Please note that installing WordPress manually falls outside the scope of free technical support. Our Support teams may not be able to troubleshoot, maintain, or otherwise assist you with this type of WordPress install. Instead, refer to our guide on installing this application through Softaculous if you are a cPanel account user.
WordPress is a powerful yet easy-to-use publishing platform. Although it is typically thought of as blogging software, WordPress can do much more and can run almost any kind of website (see 30 Untypical WordPress Sites for examples).
The following advice is for Site Manager, but if you are in cPanel you can manage multiple WordPress installs through your Softaculous tool. These instructions can also be fitted to work for a custom cPanel install if necessary. Determine what type of account you own with this guide.
The Site Manager lets you easily install one copy of the WordPress publishing platform. However, multiple WordPress installations under one hosting account require you to download and install the WordPress software manually. Luckily, the process is very simple and it can be performed entirely from the File Manager.
You must have MySQL and PHP installed from the Site Manager > Install & Manage section before following these directions. If you have another installation of WordPress on your account, know that you have previously installed MySQL and PHP.
Step 1. Create a new directory
If you haven't done so already, create a new folder for your new WordPress blog. You can create a directory using the File Manager, an FTP client, or SSH command line. In this case, I am planning to use WordPress for the home page of a new website: example.com. I have already created the folder ~/www/example.com and I have already added example.com to the Site Manager > Domains section, setting the "Web Directory" to Custom and entering ~/www/example.com as the custom web directory path.
Step 2. Download and unpack WordPress
Using either the File Manager or an SSH command line, switch to the directory you've just created for your new block. In this example, you would make sure you are in the ~/www/example.com directory before continuing. Once you are in this folder, download the WordPress software by executing the following command from the File Manager or an SSH command line:
curl http://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz | tar -xzv --strip-path=1
Step 3. Create a new database
Create a new MySQL database for the additional WordPress blog by executing the following command from the File Manager or an SSH command line, replacing the database name here with a name for the new database. Do not include characters other than letters, numbers, and the _ underscore (no spaces, no periods, etc.). There will be no output from the following command, so do not be alarmed if you see nothing returned when executing this command in File Manager.
mysqladmin create database name here
If you have phpMyAdmin installed on your account from Site Manager, you may also create the database using phpMyAdmin instead.
Step 4. Finish the setup in your web browser
Visit the appropriate URL in your web browser to complete the WordPress setup within the browser. In this case, I would simply visit http://example.com/ and follow the guided setup wizard.
When setting up WordPress, use the following database configuration settings:
- Database Name: This is whatever name you used in step 3 above
- Username: root (or one that you've manually created)
- Password: this is the MySQL password you chose when installing MySQL from Site Manager (or when creating a custom database user)
- Database Host: leave this as it is (localhost)
- Table Prefix: leave this as it is (wp_)
If you've forgotten your MySQL root password, you can execute the following command from the File Manager or an SSH command line to retrieve it:
grep password /etc/my.cnf
You will need to reset the password through cPanel if you have a custom database user there.