two options are non secure. The second two are secure, but they require an SSL certificate, which, by the way, we’ve already installed in the previous tutorial, so we’re free to choose from No.3 or 4.
Superior web standards demand that you choose one of the secure options. The http (unsecure) options are now outdated.
So what’s the purpose of the “www.”? The www. simply means world wide web, and we have the option of leaving that out, and just making our domain https://mydomain.com.
The funny thing is, if we leave it out, and someone types in www.mydomain.com, the website will still load, so it’s a bit of a redundancy.
Nevertheless, I will be on the safe side and choose “https://www.”
But as I said, first, let’s select our domain name. The domain I will use for the purpose of this, and perhaps the rest of this tutorial series, is “hotelamazonasgy.com.”
So let’s go ahead and select that.
Great. Now it’s time to select a “directory” where we want to install the WordPress Software. As you can see, the setup by default creates a “wp” folder. This is if you only want part of your website to run on the WordPress software. In that case,I could change “wp” to anything I wish.
However, I want this entire website to run on the WordPress software. In that case, I erase the directory name and leave that box blank.
Great, so the directory field is now blank. WordPress will now be installed in the “root folder” of the domain name. So let’s scroll down and configure our “site settings.”
As you can see in the screenshot above, the site settings asks us to input a site name, a site description, and gives us the option of making the site a WordPress Multisite.
For site name, I’ll type, “The Amazonas Hotel in Lethem,” because that’s what the website is about.
For Description I’ll type, “Hotel, Restaurant, Bar and Tourism Services in Lethem, Region #9, Guyana”
As you can see, I try to give an accurate description of the place and at the same time avoid cliches such as “home away from home,” “oasis,” “first choice” and “number one.”
And should I enable WordPress Multisite? Absolutely! What’s this? If I don’t check this box, then a WordPress Single Site installation will be executed. What’s the difference? Think of the Multisite as a mall with thousands of shops inside. Think of the single site installation as just “one” shop in the mall. Which would you choose? Of course you’d choose the entire mall! Or at least I would!
So there you go, we’re all set.
Let’s scroll down a little bit and go the Admin Account Setup.
Here, we have to input an admin username, admin password and an Admin Email.
Well that’s pretty straightforward isn’t? Well, sort of. Here are some tips.
- Change the admin username to something difficult to guess: don’t leave it as “admin.”
- Choose a strong password with uppercase, lowercase, symbols and numbers.
- Input an email address that you check often.
- Write this info down and store it in a location that you can easily retrieve but others don’t know.
Great. Now that I’ve done that (and of course I can’t show you!) let’s scroll down to Language Settings.
Obviously, for me the language will be English, because my website will be in English, my audience will be mostly English and my native language is English. Of course, if your native language is something else, it’s best to select that. However, WordPress has already selected the English Language as default for me. So let’s scroll down to the section below that.
The next section of the WordPress setup process is a bit interesting. It gives you the option of installing a “plugin.” There are thousands of plugins available to WordPress Web Developers, and you’ll learn more about those later, but here, WordPress is giving you the option of installing a certain plugin even before you start building your website! This must be an important plugin! Sure is!
What is it? WordPress is asking you if you would like to install the “Limit Login Attempts” plugin. The limit login attempts plugin is also called “Loginizer.” WordPress considers this an important plugin because WordPress Websites are always under brute force attacks. Hackers attempt to break into WordPress Sites by using software that try to guess your login credentials through random but systematic combinations.
The Loginizer plugin will block such attacks by limiting login attempts to just 3 or 4 or whatever you configure it for. I recommend setting it to three Login Attempts. If someone fails for 3 times in entering your website, the plugin will lock them out.
So yes, I’ll select the option to install the Loginizer Plugin. Let’s move on.
After that, WordPress presents a set of “Advanced Options” which you don’t have to touch at all. There is a “backup” option under the Advanced Options that you might think is important. However, we’ll use other methods of backing up our WordPress website, and we’ll deal with this in the future. So just skip that and keep going.
Now it comes to the exciting part. It feels like we’re ready to start building a WordPress Site! Yes! Choose a WordPress Theme!
A WordPress theme is sort of like a prebuilt template which you can use to start building your WordPress site. Theme developers in the WordPress Community offer thousands of these free of charge. However, of them gives you the option of unlocking advanced features for a small, one-time fee. Take into consideration the nature of the site you’re building and select a theme carefully from the list of options you are given.
Remember, the theme can always be changed at any time during development, and it can be changed an infinite number of times. So don’t feel nervous about your choice.
Finally, you type in your email address where you want WordPress to send your installation details and click the “install” button.
The Softaculous Installer then takes a few seconds to carry out its magic in installing the WordPress Software and then a message appears on the screen like the one below, telling you that you’re WordPress Installation is complete.
Great! Now it’s time to have fun building your WordPress website. This includes playing with widgets, installing and uninstalling plugins, customizing the theme, changing themes and much more.
So see you in the next lesson: The WordPress Dashboard.
