Install WordPress – a guide in 3 steps

Installing WordPress – a guide

Installing WordPress on a web server is relatively easy and quick for everyone. In addition to the current WordPress version, you also need the access data from your hoster and you can complete the installation within a few minutes.

Requirements for a WordPress installation

WordPress needs the following requirements to be installed on a server:

1. PHP version 5.2.4 or higher
2. MySQL version 5.0 or higher
3. The activated Apache mod_rewrite module for “nicer URLs” – i.e. for search engine optimized URLs

Most hosters usually meet these minimum requirements for the packages currently on offer. PHP is version 7
now also standard with most, MySQL is also included in most modern packages.

If you are not sure whether your package meets these requirements, ask your hoster.

If you have a package without PHP or MySQL (yes, there are still such packages out there on the internet…) then either an update with your host is required – or a move to a host that meets the requirements. An update/relocation usually has the great advantage that the modern packages are a lot cheaper.

If you want, I’ll be happy to do this work for you – just get in touch.

What data is required for a WordPress installation?

In addition to the above-mentioned requirements for WordPress, you also need some data from your host to carry out a successful installation.

• the storage space at your hoster – called webspace (here is your website with all photos and the WordPress files)
• the FTP access data for the web server/web space (to copy the files to the server)
• Access data for a MySQL database (this will later contain the content of your website)
• the database name
• the username
• the password
• the hostname (localhost or a server name)
• – of course your own domain
• WordPress itself (you can always find the current installation package at https://de.wordpress.org/)

Install WordPress – step by step

Step 1: Download WordPress

WordPress is free for everyone to download for free. Go to https://de.wordpress.org/download/ and download the ZIP file. Then unpack the ZIP file in a directory of your choice and you will get a folder called “WordPress” with 3 subfolders and 17 files.

2nd step: Copy data to the server

The next step is to get the WordPress files on the hoster’s server. To do this, we use an FTP program (TotalCommander, FileZilla, CyberDuck) and the appropriate FTP access data to connect to the web space.
We then copy the three folders and the 17 files within the “WordPress” folder on our computer to the main directory at our hoster. ATTENTION: Do not copy the entire WordPress folder, only its contents. We can then disconnect again and exit the FTP program.

Step 3 – Install WordPress

After we have successfully uploaded all files to the web space, we call up our domain via the browser and should automatically see the WordPress installation wizard. If this is not called, then you have very likely uploaded the files to the wrong directory on your server – just check again.

Click on “Let’s go” and enter the database data in the following window. Be sure to change the table prefix field (it makes it harder for potential hackers) – so make it eg db_ert56hG_.

If you have entered the data correctly, you can enter the title of your website, the user name for later login to manage your site, the password and your e-mail address on the next page. Please don’t use admin or webmaster as your username – be a little more creative. The password can also be “strong” (WordPress shows you how secure the password is) – you don’t want your site to be hacked as a result.

That’s it – you’re done. After you have clicked on “Install WordPress”, the data will be written to the database and you can log into your WordPress site directly. The default theme is activated – from now on you can deal with your new page. Have lots of fun with it.