Install WordPress on this website with wp-install, in English, with the
title "My new site" and my own address as the administrator.
That is the whole installation. No form with a database name, user and password, no zip to unpack, no five step wizard from WordPress itself. The assistant on your hosting account has a ready made script for this, and in our own measurements a fresh site stands in 58 seconds.
This article explains what happens in that minute, so you know what you have and what you still do yourself.
What the request does
In order:
- Checking that the website is empty. If a site is already there, it stops. That is deliberate: you do not want an installation overwriting your existing files.
- Creating a database through DirectAdmin, with its own user and its own password. You never have to see or keep those details.
- Fetching WordPress in the language you ask for.
- Writing the configuration with the right database details and the required keys.
- Installing with an administrator: your email address and a strong password generated at that moment.
- Switching on tidy permalinks, so your pages become
/about-usinstead of?p=12. - Installing and enabling LiteSpeed Cache. The web server here does the caching itself; the plugin only flips the switch.
After that the site is reachable, has https through your account's certificate, and you can sign in at /wp-admin.
Your administrator password
The password is shown once in the chat and otherwise kept in a file in your own home directory, outside the webroot: ~/.invoker-link/wp/<yourdomain>.json. That means two things.
The good news: if you lose it, you can ask for it again. "What is the administrator password for this site?" is enough.
The less good news: it sits in a file. So after the installation set a password of your own that you keep in your password manager, and switch on two step verification for your WordPress administrator. That is the kind of step nobody takes because the site already works, and exactly the step you regret skipping if someone reaches your files.
What makes sense next
A fresh WordPress is not a website. Two requests that follow naturally:
Run a check on this site: status, speed, PHP version, certificate and
whether updates are waiting. Look only.
Build a theme of its own that suits my company, no template look, and set
up the pages Home, Services and Contact with a menu.
You can also have that second one prepared by the start wizard, which asks a few questions first and turns them into a complete build request. See Building a WordPress site with the start wizard.
Language and title
The script takes three things from you: the title of the site, the administrator address and the language. Name them in your request and you will not have to change them in the settings later. Ask for nothing and you get the defaults of your account, and then you are the one switching the language afterwards.
Common mistakes
"It said the website is not empty." Something is still in the webroot: an index file from an old site, an unpacked zip, or an earlier failed attempt. Ask the assistant what is there before you throw anything away, and have it put the old files somewhere safe first.
"I wanted WordPress in a folder under my site." That is possible, but say so explicitly. By default it installs on the website itself. An installation in a subfolder also means visitors see that subfolder in the URL, unless you change that afterwards.
"I installed WordPress over my existing site." This script will not do that, but you can force it by hand. Do not. If you want to start over, make a backup first and ask for a clean webroot; see Restoring a backup.
"I lost the password and the chat is gone." It is still in your account. Start a new chat and ask for it. If that does not work, you can always have a new password set, because the assistant has administrator rights within your own account.
"LiteSpeed Cache was on and my change was not visible." That is caching, not a fault. Ask for the cache to be purged and look again. Signed in administrators never see the cache, so view your site in a private window if you want to see what a visitor sees.
"I left it at the installation." A WordPress that is not kept up to date becomes the weakest point of your account within a few months. Set the maintenance up properly once; see Safely updating WordPress with WP-CLI.