Every business and craft needs a website to flourish and creating a
website has never been this easy, given the number of free open source
platforms available today for the task.
In this article, I shall
try to sum up the entire process of website installation in easy
pointers for your convenience. Let's get started.
There are three basic steps to install your own website and these steps we shall discuss elaborately, which are:
• Selecting a Platform.
• Selecting a Domain name and Host.
• Finally Installing Platform and getting started with website building.
These
steps are simple, easily comprehensible and efficient, if you intend to
create a basic website without much coding. Let's discuss these points
in detail.
1. Selecting a Platform.
Choosing the right
platform for creating your website is very important. It is like a
foundation on which you build up your website.
Many free open source CMS are available, most popular of which are WordPress, Drupal and Joomla!.
If
you have some working knowledge of user end and server side programming
languages, you can go for Drupal or Joomla!. For those who lack
technical knowledge regarding coding, WordPress is the apt choice. This
feature of WordPress is what makes it immensely popular and a platform
that is universally used to create websites.
There are many upsides of using WordPress some of which I shall mention here.
• It is free.
• Easy to install with many free templates and plugins to choose from for your website.
• Great for small or large scale websites likewise.
• Responsive Website Designs.
Owing to these features, WordPress has become #1 choice for beginners.
2. Choosing a Domain name and Host.
Having a domain name and web hosting service is very crucial for getting your website online.
Domain
name and hosting can cost you anywhere between $3-$30 dollars a month
depending upon which domain name and web hosting service you choose.
Your domain name should be catchy, marketable and relevant to what you do. Stick to .org, .com or .net domain extensions.
3. Getting Started with WordPress.
Once
you have your domain name and web hosting, you can step up the ladder
and install WordPress to start developing your website. Steps to
installation are as follows.
• One-click Installation
Many
good web hosting services like Enterprise Web Cloud offers integrated
"one-click installation" for WordPress. Follow these easy steps for
installation.
(1) Log in to your web hosting account.
(2) Locate "WordPress" or "Website" icon in the control panel.
(3) Select the domain where you want to install your website.
(4) Click on "Install Now" button and get access to your WordPress website.
• Manual Installation.
If,
however, your web hosting does not offer "one-click Installation", go
for manual installation of WordPress, the steps to which we discuss
hereby.
(1) Download WordPress from the official web page by typing in the URL http://wordpress.org/download
(2) Extract WordPress in a new folder on your desktop from the zip file.
(3) Rename a file named wp-config-sample.php to: wp-config.php.
(4) Open wp-config.php with notepad and type in the following lines:
• define('DB_NAME', 'database_name_here'); - Database name (if you don't know it, ask this from your hosting support)
• define('DB_USER', 'username_here'); - Your hosting username
• define('DB_PASSWORD', 'password_here'); - Your hosting password
Save the file after filling in the gaps.
(5)
Log into your hosting ftp. FTP address is ftp.yourdomain.com mostly,
username and password being the same that you used to register to your
host.
(6) Delete any file named "index". Following that, upload
all the files from your WordPress folder to your FTP server. "drag n
drop" function of FileZilla can be used for the same.
(7) Visit
URL: yourdomain.com/wp-admin/install.php after you have completed the
previous step. The resulting page should look like this:
All you have to do now is to fill in the forms and you are all set to start creating your website.
