Let’s get started, shall we?
Step 1
Download the most recent version of WordPress to a location of your choice at WordPress.org
Step 2
Login to your cPanel and click on File manager, then public-html folder.
Step 3
Upload the WordPress files by clicking on the Upload button.
Step 4
Select the file and upload the downloaded version of WordPress.
Step 5:
Within the directory root you will see the wordpress.zip file. Click on this file to select it and then from the cPanel tool bar at the top, click Extract. After that click Reload in the cPanel toolbar. Here, you will see the extracted WordPress folder. You can delete the .ZIP file in order to keep everything nice and clean.
Step 6
Move files from the wordpress folder back into the directory root.
Double click on the newly extracted WordPress folder and you should see all the WordPress files. From the cPanel toolbar, click on the box Select All. (All of the WordPress files should now be highlighted).
In the cPanel toolbar select Move File and a modal will pop up with a directory link “/public_html/yourdirectoryname/wordpress”.
Remove the “/wordpress” tail from the end of the path and click Move File(s). All files should now be moved to your directory root and click Up One Level from the toolbar to view them.
Step 7
Create a database and database user
We have finished the initial steps and now it’s time to setup the database that will power your website.
Navigate to your cPanel’s main dashboard and locate/click the icon MySQL Database Wizard.
Step 8
Once inside the Database Wizard you will be prompted to create a New Database. Your database prefix will appear followed by an underscore and a blank area for you to populate your database name “yourserver_blankarea“. In the blank area you will enter your database name and keep it in a safe spot for a future step. The database name should be at least 3 characters and only contain alphanumeric characters. After filling in the name click Next Step.
Step 9
You will now be prompted to create a Database User. Your database prefix will appear again followed by an underscore and a blank area for you to populate your database username “yourserver_username“. The database username cannot contain more than seven alphanumeric characters. Save the username to a safe location for future use. Now, either manually enter a password of your choice or use the provided Password Generator… just make sure that your password is strong and secure. Click on the button Create User.
Step 10
Now that you have created the Database User, you will be brought to a page that asks you to assign privileges. Tick the box at the top that reads All Privileges, then click the button Next Step. Your database is now set up and you can now move on to plugging the database information into the wp-config.php file.
Step 11
Populate the wp-config.php file with your database information
It is time to navigate back to the proper directory in the file manager with your database information handy. In your site’s directory root, locate the file named “wp-config-sample.php“. Click on this file and then select Code Editor from the top toolbar, click Edit and open the .php file.
Now that the wp-config-sample.php file is open in the Code Editor, it is time to start adding your database information…
Locate the line that reads “define(‘DB_NAME‘, ‘database_name_here‘);” and add your database name.
Locate the line that reads “define(‘DB_USER‘, ‘username_here‘);” and add your database username.
Locate the line that reads “define(‘DB_PASSWORD‘, ‘password_here‘);” and add your database password.
Step 12
Rename “wp-config-sample.php” to “wp-config.php”
Now that you are back in the directory’s root, single click on the wp-config-sample.php file to highlight it. From there click on the “Rename” icon in the top toolbar and rename “wp-config.sample.php” to “wp-config.php”. Click the “Rename File” button and you’re all finished with this phase.
Step 13
Run the WordPress Installation
At this point you are all finished with the cPanel portion of this process… congrats!
Step 14
Open your browser and enter the link below in your URL
“https://example.com/wp-admin/install.php”. Replace the “example.com” with the address of the website you are creating. Hit Return/Enter on your keyboard and the install process will begin.
Final Step
Once you have arrived at the next screen, select the language of choice for your WordPress install and click “continue”.
You will then be brought to a page prompting you to enter all of your website’s pertinent information such as the site title, your username, your password, and email address. If you are developing a new site at this address, it may also be a good idea to tick the box “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” so Google, Bing, etc. don’t index your site before it is populated with content and ready to launch.
Once you have filled in all of the information, hit “Install WordPress” and you are all finished! You will be asked to log in to your new site with your provided username and password and you can now begin to build your masterpiece.
