Installing WordPress on your hosting

Installing WordPress takes a few minutes. What comes after — the setup that decides whether your site is still safe and fast a year from now — takes a little longer and usually gets skipped.

The installation

1. Use the installer in your hosting control panel. It creates the database, puts the files in place and generates the administrator login in one go.
2. Choose a username of your own during installation. Not "admin": that is the first one an automated attack tries.
3. Install on your domain itself, not in a subdirectory, unless you deliberately want a second site alongside your main one.
4. Set the right address straight away: decide whether your site is reachable with or without www, and use https throughout.

The first ten minutes afterwards

• Switch on automatic updates for WordPress itself. Outdated software is the most common reason a site gets hacked.
• Remove what you do not use — the bundled themes and plugins you are not going to activate. What is not there cannot be abused.
• Check your PHP version. Pick the highest your WordPress version supports; the speed difference is noticeable.
• Switch on two-factor authentication on your administrator account. That makes a stolen password close to worthless.

What not to do

Install five security plugins side by side. They clash, slow your site down and give a false sense of safety. One well-configured plugin is enough — and keeping things updated does more than all the plugins together.

Moving an existing site

If you are moving an existing WordPress site, do not install a new one: transfer the files and the database and only then adjust the DNS. The order is in migrate your hosting.

What our WordPress hosting includes as standard is on WordPress hosting.