Zero'$ Biz. Course Previous Lesson: How to Generate a Great Blog Name Ideas, and Buy the Best One? [S1E04] Next Lesson: How to Set Up WordPress? Easy Guide by WordPress Expert [S1E06]
Now when you have the domain name you need to build a website. It’s a simple process but to build a website you first need hosting.
A simple description of hosting is “It’s a computer that serves your website to visitors“.
That computer has to be fast, has to work 24/7, has to have a permanent IP address and has to have some software installed. So it’s very hard to do it from your PC.
That’s why you need to pay others for a professional hosting.
There are multiple things to consider when you are choosing a hosting provider. But in my opinion, the most important features of hosting are speed, reliability(uptime), backup options and support.
In this lesson, I will show you how to buy the best SEO hosting and then quickly install WordPress. It’s so simple that even non-tech-savvy person can do it!
After trying multiple hosting providers like Webhostinghub, Inmotion, Arvixe, RamNode, Lightning Base, SiteGround my choice for a beginner is definitely ⇒ SiteGround hosting.
(disclaimer if you get your hosting after clicking this link up here I will get small affiliate fee)
If you don’t want me to get a small affiliate fee here is a plain link: SG.
I just want you to be aware that the first year price for 1 website and StartUp plan is the $3.95/per month (€3.95/month) but after that, second, third and other years are the $9.95/per month (€9.95/month).
If you can afford go for the GrowBig plan over StartUp. Mainly because it has more features for website speed (SiteGround SuperCacher).
So to conclude Siteground is a well-rounded solution. Not too expensive, great support, lots of WordPress tools, free SSL, free automated backups, and a great website speed.
For my best and biggest websites, I use Lightning Base but it’s more expensive than Siteground ($19,99 per month) and I don’t recommend it for beginners.
My newer and smaller websites are all on SiteGround and I’m perfectly satisfied.
Let’s start with buying a hosting and installing a WordPress. It’s a quick and simple process so you don’t need to worry just follow my instructions.
First, go to the Siteground website and click “GET STARTED“. Pick StartUp or GrowBig plan (based on how much you can afford).
Then select “I already have a Domain“.
Type in your domain name. In my example, it would be drpetsupplies.com.
On the next screen fill in all the boxes.
Important: Pick Data Center in the region where your main audience will be. So if your main website audience will be from the United States pick data center in the US.
Don’t pick any Extra Services because you don’t need them.
After you pay you will get an email with login details. (write down log in data or enter it into your Spreadsheet, sheet S1E05 – Hosting & Website)
Ok, now you need to go here: Siteground Control Panel.
Then SIGN IN.
Next, click My Accounts Tab.
And click the button Go to cPanel.
Here’s how your cPanel looks.
First look for your nameservers. You can see them at No 1 in the cPanel image above. (ns1.sitegroundxxx.com & ns2.sitegroundxxx.com). I put xxx where the numbers are for my account protection.
Now you need to connect your domain name and hosting.
To do that stay logged in at Siteground but at the same time, log in to your domain name provider (Namecheap) in another Chrome tab.
Here is what you see when you log in to Namecheap.
You need to click button Manage next to your domain name.
Than find NAMESERVERS pick Custom DNS option and paste your nameservers data from Siteground. Here is my example.
Now you can log out of Namecheap and beside renewing your domain name you won’t need to visit Namecheap again.
Get back to your tab with Siteground cPanel. Now you need to find option Addon Domains and click it. No 2 in the cPanel image above.
Fill the form, just fill the first box (ie. drpetsupplies.com) and next 2 will auto-populate (write down a copy of data or save it into your Spreadsheet, sheet S1E05 – Hosting & Website). Choose the password and click Add Domain. Enter domain name without www and choose very strong password just like in the image below.
Return to cPanel.
Find option Let’s Encrypt it’s under SECURITY tab and click it. It’s for enabling SSL. It’s good for search engine optimization and for visitor trust.
After that, your website address will use https:// instead of http://.
Ok, pick your domain from a drop-down box.
Choose Let’s Encrypt SSL and click Install.
Find option WordPress or WordPress Installer and click it. No 3 in the cPanel image above.
Then click the tab Install.
And fill everything as I did.
Remember or write into the Spreadsheet sheet S1E05 – Hosting & Website your Admin Account data because you will need it to log into the WordPress and work on your website.
Click Install and wait for the process to finish.
And voila you have your website.
You can now visit your website and see how it looks.
If it’s not there immediately wait for an hour or two and it will appear.
In the next lesson, we will tweak our WordPress website.
Next Lesson: How to Set Up WordPress? Easy Guide by WordPress Expert [S1E06]