WordPress powers a huge share of the world’s websites, and you can have it running on your hosting in a few minutes.
- Log in to cPanel. You can open it from your client area (choose your hosting service, then Login to cPanel), or go to yourdomain.co.uk/cpanel.
- Find the WordPress installer. Depending on your account it’s called WP Toolkit or WordPress under Softaculous Apps Installer. Typing “WordPress” in cPanel’s search box finds it either way.
- Choose Install.
- Select your domain. Leave the directory box empty to install WordPress at the main address, such as yourbusiness.co.uk, rather than in a subfolder.
- Choose an admin username that isn’t “admin”, and a strong password. Use an email address you check, because password resets go there.
- Click Install and wait a minute or two.
Log in for the first time
Go to yourdomain.co.uk/wp-admin and sign in with the username and password you chose. From there you can choose a theme, add pages and install plugins.
Three things to do straight away
- Turn on automatic updates for WordPress itself (most installers offer this as an option).
- Delete any themes and plugins you aren’t using.
- Read our guide to keeping WordPress secure.