How to Install WordPress in cPanel
The Definitive Guide
3 EASY STEPS: Install WordPress in cPanel – The DEFINITIVE GUIDE

There are 2 ways to install WordPress in cPanel and one ways is through a one click install software you can use called softaculous and most web hosting companies will have that software available for you to use but in case they don’t this blog article is for you.
With a little effort and patience you’ll be up and running building your website using WordPress. When reading this article take your time and read it thoroughly and you will have no issues but if there are any issues you come across please feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of this article and we will be happy to assist you.
Now let’s get underway!!!
Contents
Hire a Professional
We are more than happy to help you by creating DIY (Do it Yourself) content on various topics so that you can build, and maintain your own website but in case you would rather hire a professional, we are here to help!
If you host your website with us, we offer free WordPress Install so just submit a ticket in your PearLLynx Dashboard, otherwise:
Go to WordPress.org
Now to download, In your browser’s address bar type in wordpress.org (not wordpress .com)
Click the “Get WordPress” button on the top right as show on the image.
Next you want to download the WordPress files.
Click the “Download WordPress” button on the center of the image.
Now you should have downloaded the WordPress files and it should be in your downloads folder. If you need help locating your downloads folder I’m referring you to 2 links below, one for windows users and the other is for mac users.
Step 2:
Create Database
Topics covered in this step:
- Create Database
- Login to cPanel
- Setup Database >Let’s create your database >Creating your user >Assign user to your database & privileges
Create Database
OK, this step is going to be a little longer than the previous step but once we are done you’ll be halfway done installing WordPress. So bear with me and let’s get started.
So when you get setup with web hosting you will most likely get a welcome email that will give you your account information with your account logins. Hopefully you chose a good web host, but I will show you an example when you purchase Web Hosting from PearLLynx.
So the image below is an email of the New Account Information you would get when you order hosting from PearLLynx. There is more information but this is what we need for now. So the control panel link is what we would be logging into. Typically it’s going to be your new domain name and a number in which you will receive in the email once your order.
Login to cPanel
This is the login page you will see once you click the control panel URL link.
Go ahead and type in the username and password that is in your New Account Information email you received. If you didn’t purchase web hosting from PearLLynx ask your current web hosting provider for your cPanel login URL if you don’t already know it or can’t find it.
Setup Database
Once you login you should have been redirected to a screen similar to the image down below. If so the first thing we need to do is setup your database.
This part will take a few steps on its own.
We will:
- Create your database
- Create your user
- Assign your user to your database & privileges to your user
Click on the link as shown in the image below.
Let’s create your database
So once you click the MySQL Databases link shown on the image above, you want to name your database.
To simplify your database name just create something descriptive and simple but not just the word “database” or just “db”.
Creating your user
So once you name your database and create it, it’s time to create your user.
Why you need to create a user when creating a database? It’s just a general username for the admin.
You can create other users if you need someone else to access your database or website.
So feel free to use any name you wish and create a password. Be sure to write down and save the password with the username as well for future use when we start to configure WordPress a little later.
Assign user to your database & privileges
Now you’ve created a database and a user, you need to now assign your user to your database.
Why?
Well if you ever add more databases or users you need to let WordPress know who has access to what database. Make sure that you choose the username you just created and assign it to the database name you just created.
Next…
Now you need to give your user the privileges to the database. So make sure that you “click” on “ALL PRIVILEGES” to select all.
Now click on “Make Changes”.
So now at the top where the black lines are crossed out there will be text shown that will be the name of your database and the username, AGAIN you should have written both of those down as well as the password for the username like I mentioned earlier for future references when we start to configure your WordPress files in the next module.
So just to triple check, you should have written down your:
- Database Name
- Username to the database
- Password for your username

You’re almost done!
just a couple of more modules left.Step 3:
Install WordPress
Topics covered in this step:
Install WordPress in cPanel
Upload WordPress Files
So now we will start the uploading of the WordPress website now. Starting from the page when you created your database there is a set of blue dots at the top left of your page similar to this image. (below) Go ahead and click the link and get back to the cPanel homepage.

Now once you get to the cPanel homepage you want to click on “File Manager”
Once you get to the “File Manager” page, you’ll want to click on the “Public HTML” folder. This is your root directory.
Once you click on this folder it will open up the folder for you to now upload your zip file you downloaded from WordPress.org.
Click the upload link (shown below) and select the WordPress file.
Now that you have done that your screen should look like the image shown below, just a zip file uploaded.
Extract WordPress Files
Now it’s time to extract the zip file. Click on the zip file so it’s highlighted and once you have done that, look to your top right there should be a “Extract” link. Go ahead and click on that and wait for the extracted files. This should take up to a minute for the files to be extracted.
Once the zip file is done extracting the files, your screen should look like the image below.
Okay you’re doing great so far, next we want to move the files that are in the WordPress folder to the Root Directory which is where you’re at now.
The reason why we want to move your files is because, you website’s URL address would look like this: yourdomainname.com/wordpress and that’s not what you want, you want your website’s URL to be just yourdomainname.com but in order to have that URL we need to move your files.
First thing you’ll need to do is double click the WordPress folder to open it up. (See image below)
After you double click on the WordPress folder you want to click the “Select all” button to the right.
Once all the files are selected then click the “move button”.
When you click the move button you’ll see exactly or something similar to “/public_html/wordpress”.
What you want to do next is remove the WordPress name and the “/” back slash as well so it looks like this: /public_html and click “Move File(s)”.
Finally you’ve successfully uploaded and extracted WordPress files and now i’s time to configure WordPress for a complete WordPress Install.
Configure WordPress
This is the final step in “Installing WordPress”. Go to the top of the browser and type in “yourdomain.com”.
Once you have done that you should see a screen to setup your preferred website language like the image below.
Go ahead and choose the language you want your WordPress website to translate to.
Now you’ve come across where you’ll be inputting the 3 pieces of information I asked you to write down when creating your “Database Name”, “Username” and your “Password”. So delete ONLY the “Database Name”, “Username” and “Password” and input your information.
This is where you’ll connect to your WordPress Database that you created earlier.
Once that is completed you’ll be prompted to enter your website information and login info. You don’t have to use the same “username” and “password” in fact I would suggest using something else.
Now if there wasn’t any issues once you hit submit you should be good to go to the next step. If you did have an issue like an “database error connection failed” then redo the steps to see if you missed anything or leave a comment at the bottom with your issue and we will try to help you out.
Now to login to your website’s backend just click the “Log In” button.
Hire a Professional
We are more than happy to help you by creating DIY (Do it Yourself) content on various topics so that you can build, and maintain your own website but in case you would rather hire a professional, we are here to help!
If you host your website with us, we offer free WordPress Install so just submit a ticket in your PearLLynx Dashboard, otherwise: