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How to Install WordPress on Namecheap in Less than 5 Minutes

Login and go to Your Account Dashboard

So the first things first. Before starting everything, you will need to login inside your Namecheap account, buy your desired hosting package and your domain name. Once you do, make sure you are inside your account dashboard. It should like this:

Namecheap dashboard image

Make sure you click on the server icon. It should show you something like this:

server icon hint

After that make sure you click Go to cPanel. Once you click it should redirect you to your own cPanel. Make sure you scroll all the way down to the Softaculous Apps Installer. Under the scripts tabs, you should see a blue W icon with a “WordPress” caption. It should look like something like this:

WordPress icon

Click on it and then you will be able to see a blue button saying “Install Now”. To make sure you know where to click, let me show you how it looks like:

WordPress Install Now

Installation Parameters

Once you click there, you will see a plethora of WordPress parameters that you want to setup. Let me show you how does it look like and then we can go through one by one and i will make sure to explain what each them are meant for:

WordPress installation options

Ok so let’s go one by one now starting from the top all the way to the bottom.

Choose the version you want to install – This might be different by the time when you will be doing this so the number and versions might be different than one from the picture. Basically here you are choosing a WordPress version to install on your domain. Namecheap is famous by very good support and assistance, they are maintaining their services properly so unless you have specific requirements for a WordPress version, you should definitely go with the latest offered WordPress version.

Choose ProtocolNamecheap offers a one-year free SSL which is a very, very good deal if you ask me. So make sure you grab the deal as soon as you buy your own domain name and install an SSL certificate BEFORE you install WordPress in order to avoid potential SSL related issues with WordPress permalinks and other similar settings. So after you’ve got your free SSL installed and ready to go, make sure to select the “https://” option. If you are new to all this and you are wondering why would you need this, then make sure you read online about it, but long story short, it makes a connection between the visitor and your website more secure, trusted and generally Google is going to like you for being trusted and therefore will rank your better. It’s one of the best wast to improve your general authority. This is how your domain looks like with SSL installed and secured connection:

Secured domain

Choose Domain – Logically, here you will choose your previously bought domain name where you want your future WordPress website to be reached. Just to let you know, you are not limited to install WordPress only on the main domain. You can also install it in a subdomain as well. For example, if you bought a domain “mycooldomain.com”, you don’t necessarily need to install it on that URL. You could, for example, install it under “news.mycooldomain.com”. If you are wondering why would anyone do this, you’ve probably noticed that many major websites and companies have the main domain for main website content and blog subdomain for a blog. You can read more about subdomains on Wikipedia but here is a short description: ” A subdomain is a domain that is part of a larger domain; the only domain that is not also a subdomain is the root domain. For example, west.example.com and east.example.com are subdomains of the example.com domain, which in turn is a subdomain of the com top-level domain (TLD). “

In Directory – So, in the same way, that you can install WordPress under the subdomain, you can also install it in a directory that is relative to your domain name, for example, if you want your WordPress installation to be reached at “mycooldoman.com/wordpress” then you should write “WordPress” inside this field. I don’t really recommend this, but as I’ve said before if you do have specific requirements feel free to change and adapt to them.

Now moving on to the next section called Site Settings. You will see 3 options.

Site Name – This is really self-explanatory. It’s the name of your website that will appear on the browser tab and link thumbnails and also is used for SEO indexing done by Google for your website.

Site Description – Same as for Site Name but instead name this is a description for your future website. It will appear on the right side of your website name by default. This can be different for different WordPress themes and options. For example, in the picture below you see 3 things. You see an icon called a favicon, you see a Site Name that is separated with “|” from Site Description. Don’t worry about the “|” separator. It can be changed to anything, for example “=”, “-“, “*” etc…

Enable Multisite (WPMU) – This feature will enable the Multisite option for your WordPress installation. The multisite option is a WordPress feature that allows users to create a network of sites on a single WordPress installation. This is useful if you want a few different WordPress websites under one. Some companies prefer this for easier management but for the personal use case, I would definitely uncheck this option.

Moving next onto Admin Account section you can also see three settings to fill in.

Admin Username and Admin Password – Once you install your WordPress, you will be able to go inside the WordPress dashboard which is by default on this URL “mycooldomain.com/wp-admin”. So, just add “/wp-admin” to your domain address and you will see a login screen. In order to log in, you will need to use credentials that you previously typed in Admin Username and Admin Password. It looks like this:

WordPress login screen

Admin Email – This is also kind of self explanatory isn’t it?

Next on the list is Select Language. I won’t explain you this.

Select the Plugin(s) section offers you few plugins that can be pre-installed for you so you won’t have to install them after. You can hover your mouse cursor over little I icons to see what each of them is used for. I usually deselect all of them except W3 Total Cache. This plugin enables better and improved caching for your website and therefore improves loading and general performance for your website. You can read more about this here.

