Where do you Install WordPress?
ByWhen I teach the Website Creation Workshop, I often get the question: “Where do I install WordPress?”
and the answer is: “Wherever you want it!”
You see, you can install WordPress at the root of your domain name, as in www.thebestthemes.com, or you can install it in a folder as in www.WebsiteCreationWorkshop.com/blog
Here is a YouTube video I did that explains this:
If you already have a website, and you want to add a blog to it, you can put it in a folder on your hosting company servers as /blog or /articles or /news or whatever you want to call it.
Or if you want you can install the WordPress site at the root of your domain, and that is the site.
(I prefer this method, since the URL links are shorter)
(Hey, if any of this seems too techy, just put your question about it in the box below)
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Thanks for making this distinction. I don’t totally understand this yet, but you cleared up a considerable amount with this posting.
Joseph,
It all starts with how you want your URL web links to look to your viewers. And also, if you want to use your domain name for multiple WordPress sites.
Click around this blog, then click around my other site:
http://www.thebestthemes.com and you will start to get the difference
Installing worpress in a subdomsin is the neatest way to go about it. It keeps all in one place.
Hi Christina
Thanks for the video. It was very clear for me with out be able to see it.
When do you reopen the Curse on WordPress?
thanks!
Patrick,
glad you liked the video. Yes I like having auditory as well as the written word in my trainings.
The “curse” LOL!
There will be a new announcement about my WordPress trainings in the coming weeks
Hi Christina-
I just love all the work you do but for whatever reason I just can’t seem to get the hang of doing my own wordpress site. Do you have any graduates or a referral source who could take my 4 WP websites and get them connected to a blog, social media, and SEO?
I am desperate for someone to handle the ‘get it out there’ end of product creation!
Thanks.
mary
Mary,
Don’t give up on yourself learning WordPress! But if you are in a crunch, then send me an email and I’ll get you some resources
I have a website (not wordpress) and want to create a new wordpress website, but keep the original url. Can I create the new wordpress site under a dummy url and then rename it to the original url when I am ready to go live? Or is there a better way? Thanks so much,
Miriam,
You can create the new wordpress website in a temporary folder on your regular website, and then when you are ready to go live, turn it on.
You should call your hosting company, because each hosting company may handle this differently.
Okay – that makes sense! Thanks so much.
Didn’t realize you could have multiple “blogs” within your website… just need to save different WordPress folders within your site!
Cool stuff.
Chase,
I do it all the time. I have one look for my blog
http://www.websitecreationworkshop.com/blog
and another look for my registration signups
http://www.websitecreationworkshop.com/signup
so it allows me to have different functionality for my site, with the same domain name.
Hi Christina,
I understood the two options of root or in another folder. I didn’t understand that you could have both. Does that mean I could install in the root under one theme as you say and in another folder such as yourdomain.com/secndwp and just use different links for clients? That would be like having multiple sites under one domain.
Dan,
yes you can have multiple sites under one domain.
Whatever makes sense to you and to your audience.
If you do client work, and want a private area
you could put yourdomain.com/clients and that could be private only to people who have a username and password.
possibilities are endless!
Super Great! Thank you Christina for all you do!
Hi Christina!
I’ve been following your programs for some time and I have to say I’ve become a fan! You are such a positive resource for your readers.
I did want to comment on your post here regarding where to place your blog. As it seems cleaner to add your blog in the top level directory, there may be situatiopns when not to place it there. And if I may, I’d like to share:
#1 and the most important is the security of your blog. I’m sure we all have heard or been victims of a hacked website. Wordpres is not immune as there are bots that scan for exploits in a WordPress installation. So one of the easier steps in protecting your site is to make it harder for the bots to locate. If you create a subdirectory and name it something related to your topic then at least when you have your URLs they will look nice and appropriate and the bots won’t know to look there by default.
#2 – For those just starting out, they may only want a blog at first, but down the road, may want to add other applications. Placing your blog in a subdirectory will help to keep your files more organized and leave room for other applications/installation that may server better for the top level. I’m not sure about multi-sites though.
Overall, I find that with WP, it is certainly one of the easier applications to work with from a subdomain.
You are right on both counts.
And yes it’s hard to know what you would want down the line. That is why I put my blog at /blog, cause I knew I wanted other sub folders for other purposes.
When you’re installing WordPress, you can install it now in less than a minute. There’s the option to add to a sub-folder and if you use CPanel, it will even create the database for you!
Thanks!
Paul
Paul,
Yes, that’s why I recommend hosting companies such as http://www.BlueHostNow.com (my link for them)
for WordPress.
They have CPanel, and it makes installing WordPress very easy. This is one of the things I teach
Hi Group!
Are any of you taking all your amazing knowledge from Christina and starting a virtual assistant business to support non-techies? I need some to optimize my 4 wordpress sites, link the blogs to the sites, link the products to One Shopping Cart, etc.
Anyone out there who is interested, please send me a note! Thanks.
Mary,
send me an email and I’ll help you out
Me too, i really need help with my wordpress site, i guess i’m not the only one tech unskilled.lol
Hi Christina!
I have WP installed in my root and am thinking about setting up a multi-site. Can I just edit the install I currently have rather than starting with an empty root and fresh install? I have several sub-directories set up (and all is backed up) so re-doing them is not a problem.. just my main site is my concern.
I’d like my sub-dirs to use different themes as well… I can set that up in the super admin, correct?
Thanks!
Becky
Becky,
your questions are complex, and not easily answered here in a comment. Are you a current WCW student?
When I want multi wordpress installs off of the same domain name, I always go into my hosting and set them up fresh.
I think, in all seriousness, if we’re starting to care how Google reads our IP addresses we’re caring way too much about technicalities instead of delivery good solid content.
Good solid content is always the best!