In this tutorial I will show you how to install WordPress as your Content Management System (CMS) on a website hosted by Namecheap.com.
To do this you will need to have access to your cPanel account. This should be provided by Namecheap. When I first started online, all of this stuff was SUPER confusing…but you will figure it out!
There will be a lot of information on your screen as we proceed, just ignore it and follow my step-by-step directions. I will highlight exactly what you need to do.
Let’s get started!
How To Install WordPress On Your Namecheap.com Hosted Website
Step 1: Log into cPanel. You should have been given a URL to access your cPanel by Namecheap when you purchased hosting. If you can’t recall the URL, you can try entering this: “cpanel.yourdomain.com”. This should take you to the (A) cPanel login screen. Enter your credentials (again, should have been provided to you) and click (B) “Log in”.
Step 2: Find & Open Softaculous Apps Installer. Now you should be at your cPanel home screen. Think of this as your control center for every website you have hosted with Namecheap. Now we need to find the drop-down menu in the list that says (C) “Softaculous Apps Installer” and click on the (D) little gray arrow to expand the menu. Your menus may be in a different order than mine so just look around until you find it.
Step 3: Go to WordPress installation page. Now that the Softaculous Apps Installer menu is expanded, find the (E) “Scripts” section of it and click on the (F) WordPress icon. This will take you to the WordPress installation page.
Step 4: Begin installation process. Click on the blue (G) “Install” button near the upper part of your screen.
Step 5: Choose installation settings. Now we need to look through and modify our settings. Let’s take a look at each section individually.
Software Setup
Choose Protocol: Essentially, this is the “technical” URL address of your website. If your site has SLL, then you need to select one of the options that begins with “https://” (with the “s”), if not, select one of the “http://” (without the “s”) options.
Choose Domain: Here you must choose which domain name you want to install WordPress on. This is only relevant if you host more than one domain name with Namecheap.
In Directory: I would highly suggest deleting the “wp” that is already in the text box and leaving this one blank. It will save you many problems in the future.
Database Name: You can just leave this as the default, unless you have a specific database name you would like to enter.
Database Settings
Table Prefix: Just leave this as the default. No need to make changes here.
Site Settings
Site Name: Here you can enter the name of your website. For example, for this website my website name is “Kirby’s Marketing”.
Site Description: Here is where you can enter in a more detailed description of your website and it’s purpose. Try to keep this description to a few short sentences at the most.
Enable Multisite (WPMU): Only check this box if you’re an advanced user and know what you’re doing!
Admin Account
Admin Username, Password, & Email: Here you must decide what you want your Admin account’s username and password to be as well as the attached email address. I would recommend changing the username and password and entering an email you check regularly.
Choose Language
Select Language: Self explanatory.
Select Plugins
Limit Login Attempts: Choose whether or not you want WordPress to automatically install this plugin onto your website. This is completely up to your personal preference.
There may be other plugins shown here. Again, just read what they’re about and see if you want to utilize them on your website.
Advanced Options
Disable Update Notification: Decide whether or not you want to be notified, via email, when future updates are available. This is completely up to you.
Auto Upgrade: Decide whether or not you want WordPress to automatically update when possible. This is completely up to you as well, but I would err on the safe side and leave this unchecked.
Automated Backups: Decide if, and how frequently, you would like automatic backups to be made of your website.
Backup Rotation: Choose how many backup files you would like to keep on file. If you select “4”, for example, then once you have more than 4 backups the oldest one will that is still saved be deleted every time a new one is created.
Step 6: Install WordPress. Now that you have everything set as you would like, it is time to install WordPress by clicking the gray (H above) “install” button below all of the settings. Once you click install you will have to wait.
Step 7: Go to your website’s WordPress Admin page. Hopefully, assuming everything went right, you should get a “Congratulations, the software was installed successfully” page. Under it you will notice two URLs. The first (J) is the URL where the public will view your website at. The second (K) is the URL where you will access your WordPress Admin page. It should look something like “http://yourdomain.com/wp-admin/”. Click on this url address to be taken to your login page.
Step 8: Bookmark page and login. Make sure to bookmark this page, as it is where you will have to return every time you want to log into the Administration Page of your website. You simply login using the username and password you entered in step 5.
Congratulations!
That’s it! You have now installed WordPress on your Namecheap.com hosted website. Don’t stop now! This is just one of the first steps of getting started online! Now the hard part, content creation, starts!
Good luck and check back frequently! If you have any questions or comments regarding this process, please drop me a comment below and I will get back to you ASAP!
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Hello and thanking you for this great, clear and interesting explanation.
I am interested in subdomains because they will save me money for paying for a new sub domain. Or will it? Can I add a subdomain for free or?
And the same goes for running WPress. Could have all my subdomains on one domain and not pay for WP for each? Or has this option been removed?
Excellent tutorial, thanks. In the past I’ve had WP sites, but one thing I always struggled with is FTP.
I’m certainly drawn to this simpler Namecheap way of installing WP as I’m just about to start a new business. My concern is whether I would need to use FTP at all, as I don’t fancy again having to get someone else to work through it for me.
If everything is in cPanel that’s no problem for me.
Thanks for the comment Geoff.
In my experience, you can do most of the file uploading directly through cPanel itself and don’t need to download a separate FTP file program.
I hope that helps,
Dustin
Very helpful information. It really helped me so much to setup wordpress on namecheap
It’s my pleasure, Brian. I’m glad I could help!
Dustin
Thank you so much for this great tutorial. I used it to fix my blog!
Thank you Mahmuod!
I’m glad you found this tutorial helpful and that you were able to get your blog fixed!
