Setting Up WordPress with GoDaddy

Many of you may already be familiar with the process required to set up WordPress while using GoDaddy as a webhost. I’m writing this guide for our own internal purposes more than anything else, however,  I would also like to contribute to the online community and hope that our readers will find this useful.  Feel free to leave your feedback if you have any questions or suggestions.

Keep in mind that this WordPress guide is optimized for individuals who frequently perform wordpress installations.

What You Will Need

  1. A GoDaddy account with a registered domain.
  2. GoDaddy Linux Shared Hosting accountm (PHP 5+).
  3. Latest version of WordPress with the following plugins:
    1. All In One SEO Plugin
    2. Google XML Sitemap Generator
    3. WP No Category Base
    4. Advanced Excerpt
    5. ShareThis Plugin
    6. Yet Another Related Posts Plugin
    7. VP Media Networks Proprietary WordPress Starter Template
    8. Search Permalink Plugin
    9. WP Smart Slug Plugin
    10. Img Title Remover Plugin
    11. WP Page Navi Plugin

Note: You can download the VP Media Network’s WordPress Package which includes all the plugins listed above.

Configuring GoDaddy Web Hosting

This guide assumes that you have registered a domain and have purchased Linux shared hosting.  In this example we’re using GoDaddy’s Deluxe Linux Shared Hosting plan.

First things first, add the domain to your hosting plan and setup a database.

  1. Login to GoDaddy and click on Manage Hosting.
  2. Select your hosting account and click on “Manage Account”.
  3. Once the page has loaded you will see several tabs at top.  Select the “Settings” tab and click on “Domain Management”.
  4. Click on “Add Domain”, enter the domain name and the domain folder. (It can take up 24 hours before your hosting account becomes active. )
  5. Add a user.  Click on the “Setting” tab and then click on “Manage FTP Users”.
  6. Click on “Add FTP User”, enter a desired username, password and path. (The “user path” should be the same as the “domain folder” used in step 4, it may take up to an hour before the username is fully registered)
  7. Now select the “Databases” tab and click on “MySQL”.
  8. Click on “Create Database”.  Fill out the “MySQL Database/User Name”, enter a password, and select MySQL version 5.0.  All other fields can be ignored.  When you’re done click “OK”. (It may take several hours before the database is ready for use)

Prepare the WordPress Files for Upload

Before we can begin to upload, first we must download all the files and put them in the right places.

  1. Download the latest version of WordPress.
  2. Open the zip file and extract the contents into a directory in your local drive. For this example we’ll use C:\wordpress\.
  3. Download the plugins and extract their contents into the \wp-content\plugins\ directory.

Uploading the WordPress Files

Using an FTP Client like Filezilla connect to your server.  If you’re asked for a “host” enter your domain name and provide the FTP client with the username and password configured in the steps above.

Upload all the files from your local wordpress directory (ex. C:\wordpress\) into the desired path for your server.  For example, if you wish to have the blog running at http://www.mywebsite.com/blog/ then you should upload the files to a /blog/ folder.  Upload all the files to the root folder if you wish the blog to appear at http://www.mywebsite.com/.

Once all the files have been uploaded, you’re ready to begin the configuration process.

Installing WordPress

Point a web browser to the url of your blog (Be sure to include the preceding www in the url). You will be welcomed by an error message that states “There doesn’t seem to be a wp-config.php file.  You also notice a button, click on “Create a Configuration File”.

You will be taken to a second page with a list of requirements, click on the “Let’s go!” button.

Now you should be at a form that requires a database name, username, password and database host.  You will need to get these details from your GoDaddy Hosting.

Open your GoDaddy Hosting account, click on the “Databases” tab, select “MySQL” and click on the “Edit/View Details” action icon located next to the database we configured earlier.

Once you’ve filled out the appropriate fields, click on “Submit”.  If all the information was correct you should be taken to a page with a “Run the Install” button, click on it.

Now you will be asked to provide your blog with a name and an email address.  Fill out the form as you desire and click on “Install WordPress”. (Be sure to use to valid email address, the temporary password will be sent there)

Now you will be at a page that lists your username and temporary password.  Highlight the password and click on [ctrl]+[c] to copy and click on the “Log In” button.

Configuring WordPress

After you login you will be given the option to update your profile.  Click on the link to update your profile and configure new password and click on “Update Profile.

Now we’re going to take a few steps to configure the blog and plugins.

  1. Delete temporary blog posts, pages and links.
  2. Active all plugins except for the Google XML Sitemaps plugin. I don’t recommend activating that plugin until you have some content live on the site.

WordPress & Plugin Settings

After you’ve activated all the necessary plugins click on the settings option in the left side of the WordPress admin panel.

  1. Click on “Writing” and update the “Size of the post box” to 20.
  2. Click on “Reading” and update the “Blog pages show at most” to 20, and do the same with “Syndication feeds show the most recent”.
  3. Click on “Permalinks” and update the “Custom Structure” to use:
    /%category%/%postname%/
  4. Click on “Miscellaneous”  and under “Store uploads in this folder” enter “media”.  Un-check the “Organize my uploads into month- and year-based folders” box.

All In One SEO Settings

Update the following settings to use these parameters:

  1. Post Title Format: %post_title%
  2. Page Title Format: %page_title%
  3. Category Title Format: %category_title% – %blog_title%
  4. Archive Title Format: %date% – %blog_title%
  5. Tag Title Format: %tag% – %blog_title%
  6. Search Title Format: %search% – %blog_title%
  7. Paged Format: %page_title% – Part %page%
  8. Use Tags for META keywords: UNCHECKED
  9. Dynamically Generate Keywords for Posts Page: UNCHECKED
  10. Use noindex for Categories:UNCHECKED
  11. Use noindex for Archives:UNCHECKED
  12. Autogenerate Descriptions: CHECKED
  13. Capitalize Category Titles: CHECKED

Yet Another Related Posts Plugin

Under “Relatedness options” change the “Match threshold:” to “2″.

You’re Done

That’s it.  You can leave all other settings as their defaults. You now have a blog that is configured to use some of the best SEO practices and ready to be fully customized. The starter template that’s included in the VPMN WordPress Pack makes use of some additional functions that I will cover in future posts.

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