How to setup a WordPress blog
Getting Started
If you are new to blogging then allow me to introduce you. A blog (a contraction of “web log”) is a place where you can share what is happening in your family. You can post news about your business for your customers. Perhaps you wish to keep an online journal of your travels.
Whatever your purpose is, a great place to start is by installing the latest version of WordPress in your WestHost account. WordPress is a blog publishing web application available with almost all of our shared hosting plans. No Web design experience is required; just an idea and the time to write about it. To get started, you will need to install WordPress in your account as follows:
Installing WordPress
- Log into Site Manager at http://www.yourdomain.com/manager/.
- On the left side of the page under “Site Applications” click on “Install & Manage”.
- Click on the installation icon for “WordPress” under the “Community” category.
- Agree to the terms and conditions, click “Next”, and fill in a few details that will be used to install WordPress into your account.
- WordPress is now installed in your account and can be found at http://www.yourdomain.com/wordpress/. You can log into the WordPress control panel at http://www.yourdomain.com/wordpress/wp-login.php.
And Where Do We Go From Here?
Having installed WordPress is enough to immediately get you blogging. However, there are a lot of resources available that you can use to personalize your WordPress installation.
- Themes – A theme completely changes the look of your blog. The site http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/ contains hundreds of themes you can install for free.
- Plugins – Plugins extend the base functionality of WordPress. What kind of new features can plugins provide? Read this blog post on WordPress plugins from earlier this year for more information:
https://www.westhost.com/blog/adding-plugins-to-wordpress/. - SEO – The purpose of a blog is to be read, and SEO (search engine optimization) can help make that happen. Fortunately, another blog post is available to help you get started:
https://www.westhost.com/blog/optimizing-your-blog-for-search-engines/.