Remember the Seven P’s:

Prior Planning and Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance

There are a number of things to do before you actually install WordPress on your webserver and taking care of them now will help make the rest of the process go a lot more smoothly.

If you’ve been reading the earlier parts of the Beginner’s Guide to WordPress and SEO you’ll already have a plan for what you want to do with your blog and you’ll have chosen a domain name and registered with a webhost.

So, what’s next?

Go and get a pen and a some paper.  You’re going to need to make a few notes as you go along.  There’ll be things like ftp logins, database details and a few other things that you’ll need to refer to during the installation process and it’ll be a lot easier if you note them down ahead of time rather than scrambling around trying to find them later.  Ready?  Okay here we go…

• Log in to your webhosting control panel.
  Have a look for the section about ftp access to your webspace and make a note of the user name and password for logging in.  You’ll need this later on when the time comes to upload the WordPress files to your server.
• Set up the directory where you’re going to install WordPress and point your domain name towards it.
  Do you want your WordPress blog to be your entire site or do you want to have a static homepage with your blog in a sub directory (e.g. www.example.com/blog)?  Your hosting control panel will have a page which allows you to set the target folder for your domain name and add new folders if you need them.  The specifics of how to do this will vary from host to host so review their help FAQs if you aren’t sure how to set this up.
• Set up the database for your blog.
  Within your webhost’s control panel there will be a section called MySQL Administration, or something similar.  Check your host’s support guides for specific instructions on how to do this, but basically it should just be a matter of going into the MySQL Administration pages and clicking on the Create Database button.  You’ll need to chose the MySQL version (I’d recommend MySQL 5.0 if it’s available) and enter a description of what the database is for but most of the tricky, technical stuff will be handled for you.  Make a note of the following database details that it gives you:
  Database Name
  Host Name
  Port
  User Name
  Password
  Description - This is what you just entered during the setup process
  Version - The version of MySQL the databse will use (you did choose MySQL 5.0 didn’t you?)
  Status - This will say setup started at the moment but will change once the database is ready for use.  Write down these details as you will need them later when you’re configuring your WordPress installation.
• Your webhosting system will now automatically set up the database for you but it may take some time before it’s ready to be used.  Your control panel will display a message to tell you how long, but it’s usually at least two or three hours.
• Download WordPress.
  Head over to www.wordpress.org and download the latest version of the WordPress software.  Save the zipped file to your computer.
  While you’re there have a look around the theme gallery and see if any grab your attention.  WordPress themes are files that will change the way your blog looks and are designed to be easy to add to your blog and switch from one to another.  There are also Plugins which will add extra functions to WordPress and make it do all sorts of really cool and useful things.  We’ll have a look at themes and plugins in greater depth later, but check out what’s on offer and see if there’s anything there that really appeals to you.

Now that that’s all done, you’ll probably still have a bit of time to kill while you wait for your MySQL database to be ready for use, so go and get yourself a coffee or something to eat and maybe watch some TV to pass the time.  Soon enough, everything will be ready and it’ll be time to move on to the next step: Uploading WordPress to your webspace.