It seems making a multi-lingual WordPress website is a very technical task. In fact, it is very simple. The following is a step-by-step guide on setting up a multi-lingual website. No technical experience is required.
The first thing you need is to get your domain name. You can register one through a domain registry. The following are some of the popular domain registries:
- GoDaddy ( http://www.godaddy.com )
- Hostway ( http://www.hostway.com )
- Network Solutions ( http://www.networksolutions.com )
- Domain People ( http://www.domainpeople.com )
After you get a domain name, you need to get a web hosting company to bring your domain to live. There are also many web hosting companies. Most domain registries also provide web hosting plan as a one stop service. The following are some for your considerations:
- Surpass Hosting ( http://www.surpasshosting.com )
- HostGator ( http://www.hostgator.com )
- Hostway ( http://www.hostway.com )
You should choose a web hosting plan that offers Apache web server, MySQL database and cPanel web control.
The hosting company will setup your website for you and give you access to cPanel that you can control your website settings. You may need to change the DNS (Domain Name Server) address of your domain name by contacting your domain registry.
You need to download the latest copy of WordPress from WordPress office website, https://wordpress.org/download. Download the the .tar.gz file.
Open a web browser, such as Internet Explorer or Google Chrome, and access your cPanel by following the instructions provided by your web hosting company.
Log into your cPanel with the username and password provided by your web hosting company.
Click on the cPanel File Manager to upload the WordPress to your website.
Use the mouse pointer and click on “public_html” on the File Manager’s left panel (1) and then click on “Upload” (2) to bring up the file upload dialog box.
You can either drop the WordPress archive (.tar.gz) file to start the upload or click the “Select File” to select the file to upload.
Return to the cPanel File Manager and you see the WordPress software was uploaded to your server.
Click on the WordPress software file (1) and then click on the “Extract” action on the cPanel File Manager to extract the WordPress software from its archive.
Click on “Extract Files(s)” button to extract files from the WordPress archive.
In cPanel File Manager, double click on the WordPress to open the folder.
Click on “Select All” and then click “Move” to move the files to the “public_html” folder.
In the “Move” dialog, the file path should be “/public_html/” and click “Move File(s)”.
Next, you need to create a database for WordPress use. From the cPanel, click “MySQL Databases” to create a new database.
In MySQL Databases control panel, give a new name for the database (1) and click “Create Database” (2) button to create a new database.
Add a new database user.
Add the new user to control the database. For simplicity, you can give all privileges to the user.
The next step is setting up WordPress on your server. Please refer to Part 2.
