Estimated Time to Accomplish: 1 hour
Looking for how to set up a wordpress website? Then I have you covered. Just follow these steps to set up your WordPress website and be ready to start publishing content!
A Quick Summary:
This article assumes that you have paid for a hosting plan and are setting up a WordPress.org site. This article will give you three easy steps to set up your WordPress site.
What you need to know:
Before you set up WordPress, read these articles first:
- What is web hosting and how does it work?
- 5 Reasons Why Bigscoots Hosting is the Best
- WordPress org vs com: Which one do you need?
My recommendation:
Let the host do all the work! If you choose a good host with excellent customer service, they are made for this task. Take all your questions to the host, and assume they are the pros in this situation.
Your next steps:
If you already have a WordPress website, you can skip this!
If you don’t yet have a site on WordPress, keep reading!
How to set up a WordPress Website
This article assumes you have already chosen and paid for a hosting plan. If you are still on the fence about hosting, check out this article about why you need a host.
If you don’t read anything else in this article, here is the one thing I want you to know:
When in doubt, your host can set up the whole thing for you!
But, you can still go into the experience with a LOT of knowledge and expertise.
Here is what you need to know:
How to Set up a WordPress Website – Bluehost
I am using Bluehost as my first example because it’s the cheapest for sure. They pride themselves on being the cheapest plan starting at just a few dollars a month. This comes at a cost. You might experience inconsistent customer service and overloaded servers. But it’s a great cheap way to set up a starter website.
This article assumes that you have:
- Paid for a hosting plan with Bluehost
- Have set up a domain with Bluehost (either the free domain name or purchased with Bluehost, or transferred from a Domain Name registrar like Namecheap (my preference).
- If you haven’t yet accomplished these two steps, check out my easy guide to purchasing a domain and hosting plan here.
Your WordPress Site
According to this documentation, “When you choose Bluehost for your website hosting, we’ll install WordPress platform with a single click.” If you don’t see your new website (connected to your new domain and hosting plan) under “Websites”, then reach out to support and ask about the installation process.
From here, you should be able to click “Edit WordPress Site” and it will automatically log you in and connect to your WordPress backend.
Depending on how your site is set up in Bluehost, you should be able to see your Users and Admin logins under “Users”. If you don’t see your auto-created admin user, reach out to their support and ask where to find your admin user login and password.
Save your WordPress URL and login in your Password Vault, and you are good to go!
How to Set up a WordPress Website – BigScoots
BigScoots is my favorite host for managed and shared web hosting. Read all about why I love it BigScoots here.
This article assumes that you have:
- Paid for a hosting plan with BigScoots
- Have set up a domain with BigScoots (either purchased with BigScoots, or transferred from a Domain Name registrar like Namecheap (my preference).
- If you haven’t yet accomplished these two steps, check out my easy guide to purchasing a domain and hosting plan here.
To learn how to set up your WordPress website, choose the instructions for the hosting plan you have:
1. Shared Web Hosting
Shared Web Hosting users get a “CPanel” (Control Panel) to manage your WordPress login.
- Click “Dashboard” in the left blue sidebar menu
- Click on your hosting service
- Click “Access Control Panel” button
- Click to access Control Panel
- Scroll to the bottom to see this WordPress logo:
- Scroll to the bottom to see “Current Installations”
- Click the user image to “login as admin”
- This will log you into your WordPress dashboard!
- *This is really important* Once you are inside of the WordPress backend, click “Users” on the left and set up an admin user for yourself. If there isn’t one created, add your username and pw as a new admin user. SAVE THIS INFO for future logins.
2. Managed WordPress Hosting
Managed Website Hosting owners get a Managed “WPO Portal” that will show in the bottom of your blue sidebar. You can also find it here: https://wpo.bigscoots.com/
The login for this will be sent to you as an email.
Login to this WPO Portal (and save the login! It’s different from your BigScoots login).
Once you login to the WPO Portal, click here:
- My Sites (left blue sidebar menu)
- Click on the domain name
- “WordPress” tab
- Your user names and passwords will be listed here.
- Your WordPress URL will be: www.yourdomain.com/wp-login.php OR www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin
- If these logins don’t work, submit a ticket to BigScoots.
How to set up a WordPress Website – Other Hosts
If you are using any other host, just remember this. Your host will set up WordPress for you inside their dashboard.
You will not need to set it up. And you definitely won’t set it up inside of WordPress.com. (Read why here.)
Reach out to your host and ask them for the correct WordPress URL and login and they will set it up for you!
To get setup with WordPress templates, WordPress plugins, and WordPress themes, read this article here.
Thank you so much for this AMAZING post! I recently moved from Squarespace to WordPress, and this was incredibly helpful!!
Aw thank you! This is so wonderful to hear!