Installing a WordPress website
Applegreen Websites normally does this job for its clients. But I case you’re going it alone, here’s how to start installing a WordPress website.
Minimum requirements
WordPress needs Linux hosting and one database, placed on your own domain: those are the minimum requirements for installation.
Most hosting companies offer a one-click install which downloads the files and manages the database connection for you, so you don’t have to worry about that. They may ask you to choose between plain and managed WordPress hosting: plain hosting is sufficient if you are paying a designer (such as Applegreen Websites). Managed hosting usually handles updates and caching for your and offers a wider choice of themes and plugins. Check the differences and pricing, they vary with the hosting company.
The screenshots below are taken from a sample installation on the local server of our computer, so there may be some variations. But the general principles are the same.
You will reach this screen (below) immediately after you launch the one-click install. Fill in the site title, or name of your website. You can change it later.
Click to enlarge:
The username and password you set here are those you will use to log into the editing side (Dashboard) each time you want to update the site.
Replace “localhost” with your chosen username. Click “show password” so you can see what is being suggested and copy your password and username to a safe location. Add your email and click “Install WordPress”.
Don’t discourage search engines from indexing your site unless you have a good reason for doing so.
When you have done this, click the Log In button to reach the login screen. Add your chosen username and password:
You’re in. Here is the Dashboard: all your editing starts here. To visit the website itself, click on the name you gave your site, in this case My New Website.
The front end of your new website, which the public will see! The site title we chose earlier is shown, together with a standard WordPress tagline. We will see later on how to change these. The website is running one of WordPress’s native themes called Twentyseventeen (we will also look at themes later on).
To get back to the Dashboard, click on the downward arrow on the bottom right to get to the website’s main content. In the sidebar under META, click on Site Admin to return to the Dashboard.
We recommend that you keep the front end and the Dashboard open at the same time in two different tabs. Each time you save the changes you have made to the back end, go to the front end and refresh the page to make the changes visible. Bookmark both the website and its admin page so you can return to them easily in future.
Your WordPress website
You’re in. Here is the Dashboard: all your editing starts here. To visit the website itself, click on the name you gave your site, in this case My New Website.
The front end of your new website, which the public will see! The site title we chose earlier is shown, together with a standard WordPress tagline. We will see later on how to change these. The website is running one of WordPress’s native themes called Twentyseventeen (we will also look at themes later on).
To get back to the Dashboard, click on the downward arrow on the bottom right to get to the website’s main content. In the sidebar under META, click on Site Admin to return to the Dashboard.
We recommend that you keep the front end and the Dashboard open at the same time in two different tabs. Each time you save the changes you have made to the back end, go to the front end and refresh the page to make the changes visible. Bookmark both the website and its admin page so you can return to them easily in future.
Choosing your settings when installing a WordPress website
First, let’s head to the Settings tab on the Dashboard. Clicking it opens up seven sub-tabs: General, Writing, Reading, Discussion, Media, Permalinks and a new one called Privacy. Most of these titles don’t mean much in practice so we’ll explain them.
Under General Settings, you’ll find the name you’re given your website, along with the tagline. You can change both of these. I recommend leaving the other things alone, but you will want to set your languate and time zone.
The Writing Settings allow you to change default categories, something you only need for a blog or news page.
Under Reading Settings you can choose your home page, assuming you’ve created a couple of pages already. WordPress began life as a blogging platform and by default, it creates the blog page as your home page. You may not want this. Here you can choose a non-blog or “static” page instead.
If you want a blog page (you can use it for news, events or proper blogging), this setting allows you to select it. Even then it doesn’t have to be your home page.
Again, unless you plan to run a lively blog with comments (which you have to moderate), you will use this page to turn off the box that says “Allow people to post comments on new articles”. If WordPress has loaded a sample post for you (called “Hello World!”), delete it.
The Permalinks settings allows you to match the url (web address) of your blog posts to their titles, so that they rank for search engines.
The only Media setting we change is to remove the website’s ability to create month and year folders for images, unless you plan to upload hundreds.
The Privacy setting allows you to choose a sample privacy page, or create your own.
Themes: the look and feel of your site
The theme governs the looks of your site, and to some extent its functionality. WordPress comes with three native themes. By default, the most recent is activated: the current theme is called Twentyseventeen. That is what you will see on installation.
Want an example of a website with Twentyseventeen? See Activate Your Career.
You can choose another by clicking on Appearances in the Dashboard. Click on another theme and activate. We are going to switch to Twentysixteen and customise it a bit.
Twentysixteen is very plain but that also makes it very versatile. For examples of websites in which we have used Twentysixteen see Marian Robertson Music and Abelia Handbags. Some of these adaptations are specialist work carried out by Applegreen Websites.
But Twentysixteen provides a handy Customiser which gives some options over its appearance.
Access the Customiser under the Appearances tab in the Dashboard. See the finished result below.
Twentysixteen is very plain but that also makes it very versatile. For examples of websites in which we have used Twentysixteen see Marian Robertson Music and Abelia Handbags. Some of these adaptations are specialist work carried out by Applegreen Websites.
But Twentysixteen provides a handy Customiser which gives some options over its appearance. Find the Customiser under the Appearances tab in the Dashboard. See the finished result below.
These are WordPress native themes, a new one of which is brought out every year. There are plenty more off-the-shelf themes available, free and paid. Here at Applegreen Websites we create bespoke themes four our clients.
Here are two designs based on the WordPress Twentysixteen theme:
Basic WordPress settings
Under the Settings tab in the Dashboard is a number of choices, not very intuitively labelled. Let’s examine them one by one.
General
On the General Settings page, you can set the site title and the strapline that appears underneath it as well as the language and a time zone. Don’t forget to click the Save button at the bottom so your changes take effect.
The writing settings page allows you to set a different post category as default. You don’t need to change it until you have written some posts and placed them in categories!
The Reading Settings page is where you choose which page will be the home page and whit the blog page. You may want the blog page as home page but most people prefer a static Page (not list of Blog Posts) for their home. The home page often has a different layout to inner pages, as is the case with Applegree Websites.
The Discussion Settings page allows you to choose whether or not comments and pingbacks are allowed on posts. You can also change this decision on individual posts. Posts that allow comments and pingbacks attract a lot of spam so we recommend disallowing both. If you do want comments, there are plugins that can help filter spam.
Under Media Settings, we usually untick the box that organises images by month and year. Keep it ticked if you think you will upload a lot of images over time.
Permalinks refer to the way your posts are presented in the address line of your website. This is important because the address is a search location for search engines: if your post is about local bakeries and you have entitled it ‘Local Bakeries’, you want the permalink to read something like local-bakeries. Then the whole address will be https.www.yourwebsite.com/local-bakeries. If you don’t set this correctly, the url could end up looking like https.www.yourwebsite.com/post.php?post=665, which would not be searchable. We recommend you chose the option called ‘Post Name’, and click Save.
The Privacy Settings allow you to set one of your pages as the privacy page. This is important for GDPR.
Category: WordPress Help
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