Peace,
Dustin
For the people having trouble reaching the admin page after installing wordpress. You need to go back to your namecheap dashboard>domain list and click manage on the domain you want connected to your hosting. Scroll down just a tiny bit and next to “nameservers” change it to “Namecheap Webhosting DNS”. May take up to 48 hours before your admin page works.
Thank you for this tip Aaron! I appreciate it!
Peace,
Dustin
Hi Dustin,
Thank you so much for the post! Like many others, I was very confused when I first signed up for Namecheap’s hosting plan and your article answered each of my questions. Great stuff!
But I wanted to ask, have you ever had trouble logging into your admin page after installing WordPress? I’ve reached the “Congratulations!” page, but when I access my admin URL, it says the page isn’t available.
Does it take awhile for it to be set up? It’s been about a half hour so far.
Thanks in advance!
Hey there Amber!
It’s great to hear that this article helped you as you were getting your website up and running!
I know I’m a little late in responding to your questions, but my gut instinct would be that you just need to give it a little more time to see if the problem is just that the WordPress installation hasn’t propagated yet. If it’s been more than a day I would suggest emailed Namecheap’s support. I’ve always had good luck chatting with them via their chatbox thingy!
Let me know if you have any more questions!
Peace,
Dustin “Kirby” Garness
Hey Brittani,
I’m sorry it took me so long to get back to you. I was away for the weekend! However, if the problem is what I’m thinking, I’m guessing it should have resolved itself by now. Is this true? I hope so…
I’m guessing that because you had just changed where your DNS servers were pointing it hadn’t yet fully propagated, a process that can take up to 24 hours. That means, even though you did everything correctly, it’s still not completely set up yet. This just takes time and there really is no telling how long it might take. In my experience, it’s usually taken anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours.
Another trick you can do is to clear your cookies and see if that helps.
Thank you for putting your question out there. Again, I’m really sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner…but I hope you’re well on your way with you new website!
Dustin “Kirby” Garness
Thank you!!!
Hi Dustin, thanks for the post! Very helpful. I was wondering if you could provide me with a bit more insight: I am not new to blogging and have had two successful blogs in the past: one on google’s blogger and another on wordpress. I am looking to begin a new one and am purchasing the domain through name cheap. I know how to work with the blog through the wordpress site and would like to continue to do so. If I purchase hosting through namecheap (which is highly recommended) and then use wordpress as my CMS, what will the difference be from simply utilizing wordpress (i.e. purchasing the domain through wordpress.)
I am looking forward to your response.
Warmest,
Morgan
Hey Morgan!
That’s a really great question! Basically, there are two different WordPress options: WordPress.com & WordPress.org.
WordPress.com
If you get your domain name through WordPress.com you will have to use their hosting. The good thing about this is you don’t have to worry about hosting things and it’s free up to a certain point. However, if you’re really into this, WordPress.com is probably not going to be a very good choice because it leaves you with very little flexibility. They automatically add advertisements to your site and you can’t sell your own ads until your site reaches a certain amount of traffic, plus you have to split the revenue with them. You can’t use plugins or choose your own theme. You can’t use any other analytics programs other than what they provide. They can delete your site or take you offline if they believe your site goes against their terms of service, etc.
Basically, WordPress.com is just like Tumblr or other blog services in that they provide you with your own site, but technically everything on your blog is owned by them. So that ultimately means you’re not fully in control of your site.
WordPress.org
WordPress.org is different because it’s a Content Management System only. This means it gives you the freedom to do pretty much anything you want…as long as it isn’t illegal. You own everything you put on your blog. You can choose your theme and use whatever plugins you would like. You can sell ads, use Google Adwords or any other third party ad services. If you know what you’re doing, you can even modify the core code files of your site. Basically, you are in full and complete control of everything about your site and WordPress is just the CMS where you are able to visualize everything.
This also means you have more responsibility and have to make sure your site is updated and backing it up regularly. However, these are all simple things to do.
Conclusion
Basically, if you can’t tell, I’d highly recommend building your new website through WordPress.org, as it will give you much more freedom and is fully owned by you, not by WordPress.
I hope that helped clear things up a little bit, but if you have any other questions, please don’t hesitate to ask!
Dustin “Kirby” Garness
Great Post,Easy to understand
I’ll be making my very first website and
You mentioned
“In Directory: I would highly suggest deleting the “wp” that is already in the text box and leaving this one blank. It will save you many problems in the future.”
What would these problems be?
can you explain a little more?
Hey Issac,
I may be too late for this. Hopefully you’ve already gotten your site started and are well on your way. I’ve had a family emergency going on for the last couple of weeks so haven’t been able to get my comments answered!
Anyways, the reason I suggest removing the “wp” is to make your homepage domain name just simply “www.yourwebsitename.com”. If you leave the “wp” in there, your homepage domain name will be “www.yourwebsitename.com/wp”.
I figured this out from personal experience when creating this website. When I left the “wp” there I had to go to “www.kirbysmarketing.com/wp” in order to view my homepage. I didn’t want that! I had to uninstall WordPress and start the whole process over from the beginning to fix it.
Anyways, I hope that answered your question!
Dustin
Love your site, You have done a fantastic job with steps on installing WordPress with Namecheap.
If you are new to website building it can be rather frustrating, But having sites like this makes it soo much easier to learn how to get going! Thanks for taking the time to show all the steps this will definitely help someone who isn’t sure on how… 🙂
Hey Jennifer! Thank you so much for leaving a comment.
You’re definitely right. All of the behind the scenes stuff, hosting, DNS, CMS installation is all pretty confusing and complicated, especially if you are new to the field. Luckily, there are lots of resources to show you how to do most of it! Some here on my site and others elsewhere.
Anyways, please let me know if you have any questions about anything or any tutorials you would like to see in the future!
Dustin