Optional Advanced Options

Now, if you are a beginner which you probably are if you are reading this article, you should leave these fields all on default values. For those of you who like living on the edge, let’s dig deeper and explore what each of these options is used for.

Database Name – This will be the name of your main WordPress installation. It will contain all the info such as posts, plugins, themes setting, etc… Think of it as mapping for all your resources. For me personally, I go with custom database names since I am managing more than a few hundred WordPress websites so I need a quick and easy way to locate and differentiate website databases when issues occur. If you are not planning on having many websites on your host, then you should leave it default. Make sure your database name won’t be exactly the same as your website name, this is the first thing hackers go and try when they try to get in and hack WordPress websites.

Table Prefix – This value goes before all the tables inside above-mentioned database. So if you enter “coolDB” inside Table Prefix and have for example database named “wpCool” and you have a table inside it named “posts”, it will be seen as “coolDB-posts”. I really hope this makes sense. Here is a more heavy technical explanation in case you didn’t get me. Database Table Prefix. In the wp-config.php file, a WordPress site owner can define a database table prefix. By default, the prefix is “wp_”, but you’ll need to check on the actual value and use it to define your database table name. This value is found in the $wpdb->prefix variable.

Disable Update Notifications Emails – If you check this option, you will not be notified of WordPress updates. I am checking my websites regularly so i always check this option in order to not get my inbox spammed.

Auto Upgrade – At the time of me writing this article you have three options here. You have Do Not Auto Upgrade which means that WordPress and plugins won’t be auto-upgraded. I recommend this since it’s not always a good idea to update right away to the latest WordPress version. You should look and research for possible upgrading issues and you MUST backup your WordPress files and database before every WordPress upgrade. Upgrade to Minor versions only is the second option which auto upgrades only when there is a big new update to install. You shouldn’t have this enabled, trust me. Upgrade to any latest version available (Major as well as Minor) is the last, third option and it’s like suicide. Never leave this on, period.

Auto Upgrade WordPress Plugins – If you check this, your plugins will be automatically updated. Depending on the size and complexity of your website you should leave this on or off. If you prefer playing safe, leave it unchecked so that you can do a full backup before updating all plugins.

Auto Upgrade WordPress Themes – Same as above, just remember, theme issue could crash a whole look and feel of your website so I recommend leaving it unchecked in order to do a full backup before updating.

Backup Location – This is the location of your backup files on your Namecheap server. I always leave them on default, it’s easier to find them from cPanel in case something goes wrong and if you contact Namecheap support they will also be able to locate your backups faster and help you faster. On the other hand, if you need them in the custom folder just select the Local Folder option.

Automated backups – You have five options here: Don’t backup, once a day, once a week, once a month, and custom. Now, I usually leave it once a week but if you are going to have lots of content and write every day you should definitely back it up more frequently. On another hand, if you are limited by your server storage and bandwidth, just choose a Don’t backup option.

Backup Rotation – Here you can choose a number of backups to save on the server. If you select 4 for example and have automated backups selected daily, you will have the last four days of backups always on the server. On the fifth day, a backup from the first day will be deleted and you will have the newest four backups saved. I really hope this makes sense to you.

And the last option you have is to Select Theme. This means that the theme you select will be pre-installed for you. Do not worry if you can’t find a theme you like or if you already have a custom theme bought or downloaded waiting to install, you will be able to upload or select a new one after inside your WordPress admin dashboard. Just select one, enter your email in the “Email installation details to:” field and click a blue “Install” button.

Theme selection

After that you will see a progress bar loading and progressing. It shouldn’t take longer than 30 seconds. Once you are done you will get all the instructions on your screen in front of you and also inside your email. Here is how it looks:

Installation complete

And that’s all folks! You can see your new fresh WordPress website on the link show above!

Why Namecheap?

In case you wonder why did I choose to go with Namecheap, it’s because I think they offer the best value for your money. They are not that expensive, their support is incredibly responsive and knowledgeable. They will get in chat with you at any time of day and night and help you for sure. Another awesome thing I love about Namecheap support is that you can actually authorize them to make changes for you. I’ve never seen this anywhere, usually support team helps you find and do stuff yourself, they never do it for you. Well, Namecheap does it for you, free of charge! Also, if you are looking to get into the web development business and have few clients, they offer affiliate options so that you can earn while offering domain and hosting services to your future clients. And a very and in my opinion, the best feature is being able to pay for Namecheap services with your cryptocurrencies. Namecheap is definitely part of a decentralized future and I like and support this move big time.

So that’s all internet, I am planning to get a new camera pretty soon so in the future I might add a video for this post article. Until then, I wish you all the best!

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