Everything you need, from planning and hosting to deployment, security, performance and troubleshooting — packaged as a single HTML reference. Follow the numbered steps exactly; copy/paste code samples and replace placeholders marked with <like-this>.
Before installing WordPress, make sure you have:
example.com).webp or compressed .jpeg).Two common approaches:
Tip: For learning or development, use Local by Flywheel or XAMPP/MAMP to run WordPress locally on your PC/Mac.
If your host offers a one-click installer (Softaculous, Installatron, WP Toolkit):
/) for primary domain or a subfolder for staging or a subdomain.https://example.com/wp-admin.One-click installers handle database creation, file placement and basic configuration automatically.
Using cPanel > MySQL Databases or via SSH:
# login to mysql as root
sudo mysql -u root -p
inside mysql shell
CREATE DATABASE wordpress DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci; CREATE USER 'wpuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'strong_password_here'; GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON wordpress.* TO 'wpuser'@'localhost'; FLUSH PRIVILEGES; EXIT; Use SFTP/FTP or scp/rsync (preferred over plain FTP):
# example using rsync (from your machine to server)
rsync -avz ./wordpress/ username@your-server.com:/var/www/html/example.com/ wp-config.phpwp-config-sample.php to wp-config.php.https://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/salt/ to generate unique auth keys and paste them in.# from the webroot
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/example.com find /var/www/html/example.com -type d -exec chmod 755 {} ; find /var/www/html/example.com -type f -exec chmod 644 {} ; Open your browser: https://example.com or https://example.com/wp-admin/install.php. Follow the on-screen wizard to create an admin user and site title.
For development, use Local by Flywheel, XAMPP, WampServer or MAMP:
search-replace when migrating from local to production to replace http://localhost with https://example.com.| Purpose | Recommended plugin examples |
|---|---|
| SEO | Yoast SEO, Rank Math |
| Security | Wordfence, Sucuri Scanner, iThemes Security |
| Backups | UpdraftPlus, Jetpack Backup |
| Caching | WP Super Cache, W3 Total Cache, LiteSpeed Cache |
| Image optimization | Smush, ShortPixel |
| Form building | WPForms, Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms (paid) |
Install plugins only from trusted sources. Too many plugins can slow your site — choose carefully.
Enable HTTPS using Let’s Encrypt (free) or a commercial certificate:
# example (Debian/Ubuntu) install certbot and enable for nginx
sudo apt update sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx sudo certbot --nginx -d example.com -d www.example.com Certbot will create and renew certificates automatically if your server supports it; otherwise configure a cron job to renew.
loading="lazy").wp-config.php:
define('DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT', true);# manual MySQL dump example
mysqldump -u wpuser -p wordpress > ~/backups/wordpress_$(date +%F).sql
backup files
tar -czvf ~/backups/wp_files_$(date +%F).tar.gz /var/www/html/example.com wp-config.php, run search-replace to fix URLs.Install WP-CLI (download phar, make executable) and use commands like:
# download & install
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wp-cli/builds/gh-pages/phar/wp-cli.phar chmod +x wp-cli.phar sudo mv wp-cli.phar /usr/local/bin/wp
basic usage from webroot
wp core download wp config create --dbname=wordpress --dbuser=wpuser --dbpass='password' --dbhost=localhost wp core install --url='https://example.com' --title='My Site' --admin_user='admin' --admin_password='StrongPass123!' --admin_email='you@example.com'
useful commands
wp plugin install akismet --activate wp theme install twentytwentythree --activate wp user create author author@example.com --role=author --user_pass='AuthorPass123' WP-CLI is fast and scriptable — great for repeatable deployments and automation.
WP_DEBUG in wp-config.php:
define('WP_DEBUG', true);
define('WP_DEBUG_LOG', true); define('WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false); wp-content/debug.log and server error logs.wp-config.php temporarily:
define('WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '256M');<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName example.com
ServerAlias www.example.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/html/example.com
AllowOverride All
Require all granted
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/example.com-error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/example.com-access.log combined
server {
listen 80;
server_name example.com www.example.com;
root /var/www/html/example.com;
index index.php index.html index.htm;
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
}
location ~ \.php$ {
include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php8.1-fpm.sock; # adjust php-fpm socket/version
}
} 755644640 or 600 if supported by your host.
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