How To Add Wordpress To HostGator
HostGator has a nice CPanel, but if you’re not familiar with how it works, it may as well be Greek. I’m not the greatest techie on earth, and so when I wanted to add WordPress to my website it took me several days to figure out how to do it. Once I figured it out, it was so simple. HostGator even has a program called Fantastico to do it for you!
I figure others may have the same problem that I had, and so I’m doing a series of basic steps that I took to get my sites up and running.
#1- Follow the link in your welcome email from HostGator that opens your CPanel and sign in.
#2- You’re now looking at CPanel. Scroll to the bottom of the icons and look towards the right. You should see a blue smiley face labeled Fantastico De Luxe. Click this icon.
#3- You should see a screen with a big white block on the right with some babble on it. To the left is a list of programs. Look down the left side until you see WordPress (it should be the second group with the lable “blogs”).
#4- Now, in the right hand column (the big white block) you’ll see “WordPress” in big letters at the top. There will be some more babble in the block- just look until you find “New Installation”. Click it.
#5- In the new screen you’ll see “install on domain” followed by a drop down list of the domains you have hosted by HostGator. Choose the domain you want to add WordPress to.
#6- Directly below where you choose the domain, is a box labeled “directory”. Now, if you want to build a single website with WordPress, leave this blank. If you want to build multiple websites on the same domain with WordPress, enter the name you want. For instance- my site is Afflove.com. This site is Afflove.com/internet. Afflove.com is the “root directory”, but when I built this site I entered “internet” into the directory slot.
#7- Fill in the rest of the information. Admin Access Data is simply what you want your login and password to be for getting into your WordPress account. Base Configuration is your screen name (you can use your real name if you want), email address for important information, and the title of your website. You’ll need to fill in your email information as well.
#8- Click “Install WordPress” and click on the button on the next window when it comes up to finalize installation.
#9- Type your URL into your web browser. A window should automatically pop up asking for your log in information. Enter it into the correct boxes. You’re done!
If you need more help in building your WordPress website, try these video tutorials or click here to read my step-by-step WordPress articles.
Hi,
Thank you for writing about adding WordPress to Hostgator. I am so stuck attempting to add it and change themes. The only problem is that I can not read your directions because of the ads that overlay the text of the instructions. Is there some way for me to read your excellent step-by-step directions without the double text that prevents reading? I’ve tried with both FireFox and IE as browsers but it is the same problem with both. Please help me get my wordpress up on HostGator. Thanks again!
Eileen
Comment by Eileen — February 21, 2008 @ 6:47 am
Eileen- Thank you for bringing that to my attention. I couldn’t see the problem in my browser, but I removed the HostGator ad at the top of the post. I hope that fixes the problem. If it doesn’t, please let me know and I’ll email you a plain text version of the article. I’ve been considering changing the theme as well, the problem could be there.
Comment by afflove — February 21, 2008 @ 7:07 am
Hello. I enjoyed reading your website.
Have a wonderful day and keep up the good work.
Brutellio.
Comment by Brutellio — July 7, 2008 @ 10:00 am
Wordpress sounds real simple to install. I wish there was a blog created with ASP.net which was free too and just as easy to install as Wordpress which is a PHP blog.
Comment by Speed Dating NYC — October 22, 2008 @ 2:51 am
Help!! I did this once a couple of weeks ago and got WP installed. I am doing a second one and am stuck. I get to the end, but when I try to go to the website/wp,, I get a message that say IE cannot display the web page. Any thoughts??
Comment by patti — October 27, 2008 @ 10:06 pm
You’re typing in wp-admin at the end? If so, I honestly don’t know how to help. Although, Fantastico does seem to have changed recently (I just installed 3 more blogs last week), but mine have all worked.
Did you type something into the directory box? I’d check your file manager to make sure that it installed under the correct name, and if so, then you might want to check with HostGator’s customer service. Or, you could try uninstalling, and then re-installing. One install didn’t want to load up for me right away, but worked fine the next day…
Please let me know if you get it to work! Sorry I’m not more help.
Comment by afflove — October 27, 2008 @ 10:47 pm